So, on the 18th upon landing, I met up with the three of them and we headed directly to Stephanie and Denis' house, a little outside of Paris. We had a fantastic dinner of fondue and wine. One thing that was great was how so many things on the dinner table came from friends or friends of friends. The climax was an apple liquor (which Denis always referred to as "La Pomme" - or literally "The Apple") that was made by a friend of theirs.
The next morning we woke up, had a great breakfast of coffee, bread, cheeses, fruit and everything else one could want. Afterwards we drove bound for downtown Paris. Our first stop, the Arc De Triomphe. We stopped right in front of it alright, although not of our own accord as the crack French police spotted our band of hoodlums from a mile away. They pulled us over for no particular reason, but unfortunately Denis did not have his license on him, and he was borrowing the car and it happened to not have current insurance information. We then proceeded to sit there for the better part of a half hour, watching the police scratch their heads over how exactly to be the most annoying.
Not to be done in annoyingness, mom and I snapped photos of them throughout the process:
Here's the Arc from our convenient traffic stop:
Finally, the situation was resolved with an unnecessarily big fine. Denis took a point to note that one of the officers had littered by throwing their cigarette on the ground, and at that point we drove off.
So after that mess was all over with, we parked and took out on foot to see the city. Here's Stephanie living the high life:
Me with Stephanie and Denis:
Les Invalides (where Napoleon is buried)
La Place de La Concorde
This monument was a gift from Egypt.
The following photos were taken from the top the ferris wheel seen in the previous photo. It cost 8 euro, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Me sporting a Conan O'Brien-esque hair-do.
We then headed out towards the Louvre.
Charles de-Seagaull.
We didn't end up going into the museum, and instead headed towards Notre Dame. On the way we saw some of Paris's finest locals.
Even the French love Obama!
Some statues outside of Notre Dame.
After Notre Dame, we went for a drive to see Paris by night. Here is Champs Elysees.
The church of Sacre Coeur.
Sacre Coeur sits atop Mont Matre. There is a square where a lot of artists work, and there are a bunch of nice restaurants in the area.
Moi et Stephanie.
Le diner.
When we got there, they pushed us into the back room. For those of us who know about the "stuff white people like" website, we know that white people like to be the only white person in a restaurant. The same thing goes for being an American tourist. So all of us were appalled that in this back room was a group of 30 American's having dinner together. We quickly found out why Europeans hate us as tourists as they were loud and obnoxious. We asked to be reseated and while they were doing so the waiter informed us that people had been sitting down and moving on all night.
In the end though, we got a new quieter seat. Hmm ... what to choose, what to choose:
Me and my escargot.
I went for duck a l'orange, as I had heard it mentioned numerous times and had never had it. In the end it was super delicious.
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