Paris

So after the disappointing cheese cake and becoming lord of Catan a few times on the train ride from Switzerland to Paris, we arrived in the correct Paris train station.  I'm a few generations out of style with my Galaxy SII and the phone started to really have some issues. The issue were simple. It would turn off and on and off and on and off and on. That's it. I only mention this because my phone had a map of how to get from the train station to our apartment.  So no big deal, I remember the general direction on how to get there and the street we are looking for. I'm sure we can just ask someone.  So we ask someone and they point us to the right way. As we look right and left for the next street, we are losing hope. Oh, and I should mention that we have about 10 minutes to get to the apartment to meet someone to let us in. The owner of the apartment (who lives in LA) contracts some company to meet tenants and if we don't make it in time, we have to pay an extra 140 dollars to get them to meet us again.
Soooo after walking for 10 minutes feeling like we aren't getting any closer and only with 10 minutes left to meet, a nice girl noticing our confusion as we were huddled around a map asked if we needed help.  She pointed us how to get to our place and sure enough, it was the opposite direction from what the first guy told us.

So we made it to the apartment just in time and were let in without having to pay any extra.  But all I kept thinking about was "why do people answer questions when they don't actually know the answer?!?!"  This wasn't the first time this had happened. We ask for directions, they point one way, and then find out its wrong. Even as I write this, I can't understand it.  I guess they have a good laugh about it after. Or maybe they are just bad with directions and pretend they aren't. Whatever it is, I don't get it.

We stayed in a typical one bedroom apartment.  We had a bed, futon, fridge, TV, sink. It also had some bonus features. Like the fact that one foot from the sink is the shower which is one foot away from the only door which is two feet from the toilet.  So ya, the kitchen and the bathroom were one and the same.  No longer would I have to worry about how my stew was doing while taking a shower.  No longer would I have to get out of the shower to open the front door. Pretty sweet setup.

First day was spent visiting Versaille. One of the Louis kings of France decided he didn't want to be in the capital and built the most extravagant palace ever.  Below is what I found most interesting:

Now 5-8 more people know what a kings toilet looked like in the 17th/18th century.  This was actually a "travel" toilet. Pretty convenient.

We didn't get a picture of it unfortunately but there was a desk in the palace that was a newer addition to the tour.  We learned that a lot of the palace furniture was sold or taken after the king was chopped and so now France is trying to track them all down from private collectors and museums.  They recently got some important desk back to the palace and it only cost them 10 million Euros (14 million dollars).

Let me go back to how we got into the palace.  We got to the palace and found a massive line to get in.  We sat in it for probably 30 minutes before deciding we needed to find another option. I don't remember how we found it (i think it was part of our search for a bathroom) but turns out there was a second ticket office that no one was in line for.  The office also sold guided tours. So we bought 3 tickets for the next tour and skipped the line.  Skipping lines has become one of my favorite things to do I think.

Here is the hall of mirrors in Versaille:

Here is a typical crowd while we went through the palace:

http://youtu.be/Otm4RusESNU


I know my Mom is probably ashamed of how little I just wrote about Versaille. She can go look for more reflection on our visit at Gentrys facebook.

The next day we went to the Louvre museum. It wasn't far from our apartment so we walked. We happened to take the Pont Des Artes which is one lock bridge.  First time on one of those. It was cool I guess.

So then we went to the Louvre and saw a bunch of famous old stuff.  This was a little underwhelming

http://youtu.be/WJ_yQ02xwsM

This post was going to include events from our time after getting back to normal life in Marseille but I have been writing this while watching Fringe on Netflix and have been writing about a word a minute. So Paris is all we get for this post. Probably good to keep this shorter.

Gentry and I are still searching for a TV show to fill the whole that Lost left.  Fringe is written by the same people but its not measuring up. Soon enough we'll just watch Lost again. I'm ok with it.

I guess I should also document my advancement in becoming more French. Got a hair cut and asked to become more french. Here was the result:

Time to get off this couch now.

Mike