Paris Encore

Bonjour! Those close to me know that France, and in particular Paris, was not the stop I looked forward to the most on our trip. They aren't too fond of Americans, and in the U.S. we use them as the butt of a lot of jokes (much like the Canadians). And as much as I do love every drop of press regarding the failure of the French team in the world cup (quick note: the failure was so huge and disgusting to the french people, that politicians are calling it a state scandal, including Sarkozy who made a statement about it before meeting with the coach. They take their soccer seriously), I do enjoy some things about French culture.
They have a much better pace about their city than Londoners, where if you got out of the tube and didn't walk-sprint, you got trampled. Here people have 3 hour dinners, walk their dogs while talking to friends, and just seem to have a more relaxed vibe in general. Of course, the food is amazing. The pastries are buttery and delicious, the fruit is fresh and wonderful, and the cheese is world famous. Which leads me to my next vignette.
I took Whitney out to celebrate her 5 year birthday of sobriety and we decided to do it around the Eiffel Tower so we could see it after dinner. We decided to order the package deal that you see sometimes in the U.S. where you get a choice of appeteizer, entree and dessert for a fixed price. Big mistake. We ordered a cheese plate as well, because we hadn't gotten a good sampling of French cheeses. The plate contained about a pound of cheese and some of the strongest bleu I have ever tasted, needless to say, we didn't finish it. Our appeteizers were a salad for Whitney with even more bleu, and foie gras for me, because I wanted to try it once in my life and where better than Paris. It was buttery and good, but nothing exotic. We both ordered steaks "entrecote" for our main course, and again, neither of us finished. We finally corralled the waiter and told him to forget about dessert because unless we waited 3 hours, it just wasn't happening.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower just in time to see it flashing with what looked like strobe lights or flash bulbs in a sort of "Disco Paris" theme. The sun was just setting and after the lights stopped, we had a beautiful view of a long parkway leading up to the foot of the tower which was backlit by the setting sun, truly an amazing experience. We met some chatty Kathy from Wisconsin on the bus ride home and went to bed.

The next day (yesterday) we decided to go do some sightseeing. We went to the Bastille which was beautiful but simple. Around the monument though, was a street fair that stretched for probably a half mile with everything from pants to shampoo to skinned rabbits to souvenirs to fish heads. The fair was a true parisian experience with many locals stopping by simply to buy lunch. We went to the Louvre after that to look around and it was beautiful. No picture or movie can accurately represent the true enormity of the entire museum. With the ridiculously hot sun beating down on us and Whitney feeling under the weather, we went back to the hotel with a baguette, salami and brie to have a true French lunch and take a nap. A nap from which Whitney never awoke. She slept for 19 hours straight and we are now ready to hit the streets of Paris once again.
Sorry for the long post, but there has been a lot to relay to those of you back home.
Thanks for reading and we love you all.