La vie de Paris! We hit Paris on Saturday afternoon and began our whirlwind of sightseeing, museums, delicious food, and ridiculous Parisienne-style fun. Our first full day, we split to explore the Pompidou for some modern art and the Musee d'Orsay for some impressionist action. After lunch near some street performances and a rather humorous portrait of our own Michael Asch, we headed to the Latin quarter for some shopping, and later the Cathedrale de Notre Dame. Dinner that night was AMAZING – we experienced some of the best that French cuisine has to offer at our table out on the street, tried some escargot, and got a free show as well (heh - ask us about it). Needless to say, Paris on the eve of Bastille Day is quite an exciting experience. We biked to the Eiffel Tower, and as we rounded the bend we were greeted by the beautiful sound of French opera and the Eiffel tower lit up in a vibrant blue with white stars. It was breathtaking.Monday was Bastille Day – the equivalent to our 4th of July - and we witnessed a French military parade (quite lame actually) and took a New Paris tour with an experienced tour guide with an off-beat sense of humor who took us around the city on a 3-hour walking tour to all of the sights and explained the deep and complicated history behind everything. After shopping, exploring and some dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower for the Bastille Day fireworks, which were (thankfully) better than the French parade. We stopped on our 40 minute trek home for some dancing in a local square to top off the nights' festivities.
The next morning we awoke early, rode to the train station, and (as France-Belgium train line policies go) scrambled frantically to disassemble our bikes and pack them into small garbage bags in time to catch our train to the Belgian city of Ghent. Belgium here we come!!
