Scary Paris traffic

Lucky, lucky me! While in Germany, my husband insisted that we go to Paris.

I had heard horror stories about the Paris traffic and wasn't so sure that I wanted to endure it just to see Paris. As far as I was concerned, there were many, many wonderful spots in Germany that we hadn't yet explored. I had also heard that people were so rude there. (We didn't experience any rudeness. Everyone that we encountered was very gracious and polite.)


Each time Howard would talk about us going, I would say that we didn't have to go. He never heard me say that.


Between all of the one way streets and people just walking right out in front of us, we were so scared that we would be in an accident or run over someone.

We had no idea how you were suppose to drive in these roundabouts that had so many lanes.

They park really close on the street.

I mean really close. If the space is too small, they will just keep bumping cars until they make enough space. There was no way we were going to put our rent car on the street. Instead, we found a parking garage and paid 30€ per day. Since we were so unnerved trying to drive around we went to the first one that the GPS listed. The parking garage was almost a kilometer away from our hotel. There was one that was closer, but we didn't find it. We took our GPS with us so we could find our hotel. Once we parked, we didn't move the car until we were ready to leave. 

We walked to the arc where we found the red touring bus and purchased a couple of tickets. It was only then that we started to relax.

The bus took us down the Champs-Elysees and we saw the big Louis Vuitton store.

We hopped off the bus at the trocadéro where you can get a good view of the tower.

We hopped back on the bus and rode it over to the tower itself. It was well-protected. Before I left for Germany, someone had left a mysterious package there at the tower and it had to be evacuated. Fortunately, none of that drama took place during our visit.

The view from here is simply stunning. The tower is so massive.

 

We went back to the hotel and had some dinner, then got on the bus again so that we could see the tower all lit up.

The arc de triomphe is lovely at night.

Gorgeous, isn't it?

Taking a header

All of the little goodies that I ordered lately are starting to arrive so I get to PLAY! I just finished this steampunk necklace and wrote a little story to go with it. It's fun to develop a story that fits the pieces. Here is the story that I wrote to go with this one:


One evening at the pub, his friends challenged him to a race across France. What could he say? He couldn't let his friends know that he didn't even own a bicycle. He had to borrow his Dad's old bicycle. The bicycle kind of scared him. It was one of those darn penny-farthing bicycles. He had taken so many headers on that stupid contraption. The worst spill was right in front of a group of young women that he had been trying to impress. He was utterly humiliated. Now, he had the possibility of going over the handlebars in front of everyone . . .