Hi Trafaelwyr! I am so enjoying your trip report- I was in Paris at the sametime and yes the queues for the Eiffel were a bit much, I so feel your sore feet, I also had to buy shoes. But carry on - waitng for the next chapter.

Hello all!

kerouac - ah, thanks for explaining that! The Policeman just mentioned, as best he could, that it was some sort of public ceremony, so we took it at that. I was really jazzed at how many special events we witnessed, especially the 2 wreath laying ceremonies going from a certain point on the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

crefloors - yeah! those new shoes were ALOT better. This had <b>never</b> happened to me before in my 10 years of going overseas and all the walking I'd done. So, everyone, very important lesson is that make sure the shoes you take are comfortable ones! Heck, I had these pair of Nikes that I had to retire (re: throw away) after last years visit to Zurich because they were literally falling apart. But they served me well for the 10 years I had them.

cls2paris - hmm, what is the Arenes de Lutece? Did you ever visit the Medieval Museum in the Latin Quarter? It's very interesting place! I dig that kinda stuff. Thanks for the info on the hotels. I'll keep them in mind when I go back to Paris.

yasron - when we finally did do the Eiffel Tower, the lines weren't that bad. We arrived there before noon time and the view we had was just amazing!

Ok, so on to Wednesday.

- Sept. 6th - Cramping and the Catacombs -

DS and I were up at the usual time of 7 a.m. to begin our day. When I was finished getting ready, DS informed me that she wasn't feeling well (cramps - is that tmi?). Anyways, she told me to go ahead and go wherever I wanted but be back at the hotel by 11 a.m.. I was fine with that, though I really wish she had been feeling better so that we could both visit some places. Off I went! This morning there was another open air market underneath the above ground Metro, so I wandered through there taking in the sights and smells. Did I mention how much I love these kinds of markets? Where to go, where to go? Ten years ago when I was backpacking, I joined up with some Australian girls who were staying at the same youth hostel that I was staying at (The 3 Ducks). Somehow we found ourselves in the Latin Quarter at St. Sulpice. I hadn't been back there since, so I decided to pay the area a visit. When I arrived at the church, I discovered a couple of things: 1) it looked like the church was undergoing some sort of renovation and 2) the water fountain in the square was not on. Not seeing fountains on was a real let down. In to the church I went. If you haven't been in there, you should the next time you're in the area. While I was in there, a small mass was going on, so hearing them sing lent an even holier feeling to the visit. As I was about to leave the church, I noticed something familiar all the way to my right. The church has, what appears to be, a 'copy' of the Shroud of Turin. This is really something to behold. I took a few pictures and even some video (I think) before I exited the church.

Ok, where to go now? I pulled out my tattered Michelin map and saw that I was pretty darn close to the Luxembourg Gardens. Hadn't been there before! Ugh, my feet were still killing me despite having the new shoes on, but I managed. I started on the far end from the fountain and made my way over to that. What a really nice area the gardens are and talk about relaxing near the fountain! Sitting in the coolness of the shade and watching the ducks for a bit was a nice way to chill out for a bit. From the gardens I made my way up to the Pantheon. When I got there, it hadn't opened yet. Unfortunately for me, just as I was about the leave the area, they opened up the church and the gate that let you gain access to it. There is a charge of 7 Euros to go in the church. I really wanted to go in there, but I had to make my way back to the hotel. DS was feeling much better when I got back to the hotel, so we headed off to the Eiffel Tower. As I mentioned above, the lines weren't too bad, but it was crowded as usual. DS and I went all the way to the top and with such great weather, we had an excellent view of Paris and the surrounding area. The video tape on my camera was almost out, so when we got back down it was back to the hotel to secure a new blank tape.

The next attraction on my places to visit was the Catacombs (never been there before). We took the Metro to the Denfert Rochereau stop, but I made the mistake of getting off 1 stop too early, so it was back on the Metro to DR. Once you come out of the Metro station, it's easy to spot the entrance to the Catacombs across the street. As it was beginning to get warm out, the idea of going down 123 step to get to somewhere cooler was definitely worth it. Going through the catacombs is certainly it's own experience. DS asked me if the grounds down there where all the bones were put was consecrated. That is something I did not know, but I'm assuming it would be given the fact that all these graves were dug up. The dripping water lent to the eeriness of the catacombs. I can only assuming that the dripping water is condensation due to all people visiting the catacombs. At first I thought it was water coming from pipes, but I dismissed that idea after I saw all the droplets of water in various stages of dripping to the ground. I heeded the advice given by the guidebooks regarding the catacombs and brought along a flashlight. This helped when it came to taking pictures. They request that no flashes are used when taking pictures, but I did see a few people do that. I did shoot video down in the catacombs as well and the night vision function helped in the really dark areas. Our visit concluded with the 83 steps back up. It's really not that bad, but DS was quite winded when we got back up into the warm air of Paris. A quick stop into a minimart to buy some water and it was back on to the Metro headed towards our neighborhood.

Once again we found ourselves asking what to do for dinner. And again we walked up and down the area trying to find a restaurant. We even headed back towards Pasta Papa and the surrounding area, but nothing really grabbed us. Off to the Monoprix we went! We decided to make this an easy dinner and just got a premade sandwiches (I got this real yummy chicken/bacon sandwich), some potato salad, cookies, a bag of Doritos (Sweet Chili ones no less!) and this orange version of diet Coca-Cola! Ah!! I love when they have these limited edition items out in Europe. I hope they come out with this flavor here because if they can do lemon and lime flavored ones, orange is surely next up! Before we headed back to the hotel, we stopped in at the bakery next door and got ourselves this Samba chocolate mousse cake. Delicious! That was pretty much the end of our day. I'm sure I could have handled some more walking out and about, but I think we earned some rest.

Hi T - the Arenes de Lutece is an arena from the Gallo-Roman times that was used for watching sporting events and maybe theater events. When we were there, an informal soccer game was going on. Yep, also did the Medieval Museum (the thermal baths there are from the same era as the arena). But, I went mostly to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. I had read an historical fiction about the tapestries so wanted to see them for myself! Still enjoying your trip report and I'm working on mine!

Ahh...this weekend was something I really needed. No messing about with computers, just relaxing a bit and getting things back in order. DS and I took our mom to this great French restaurant in Dallas called Lavendou (http://www.lavendou.com/). It was a nice way to round off our trip (which was almost a week over with) and sorta celebrate what would have been my parent’s anniversary (father passed away in June of last year). The dinner was wonderful and before we ate, I presented my mom with gifts I had bought for her while over there (one of which was this crystal mosaic piece of jewelry I bought in Paris - www.crystalmosaic.com). So, one full day left in Paris..here we go!

- Sept. 7th - The Latin Quarter -

Today we decided to give ourselves a bit of a break and woke up later than usual. As we were going to go to Lausanne on Friday, we needed to go to Gare de Lyon to pick up our tickets. Now, I'm sure I could have probably picked them up at Gare de Nord when we first arrived in Paris, but this gave me a good opportunity to gauge how long it would take from our hotel to the train station (including changing metros). It took us about 20 minutes or so to get from our hotel to the train station. Not too bad. After we got our tickets, it was off to the Opera Garnier stop to make a visit to the Amex office. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but this is the <b>ONLY</b> Amex office in the whole of Paris. When it comes to changing money, it's a bit of a fussy situation for me. I like to get it done at an Amex office due to the whole &quot;no commission&quot; charge. I learned another thing while I was there. After I'd changed some dollars over to Euros, I was going to change some dollars into Swiss Francs. The guy at the office to me that it's better to do that in Switzerland because to do it at the Amex office (or any other country that uses the Euro) they would have to convert the dollars to Euros and then the Euros to Swiss Francs, so I'd be losing about 10%. So, remember that before you head off to Switzerland from any country that uses the Euro.

With money changed to Euros, we headed towards the Latin Quarter. We would spend most of the day there doing various things. As we walked around the Latin Quarter I spied something that stirred my blood. I had hoped to see one of these while over there, but wasn't quite sure where'd I'd see one..or two for that matter of fact. Like a bee to honey, I crossed the street and honed in on.....and independent (re: used) record store! I am a vinyl junkie. CDs fit the bill as well, but I was mainly interested in finding some French pressings of some of my favorite groups. I went into this one store and went up to their second level. Up there they had this row of used 7&quot; singles. Ah! I started to flip through and move them about, using the eagle eye of the record collector in me to spot things I had in mind. I could have spent at least an hour in there, but the purpose of our trip wasn't to let our time be gobbled up by pursuits such as this. I did score, however, this Duran Duran French 7&quot; of their single &quot;Skin Trade&quot; in the banned &quot;bum&quot; sleeve and this 7&quot; of Mel Brooks &quot;It's Good to Be The King&quot;. I never knew this existed, but found it a bit quirky being that the whole &quot;It's Good to Be The King&quot; joke was done during the French Revolution in Mel Brook's film &quot;History of the World Part 1&quot;. Bought it for a laugh but haven't listened to it yet.

Our stomachs began to make noise and it was time for lunch. DS bought a sandwich as this little cafe and then I wound up buying a panini from this place near the McDonalds. With lunch in hand, we made our way across the street and into the little park that's part of the Medieval Museum. The weather was gorgeous that day! It was nice to just sit, relax and eat our lunch. My panini was delicious and I'm sure I could have gone for another one. As we were there, our next stop was the Medieval Museum (naturally). I highly recommend visiting this museum. In the museum you will see many tapestries, including the famous unicorn one that's actually part of this 5 tapestry set (it's all about the senses - hearing, smell, etc). Before we left the museum, we purchased some gifts or stuff for ourselves. I was tempted to buy a tapestry they had for sale, but decided against it. My powers of persuasion did get DS to buy one. We walked around the Latin Quarter some more, venturing down small side streets. Ten years ago I'd stumbled into the Latin Quarter and saw these really unique art pieces in the window of this one store. I was hoping to find this store again, but after 10 years it may have moved on or just closed. As we were walking down this one small side street, DS spotted this gallery with sparkly stuff. This turned out to be the Crystal Mosaic store. At first I had not intended to buy anything, but the more I looked at the stuff and talked to the lady, I decided that this would be a place to buy something nice for my mom. Everything in that store was made by hand, no machines were involved. Our purchases made, it was off to wander about again. Before we headed back to our hotel, we made one final stop at this costume store. They have a website address - unfortunately I don't have it on me. This store had some really nice masks and costumes...so European looking!

Ugh! The daily question of where to eat dinner was upon me again. Ok, we'd done Chinese, Italian, Greek, American, sandwiches &amp; junk food, now where to go? French of course!! I flipped through the various papers I'd printed out and found these two pages from the Paris Digest that had a list of suggested restaurants. I scanned over them, looking for one that fit the bill. Le Train Bleu was a consideration, but I'd been to their website and frankly, nothing on the menu grabbed me. The descriptions of the restaurants listed sounded good and I had to make a choice. Which one was going to do it for me? The one that clenched the deal for me had something I wanted - history. The choice was Procope (13, rue de l'Ancienne Comedie). Reading the fact that this place had been around since 1686 and the names that had dined there (Voltaire, Napoleon, etc) really hooked me. Cost was not an issue for me. We arrived there a bit early and were seated close to the window that looked out on to rue de l'Ancienne Comedie. What can I say? The food was wonderful in my opinion. It was a nice leisurely dinner. They did have a fixed price menu which DS opted to do. I went the other route and picked out what looked good to me. After dinner we once more found ourselves ambling about the Latin Quarter. We crossed over the Seine River as I'd wanted to make a visit to St. Chapelle. We'd gotten close to St. Chapelle when I decided to nix the idea of going there. The next morning we were going to have to get up quite early and I wanted to hit the Monoprix to stock up on junk food to take back home. This was pretty much the end of our final full day in Paris. Once we got back to our neighborhood, DS took my video and digital camera to the hotel so that I could use my backpack to pack in all the stuff from the Monoprix. Our evening ended with a bit of TV watching and then it was off to bed. Friday would be Lausanne!

Thanks for sharing your Paris trip. I flew out of the DFW Int'l terminal and it is great. What did you have at Lavendou. I'd planned to take my mother there when she was in town in August for a convention, but her schedule didn't permit.

Thanks for your report. I enjoyed following your decision making process beforehand and what you actually ended up doing. I think you've talked me into visiting the Cluny... Have never gone.

Hi BettyBoop - At Lavendou I had the tomato and mozzarella cheese salad (delicious!), the Pork Tenderloin with Lavender Honey and Red Currants Served with Roasted Potatoes (had to lift this from their site cos I wanted it to be listed right!), and the Gran Marnier Souffle. This restaurant is <b>SO</b> worth going to. The extent of my French dining cuisine has been La Madeline, but this place is definitely a cut way above. If you do go, I strongly suggest making reservations around 6:30 - 6:45 because by the time 7 - 7:15 rolled around, it was packed!

amwosu - Yeah, I had pretty grand expectations about what I was going to do on certain days - then had the input of the Fodorites here. Of course, you know how the best laid plans go. I hadn't planned on my shoes affecting how much I walked. Then there was the weather that kinda affected decision making, not to mention my sister not feeling good on one day. Once I've posted my report, I'll go back and compare the suggested itinerary to what we actually did.

- Sept. 8th - No smoke on the water, no fire in the sky -

On Friday the 8th, we were going off to Lausanne, Switzerland to visit my aunt. DS and I were up pretty early so we could get ready and catch the 7:22 a.m. TGV to Lausanne. Now, I must admit that I thought that hopping aboard a TGV train would mean speeding through the countryside and a good rate of speed. Whilst this train did go fairly fast, it didn't seem like it was living up to the idea of a &quot;high speed train&quot;. There were a few stops along the way, one of which was in Dijon. I believe it only takes like 1 1/2 hours to get there. Anyways, as we made our way into Switzerland, I began to see the familiar red flag with the white cross. Yay! The trip did seem like it went fairly quick. The only thing I wasn't too crazy about was our assigned seats on the train. For whatever reason, every time I get a train seat, it's one that's facing backwards. If there's one thing that drives me crazy is not facing forward on the train! There were a few times I saw things of interest and when I went to video tape them, I'd only get a little bit and then all these trees would pop up. Ho-hum.

We pulled into the Lausanne train station about 11:45 a.m. and the weather was really looking great! Once we'd left the train, I had absolutely no idea where to go. I suggested that we go down these stairs as it looked like it would lead us towards the lake. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, DS asked me how our aunt was making her way to Lausanne. Good question. I didn't know if she was coming by car or by train (I suspected train as that would have been the way to come). As I turned around to answer her, I saw our aunt standing at the top of the stairs! she'd come by train. It was such a pleasure to see her. Once we'd joined up, we got some information from the info center and a few minutes later we were on a bus and headed down to the lakefront known as Ouchy (pronounced wee-chee, but I had fun with it and pronounced it as owwchee). At the lakefront we bought our tickets for the boat, milled about the area for awhile. The water was this crystal clear blue. It was so clear that while walking along the waterfront, I was able to see some large as well as small fish swimming about. That's one thing I've noticed about the lakes in Switzerland..they're really clear. I remember last year when my nephew and I were there and went to Mt. Rigi. As we were waiting for the train to arrive, we stood by the lakefront and I was amazed at how clear the water was.

Anyways, when 1:20 p.m. rolled around we boarded our boat. None of us had eaten, so we headed for their dining room and had lunch. For some odd reason they weren't able to provide any hot meals, only cold meals. This didn't leave for a wide selection to choose from, so all 3 of us had the Swiss salad, some water, and a bottle of white wine. As we ate our lunch, the boat stopped a few times at different piers to let people on or off and we watched the scenery just pass us by...all those vineyards on the hills above...very picturesque. As the boat pulled up to this one pier, there were some boys in kayaks readying themselves for the waves that the boat created. Now, either that water was pretty comfortable (i.e. warm) or they had thick skin! When we arrived at Vevey, we had to disembark to get on this other boat that would then take us to Montreux. I'm sure there was more to Montreux than what we saw, but our goal was to get to Chateau Chillon (to henceforth be known as the castle) with what time we had. We got on the number 1 bus and it took about 10 minutes or less to get us out to the castle. Back in the early 60s when my parents spent their honeymoon in Switzerland, one of the places they went was this castle. There's even a painting of it by the lake that hangs in their house today. We took a tour of the castle that lasted about an hour. It wasn't a guided tour, but you got this info map about the place and followed the numbers. A very easy tour to do. One thing I didn't know was that apparently Lord Byron spent a few years chained up in their dungeon! He even etched his name on one of the pillars (protected by some plexiglass).

Once we were done with the castle, it was back to the bus and to the train station. It didn't take very long to get from the train station in Montreux back to Lausanne. Our aunt had to catch the 6:20 p.m. train back to Zurich, but our train wasn't until 7:22 and DS and I were going to spend our remaining time wandering about the area. Our aunt said that maybe we could catch an earlier train back to Paris. This sounded good to me, even though I did kinda want to do a bit of souvenir shopping in Lausanne. A quick check of the train timetable and we saw a train back to Paris that left at 6:22 p.m.. I only had minutes to see if I could make the exchange!! There was no problem with changing the tickets and then I was off and running back to where my aunt and DS were. What was funny is that I recall seeing the TGV train pull in while we were waiting on the one platform with our aunt. DS and I did get on the TGV in time (panting and puffing no less) and then a few minutes later we were back off to Paris. Arriving in earlier gave us a chance to get everything packed and ready for our journey back to London the next day. I was already missing Paris! It's almost over...

- Sept. 9th- London calling -

Saturday was our last and final day in Paris. Time to depart. Our time really went by fast! Aside from getting blisters during all the walking in Paris, I had a great time. DS and I got up at our usual time of 7 a.m. to get ready to go. In the past when I had stayed in this area, I really hadn't planned out my journey well enough to get back to Gare du Nord. It was always this long way around. Luckily this time I decided on a better route - essentially backtracking the way we'd arrived at the hotel that previous Saturday. We arrived at Gare de Nord with plenty of time to spare, but knowing how crowded it gets we lined up to go through the passport control. I'm glad this is how they have it now. A few years ago it was a bit of a pain to have to go through it when you got to London Waterloo. It's much more efficient the way they have it now. While we were waiting I decided to get something to eat and change my Euros and Swiss Francs to UK Sterling. This was a bit of a goof on my part. I should have waited until I got to the Amex office in London...oh well, lesson learned. The time rolled around for us to board and we made our way down the ramp.

Ahh....back in Business class. Now, I know that no matter what class you're sitting in on the Eurostar, you're still going to the same destination...but traveling in Business class with the little perks is something nice and I highly recommend doing it if you haven't. Once again my sister and I found ourselves in the same seating arrangement that we had when we went from London to Paris. This was all fine and good....until this lady with a baby went out and flippity flapped with the Eurostar person. The next thing I knew, the lady and her baby were sitting in the 4 seats across from us. Uh-uh. This was not on. I told DS that I wasn't having this. I'd had my fill of screaming/crying babies/toddlers during our trip, not to mention having to put up with a teenage girl on the way over who decided to put on nail polish. I wanted this train journey to be a pleasant one. Time to take some action. I went out and had a word with the Eurostar guy and expressed (politely) a desire to sit elsewhere in the coach once we got under way. He looked at his list, saw quite a few open seats, especially this 4 seat configuration, and said that once the doors had closed we could move. Yay! DS and I were now seated in the 4 seat configuration, well far from the lady with the baby. This afforded us to stretch and spread out a bit. Brunch was a delicious affair and I do suggest getting the omelet should you travel when they are serving brunch. The train sped along quite nicely towards the French coast. We must have passed at least 4 or 5 other Eurostars on our way there. The 20 minutes of darkness quickly went as it had come and we were now in England!

England. I've been here the same amount of times that I have been to France. We pulled into Waterloo station around 11:45 a.m. and then navigated our way through the Underground to Victoria station. Something I wasn't aware of going on was this football (soccer) match happening later on that day. There were loads of people wearing red football jerseys. Anyways, once at Victoria station and I got my bearings, we headed towards our hotel - the Hesperia London Victoria. My nephew and I had stayed there back in 2004 when it was then part of the Holiday Inn chain. This really is a good hotel and I like it's location because if you need to catch the Gatwick Express you don't have to worry about using the Underground! The beds are nice and comfy, our room had a 26&quot; LCD TV, mini-bar! (the room my nephew and I had last time didn't have one), coffee/tea set (I always take the Cadbury hot chocolate mix), the usual bathroom goodies, etc. Right - the one thing that I wasn't thrilled about regarding the bedroom was the bathroom door - it was frosted glass! Umm...yeah...I'm not too fond of this kind of door for obvious reasons. Other than that, great room. They also have an indoor pool, but since I forgot my bathing suit, no pool for me.

Once again we found ourselves dumping our stuff off in the room - and this time I left the video camera and digital camera in the room. I'd had enough of carrying those things around like a monkey on my back for the whole trip! I did take the blue backpack as I had shopping in mind. It was back to the Underground to go a few stops to Piccadilly Circus. A stop in HMV and Virgin, and it was off to Leicester Square, China Town, Soho, Berwick Street (where I did indulge my vinyl/cd addiction in a few stores), Oxford Street (for a quick take away lunch at this Chinese place and to buy a shirt at this one store), Oxford Circus, Hamley's Toy Store and then back to the hotel to rest. I was to meet a friend of mine in Leicester Square around 7:30 p.m. and DS opted not to go because she was tired. Off I went and my friend and I agreed on this Portuguese restaurant on the South Bank called Nandos. The area where this restaurant is has <b>really</b> transformed itself over the past 10 years! It's becoming quite the hip area. The restaurant served up some good food and my friend and I caught each other up on what was going on in our lives. I wish I had at least an extra day there, but I'd been away from home for a good amount of time. Back at the hotel it was a bit of TV and then to bed. Knowing that checking in was going to be a task, our wake up time was going to be 6 a.m..

Sunday morning arrived and the journey home was about to begin. With everything packed up, strapped in, padded and locked up, we checked out and walked over to Victoria Station to get on the Gatwick Express. This is a journey I've taken well over a dozen times. It always signals either the beginning or the end of my trip. Believe it or not, things were very organized at the airport in terms of checking in. We used the self service BA kiosk to get our boarding passes and then we queued up for baggage check in. The line went fairly quick and we were instructed to take our bags to the oversized luggage area (due to my backpack and my duffle back with the wine bottle in there). When we were about to go through the security check, DS was told that she couldn't bring her small duffle bag on board as she already had a small bag in her possession. This flustered her somewhat, but in the end she was able to jump the line, get it tagged and then took it over to the oversized baggage area. For those who don't have large baggage, you just hand your stuff off to these guys in green suits and they take it from there. Once beyond the security check-in point, we were now in the land of duty free. I usually stock up on candy and the likes, but this time around I decided not to. What I did buy were 3 DVDs. After some browsing, we spent a few minutes at the Starbucks having a light breakfast. No sooner had we finished our breakfast the call came over the intercom system for passengers going to DFW on BA to make their way to the gate. Here we go!

When I had bought our tickets earlier this year, for some odd reason I wasn't able to choose our seats, so on the trip back home we were in different rows. This actually turned out to be a good thing for both of us. I was seated in the middle section in the middle seat. Bleh. Luckily the row in front of me only had one passenger on the left aisle seat, so I asked the stewardess if I could move up once the door had closed. I'd like to think that this was also good for the people on either side of me as they could now stretch out and not feel so confined. The flight back home was smooth. I don't recall any turbulence (tho I did nod off to sleep for a bit), the in-flight movies were entertaining, the food was good, and no screaming toddlers! Our flight landed on time, but our taxi to the gate seem to take forever. Since this was my first time coming through the international terminal at DFW, I didn't know what to expect. Well, it seems like they finally got it right when it came to immigration. They were actually staffed to handle the influx of passengers!! By the time we got down to the luggage carousel, the luggage from the plane was coming up. We did have to wait until ours appeared. Time to queue up for the Customs line. Yawn. I noticed that with some people they asked questions, others they didn't. I was asked questions like, &quot;Why did you go to France?&quot;. I was a bit dumbfounded with the couple of questions I was asked, but I was too tired to care. Ugh! The heat was still here! DS and I didn't have to wait for mom too long as she was in the parking garage. A couple of minutes later and we were in the car and on our way back to our homes. Journey over!