Our first and only time on Public Transit in Europe

Everyone said how easy it is to use the subways in Europe.  We were a bit intimidated, so spent more $ on taxis.  The last day we were in Paris, we had a tour planned to Versailles.  We were to meet the group at Muse d'Orssy, then travel to Versailles together.  We assumed we would be going on a bus, so were quite surprised when they handed out the subway tickets.  

We were glad to be with a seasoned person who had used the subway before, as the signs were in French.  The station and platform were quite dirty.  The train itself was nice, including beautiful paintings on the ceilings and walls.  The people on the train were pretty normal, except for one family.  The mom had 4 or 5 kids with her, and they kept climbing up and sticking their heads out of the window.  We were so sure they were gonna get their heads chopped off by a passing building or bridge.

Paris at night

After the farewell dinner, we went on a river cruise along the River Seine and then a bus tour by night to see the Paris lights.  We didn't actually get to see the lights in total darkness, as the sun went down about 9:30, so by 10:30 when we were done, it was still twilight.  But it was still beautiful.

So you'll love me forever....

A sweet tradition, or a racket by the padlock companies? The romantic will say the first, the cynic will say it's a racket.

At several overpasses over the Seine River, the bridges have metal fencing along the walkway.  There are thousands of padlocks attached to these fences.  Here is what it's all about...

When you and your sweetie are in Paris, you are supposed to go buy a padlock (you can't bring one with you, you must buy it in Paris, hence the racket) and together lock it to the bridge fence.  They you throw the key into the river together.  The legend is that the lock will stay there forever, since the key is now lost. And because the lock cannot be opened, you will be together forever.  

However, as the tour guide pointed out, the public works people have to come through every so often and cut all the locks off, or else the bridges would fall down from all the extra weight.  So, does that mean when they cut the lock off, your relationship is damaged as well?  I guess you can pick the pieces of the legend you want to have meaning based on how you feel about it.

A neat thing they do at construction sites in Paris

I noticed this a few places around Paris.  Instead of just setting up scaffolding with netting like many places do to control debris from falling into the streets as construction is being done, many of the builders in Paris use these nets which actually look like buildings.  From far away it is hardly noticeable, and closer up it looks really nice.

Should kids be allowed to order this???

As I mentioned before, every place we went had a different brand of "Sprite".  I don't know that I would want this one to be a regular drink for Zack to order.

Farewell dinner in Paris

On the last night of the tour, we had a farewell dinner at the Grand Cafe in Paris.  Unfortunately, we were the last people into the restaurant because of where we got seated on the bus that day.  This meant that there were 4 seats left, but at 4 different tables.  Since Zack wouldn't be comfortable sitting with someone else, we asked the staff and they were nice enough to find us our own table.  Josh really wanted to sit with people from the group, so he did take one of those random seats.  He had a great time.

We have arrived...finally! And have a great view from our room of.... garbage!

After a LOOONG 8 hour bus ride, we finally arrived at our hotel.  

One thing we learned on this trip is that although the hotels the tours put you in are very nice, you don't always get the rooms with the views.