I've seen London, I see France...

Jac saw some chick's underpants! (Some classy French broad was sitting at the bus stop with her lime green g-string showing. There have been quite a few in a short skirts on bikes, mopeds and motorcycles as well.)

Mind you, we could say...
I've seen London, I see France, Annette showed the workmen her underpants

(not on purpose of course!) I didn't have the shutters closed this a.m. when I was getting dressed and the workmen chose that exact minute to arrive for work on the scaffolding right outside my window. A fair bit of panic ensued which resulted in me racing around the apartment in only a towel trying to fine Jac to shut the shutters for me...she had conveniently stepped out. I think I scarred the workmen for life!

Eric, Sam & I were treated to fresh croissants and pain au chocolat this morning for breakfast. Matt & Jacqueline trekked all the way across the street to the bakery to bring back warm pastries! (All while I was stripping for the workers.) I've decided that Jacqueline should be forced to go back first thing every morning until she becomes an expert at ordering our pastries and bread in French. (Matt is still at the "bonjour, je m'appelle Matt" stage, but he's trying!)

Wow - the hop on hop off bus tour made for a jam packed day of seeing the sights! We covered the Eiffel Tower, Hotel des Invalides, Place de la Concorde, La Madeleine, Opera, Louvre (outside only), Comedie Francaise, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero, Pantheon and so much more. We took some time to go through Notre Dame and be amazed by the gothic architecture. Despite the fact that it is very dark compared to St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, it is so beautiful. After all the courses I took in university where I had to learn all the parts of a church (en francais of course), it was nice to finally be able to put the real image with the memorized terms (most of which I didn't even know in English at the time!) If you're interested, la rosace is the rose window. We decided not to wait in line at Notre Dame to go up into the towers - perhaps another day since we're here for 10 days.

Although we saw so many things, the experience is still very surreal. I keep waiting to wake up.

We stopped at the Monoprix to load up on cheeses, etc. for our "fromage fete" back at the flat.

I was worried that my quebecois accent might hinder my communication with Parisiens, but so far so good. Eric has even been trying out his French - still have to work on some of those fossilized errors but he's getting his message across.

I think we'll have another early night tonight because we still have 2 1/2 routes left to complete tomorrow on the hop on hop off.

If anyone is interested, I thought the 2E white wine was quite drinkable. So much so, that I didn't have any problem finishing most of the bottle myself before heading to bed for a great night's sleep! Jacqueline didn't manage to consume nearly as much of her 3E red wine!