Paris

About two weeks ago, Josh had another trip to Ramstein for work. We decided to tag along but knew our time with him would be limited, as the mission comes first. I figured, we could pop to France while Josh worked. Scarey, but do-able. When we got to Ramstein, we found out the mission had "slipped" which means it was pushed back a few days. Bonus - a quick trip to France and Josh got to come to. Oddly, Paris is about 4 hours from our house, Ramstein is about 3 hours from our house, and Paris is about 4 hours from Ramstein. Driving through France was filled with lots of movies for the kids, interesting and frequent rest stops (see FB photos), and strategicly placed roadside art work. We made good time and checked into our hotel with no trouble. We stayed in a suburb of Paris called Torche. Not the best area. It was a little ghetto, but it was close to the RER train and that would connect us to the subway. We got quite a kick out of the room. It brought back memories of our Cruise. I told Mimi that there wasn't enough room to turn around a fart in the room. There really wasn't, but it gave us an idea of what a family bed was like.

We headed out to to downtown Paris, right away. We walked about 15 minutes to the train, rode 30 minutes into the city and then walked another 15 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. You can see it towereing over the trees and buildings surrounding it. It is truly a marvel to behold! The Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris standing 1063 feet high and it is the most viewed monument in the world. It was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. We walked up to the second level. Yes, I wrote walked up. I am an out of shape mom. Couple that with a mild fear of heights that increases with every turn on the metal stairs on the tower and you get a near panic attack and colorful cursing directed towards my beloved hubby! The views were amazing, though, and I am glad we did it.

After the tower we headed to the Louvre. The museum is housed in the Palais du Louvre and has exhibits displayed over 652,300 square feet. We chose to to grab a cab as it seemed quicker, and it was, but it was also funny as our cabby was from England and listened to Willie Nelson for the whole ride. The museum is so large that is impossible to see everything in a day. It is impossible to see everything in 3 days. We decided to go in with a plan and see what we felt was important on this trip - The Mona Lisa, The Venus de Milo and the Greek section. It was intense and amazing. I am glad I had an idea about the size of Mona before we saw her or I would have been very disappointed. She is kinda small. It was fun to stand there and think about the Da Vinci Code though and imagine Langdon standing there over a body looking for clues. Venus was in the Greek section so it was a score on that one. Jax got to see many depictions of the Gods and Goddesses and we got to take so goofy photos as well.

We spent about 4 hours there. Our puppies were yelping by the end of the day when we headed back to the hotel. The hotel had a lovely restaurant and we decided to eat there. A note to readers-The French like their meat rare. When I say rare - I mean it looks like the cow could be outside walking around with a gaping hole where your steak just came from. Josh and I had the buffet and chose ham and chicken since it seemed to be cooked completly. We ordered steak for the kids because we figured it was safe. When the steak came, we cut into it and I swear it mooed in protest! It went back to the kitchen and when it was returned, it still wasn't cooked. The kids ended up picking off our plates and Josh ate the steak. I am only telling all of this because it teaches a valuable lesson. After we returned to Ramstein, Josh came down with food poisoning. Violent food poisoning. Not the way we wanted to finish the trip but now we know what to do the next time we are there. Pitch a fit an have your meat cooked. Don't worry about insulting the culture or seeming crass.

All in all, the trip was really cool! Please enjoy the pictures. I know there are a ton of them and believe me, this doesn't even scratch the surface.

Our room