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Ah, Paris...

Rhonda and I went to Paris this past weekend for our "honeymoon". We took the Eurostar on Friday from Waterloo, less than three hours on a very comfortable train. It goes through the Channel tunnel, which takes around 20 minutes, and ends at the Gare du Nord in Paris. Our hotel had two floors closed off so they had a cab take us to another 4 star hotel and we got an upgraded room. That night we took a walk around town, across the Seine and had a walk around the Notre Dame cathedral and through their gardens. Afterwards we had dinner at le Zimmer, my favorite, chateaubriand, bordeaux, sorbet. Saturday we walked all around the city, from the Louvre to Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower and Arc d' Triomphe and back. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night, just after dark to see the city lights. Afterwards we found a lively greek restaurant and had dinner. It was nearly midnight and we knew it was lively when, as we walked down the narrow, brightly lit street, we saw dinner plates flying out of the doors, across the street and shattering on the brick walls opposite. I turned to look back up the street and when I looked back a waiter had grabbed Rhonda by the hand and was leading her into the restaurant, past the drunken rugby team and into the midst of a line of greek-styled dancers to a table in the rear. I followed. We had to move because of all the dancers, especially the women who were hopping up on nearby tables to dance. I ordered a glass of wine and after checking out the musicians in the corner behind us I turned back to see our waiter popping the cork on a bottle of Medoc, my favorite. Oh, well, looked like this evening was going to be more fun than I'd planned. Ah, cultural barriers. Moments later another waiter rushed to the center of the room, cleared a table, squatted down, wrapped his mouth around the corner of the table and lifted it with his teeth and began to dance around. We looked for wires but there were none. He put the table down, grabbed a young lady, sat her on the same corner, put his face between her legs and, with the help a two other waiters at each side, the table again was lifted in his teeth and he began to dance around as the other waiters stepped away. The woman, I believe, enjoyed it, as did we.
We went to the Notre Dame on Sunday Mass and visited the Louvre that afternoon. It was a great time, very relaxing and lots of fun. The wine was really great and we would buy bread sticks on the street and snack on them as we walked around. The coffee is just strong enough to get you from one cafe to the next and the sites were awesome. We returned Monday afternoon to London and back home that evening. What a trip!

Posted by phanvey at May 11, 2005 09:15 PM