Thursday, June 19
Kim & Bob took the 3:30 bus from Providence to Logan. The American Airlines ticket counter had a mile-long, snaking line and after waiting almost an hour, all Paris-bound passengers were pulled from the line and brought to the front for immediate check-in. It was chaos and customers were not happy. Alas, this is what air travel has come to as cutbacks have surely reduced the number of check-in staff members. Thankfully the line through TSA security was short and Kim & Bob were at the gate with plenty of time to spare.

Friday, June 20
Flight was fairly smooth with the exception of some unexpected bumps here and there. Immigration, customs and baggage were quick and easy, and getting to the RER Paris-bound train was a good 1/2-hour walk through the terminal, but in the end wasn't too much trouble. Kim & Bob arrived at the apartment right at 10am. Weather was perfect for walking about town.

A luxurious 2-hour nap was enjoyed and then the duo set out to see some nearby sights. They climbed the mountain-like hill to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) and after visiting the church's interior, set off to explore the neighborhood sharing the hilltop, an interesting mixture of touristy shops and artist community. Lunch was streetside at a small bistro where Kim & Bob both enjoyed a typical Parisian baguette sandwich. Afterwards they headed down the big hill to Place d'Anvers where there is a weekly market held on Friday afternoons. Wonderful stuff! Kim came away with 4 different goat cheeses to try. So much cheese, so little time.

After popping back over to the apartment to drop off the cheese to the refrigerator, Kim and Bob navigated their way to the Louvre where for €6 you could get into the museum for their Friday night special. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of that! They breezed in for a quick tour of the highlights and after enjoying the castle ruins and Greek carved statues, they popped in to see the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and of course, Mona Lisa.

By this time evening hunger had set in and they stopped at a bustling bistro for dinner. Kim had Quiche Lorraine with a salad and Bob had grilled chicken. It was all quite good.

Saturday, June 21
Kim & Bob left the apartment about 9:45am this morning and took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower area. Their first order of business was to take a boat ride on the Seine. The weather was perfect and the boat ride was one picture opportunity after another. From there they walked to the Eiffel Tower where their plans to ride up were put on hold until Monday due to the sea of people in line who had the same idea. Kim got a gauffre avec chantilly (waffle with cream) and then they walked to the Arc du Triomphe, stopping along the way for lunch at an outdoor café. Kim enjoyed a Croque Monsieur with tap water Bob had a Croque Italien and an $8 Diet Coke (Coke Light). Soda in Europe in general is very expensive, but in restaurants it's down right outrageous.

After completing the 284 step climb (568 steps round trip) to the top of the Arc du Triomphe, they strolled down Champs Elysses. After that they visited the famous department store, Gallery Lafayette and then did their evening shopping along Rue des Martyrs. By the time they finished the walk back to the apartment, they had more cheese to add to the growing collection, a croissant for the morning, bread and hand made butter all in their cute little recyclable bag. For the most part, everyone in Paris carries a reusable bag of one sort or another and uses this for purchases rather than the plastic bags you find in the US. As a matter of fact, at the grocery store you are charged €.03 for every plastic bag that you need.

Back at the apartment they used their newly acquired calling card to phone home and Kim had a nice cheese plate with bread, crackers, butter and spicy olive oil. Bob couldn't stand being idle for too long, so it was out again to the Latin Quarter for a dinner of Greek-style kebabs (complete with Kim dancing a Greek dance with the waiter) and then to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up after dark. The city was incredibly busy. It reminded Kim of Chinese New Year in Manhattan's Chinatown where the streets are solid people with barely room to walk. It wasn't just the Latin Quarter either. All of the streets were filled with people out and about, bands playing music on the backs of trucks, in doorways, on street corners and with tons of onlookers. And when it was finally time to call it a night at 1:30am, the two weary travelers were still fighting their way through the sidewalks to get back to the apartment. They found out a few days later that it happened to be the night of "la Musique" in Paris, a once-yearly, city-wide evening highlighting the music of local bands.

Sunday, June 22
After crawling into bed at almost 2am last night, Kim & Bob didn't get up until after 10am this morning. Now that's living like real Parisiens! After lollygagging about they finally got on their way a little before noon and took the Metro to the market on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, beginning opposite the Bastille monument. This one is a MUST!!! What a fabulous market...a mix of flea markety/street fair type items mixed with glorious FOOD!!! The cheesemongers, fishmongers, fruit & vegetable mongers, butchers and bakers were all there in force! And there was a nice representation of various cuisines like Middle-Eastern and Portuguese to name a couple.

From here the traveling duo walked, shopped and lunched in Le Marais, the Jewish Quarter. Kim had a great salad topped with small pieces of toast with goat cheese and herbs. Bob had something similar to a Croque Monsieur also served with a salad.

After lunch they walked on the Ile St. Louis where there are lots of cute little shops. They then headed to Notré Dame and enjoyed the church and the stained glass there before walking to Sainte Chappelle, the pièce de résistance when it comes to stained glass. The sun came out brightly while they were inside which made the stained glass look even more beautiful.

Since it was almost dinner time, Kim and Bob headed back over to the Latin Quarter again tonight. First they strolled around to get a better feel for the place since the previous night had been so crowded. Then they chose a place serving some delicious looking grecque sandwiches (basically a gyro in the USA). They each had a chicken gyro plate which is the meat served outside of the pita. It is much easier to eat this way because if you order a gyro in Paris, they put the fries right in with the pita and it's hard to get to the meat. After dinner they chose a new route back to the apartment to take in more of the city's sights.

Definitely an earlier night tonight!

Monday, June 23
This morning Kim had cheese and crackers for breakfast and Bob fixed himself a fried egg with toasted french bread. They took the Metro to the closest stop near the Bagatelle and walked the rest of the way to the rose garden there. It took over an hour, but it was well worth the walk. While the roses were slightly past their prime, they were indeed still very beautiful and the garden was lovely as usual.

For lunch they sat down at the Bagatelle restaurant and Kim had a Parisien salad and Bob had a chicken club sandwich. It was a very nice way to spend lunch time. After lunch they tackled the very long walk back to the nearest RER station and hopped on the train to the Eiffel Tower.

While not as busy at Saturday, there were still very long lines so it took over an hour before they were on the elevator riding to the second level. It was entirely worth the wait. The view from the tower was spectacular and it was a lot of fun for them to look out over the places where they had been walking every day.

After the Eiffel Tower, Kim & Bob decided to walk back to their neighborhood for dinner (it's a very far walk). It took about two hours with a little bit of dilly-dallying along the way. At 7pm they arrived back in Montmatre and had dinner outside at a brasserie around the corner from the flat. Bob had a 1/2 rotisserie chicken with BBQ sauce and Kim had the Cassoulet Maison. Again, all very good!

Tuesday, June 24
Today Kim & Bob took the train to Versailles. The Chateau was only a five minute walk from the Versailles Rive Gauche train station. The crowds were enormous, but they tackled it by having Bob wait in the ticket line while Kim began waiting in the entrance line. That cut down on a lot of wasted time. They met a nice young woman named Marisa from Maine who has been working on her Master's Degree at Oxford and Marisa toured the interior of the chateau with them. It was a good time! After the tour, they said goodbye to Marisa and went for lunch and then took another couple of hours on the Versailles grounds, renting bicycles to get them around quicker. Lots of fun but HOT, HOT, HOT outside!!!

Before taking the train back to Paris, Bob and Kim walked around the town of Versailles looking at shops and checking out the daily market. Cute, but not too much excitement there. They decided to go back to Paris for dinner, at a different little brasserie right around the corner from the apartment. After dinner Bob had a raspberry sorbet from a nearby glacier and Kim had a crépe avec sucre (crépe with sugar) from her favorite local crépe guy. What a day!

Wednesday, June 25
It's always sad when the last day of a vacation rolls around, but Kim & Bob livened things up with a trip to Chartres, a little town about an hour southwest of Paris. They took the 11:15am train out of Gare Montparnasse (although this train station was a good 25 minute Metro ride) and arrived in Chartres just before 12:30pm. After touring the main church and it's grounds, they went to a small créperie for lunch. Afterwards they spent the afternoon walking the ancient city, including two more very old churches in town. They had time for a little bit of tourist shopping before taking the 3:50pm train back into Paris. In Paris, they took the Metro most of the way to the flat, but got off at the Notre-Dame de-Lorette stop so that they could finish the trip with one last walk up Rue des Martyrs (patisseries, cheese shops, butchers, etc.) They ended their final day with a climb up to Sacre Coeur where they had dinner at a street café and wandered the artists quarter for a bit.

Thursday, June 26
Kim & Bob left their home-away-from-home about 9:15am, walked to Gare du Nord and boarded the RER to Charles de Gaulle. Their flight left at 1:30 and they arrived back in Boston at 3:20pm to a surprise of Katherine and Miranda waiting for them. They all took the Bonanza bus back to RI.