Chunnel Crossing Fossil Tour Day 11

Well we have arrived in Paris…Eurostar is amazing and state of the art. Can’t say the same for the Metro and RER lines in Paris though. While the systems go everywhere and are quite reliable time wise, they are not at all user friendly if you do not speak or read French. As well they are not geared to travellers carrying suitcases. We had quite a time today getting to our hotel. Finally a kind French gentleman who saw we were struggling got us going in the right direction. Next dilemma, no escalators or elevators at the stations, well there are but they are never going in the direction you need. They are going down when we needed up, and up when we needed down. We had to carry our suitcases up flights of stairs then down flights of stairs. Poor Uncle had to carry Dear Mom’s and his own and I carried mine and all the smaller bags, as Dear Mom had to hold onto the rails to get up or down. As soon as we were off the final connection Uncle says…” I don’t care what it costs, we are taking a cab back when we leave” and dear mom just stood there and threw her subway ticket up in the air. It was just too much for the fossils, me too for that matter. Once we got off the subway we needed to locate the hotel. We stopped and asked a young French girl who pointed the way …as I said “thank you”  … Uncle pipes up and says “ Gracias”   Really!  Uncle we are in France not Spain! He told me he spoke and read French….he lied!  He must be just dazed and confused from the subway ride.  He got a new camera for the trip…one with GPS. Everywhere we go he shows me where we are on the GPS. I don’t really need to know I’m in London Uncle…cause I AM in London. Where else would I be?  Maybe they put GPS on these new cameras just in case fossils forget where they are. God help me…weary is not the word for how I feel. I’m sending Dear hubby an email to have him advance  book me into the Norse Wing for a few weeks when I get home.

Now we are settled at our lovely hotel, the Marriott Rive Gauche, for the next few days and we can relax and enjoy Paris. We did manage the subway much better without our luggage and were able to take in a few sights later in the afternoon.  Notre Dame was spectacular. No words can describe how you feel when you light a candle there. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. It was a humbling experience. Everywhere you look there is history, amazing architecture and it is a great city for people watching. We all  sat at a little cafe and had a few drinks for about an hour, just watching the world go by. Now that is time well spent with fossils. They even tried being Marilyn Munroe over the subway grate. Strange but true, we had dinner at a Greek restaurant. I know, we should be having French food while in Paris. We passed this little restaurant, the Greek music was playing, it looked so welcoming and the menu sounded delicious. It was a delightful way to wind down our day. Dear mom even had a small glass of wine and she never drinks. Well it’s off to bed, early rise tomorrow. Bonne nuit mes chers fossiles, dormez bien.