Paris...Ooh La La!

Paris was absolutely gorgeous! The city is beautiful, and the weather was idyllic with highs in the 60's and 70's. There is so much to see there, and while we crammed in as much as possible, there are still more places that I want to see on my next trip.

We arrived so early on Saturday morning, most everything wasn't yet open. We walked down to the Champs Elysees and saw the magnificent Arc de Triomphe that Napolean had built to celebrate his troops successes. We found coffee -- I LOVED their coffee, so strong and smooth -- and walked down to the Seine and past the Eiffel Tower, although we saved going up for another day. That first day, we also took a lovely boat cruise, which provided me with a good basic understanding of how the city was laid out. We had a fantastic dinner that night in the Latin Quarter, but the beef left me with a massive tooth ache where the temporary crown is. I drugged myself up for the night and was able to keep it from getting that bad again by only chewing on one side of my mouth for the rest of the trip.


On Sunday, we went shopping, and we enjoyed exploring the little boutiques on Rue de Temple. I navigated the subway system to get us there, and I was impressed with its cleanliness, smooth ride and frequent trains. It was a very easy system to manage. After shopping, we toured Notre Dame, and we were allowed access even though a service was being held. We quietly walked around and respected the sanctity of the church, only taking photos without flash inside. Then we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, where after a quick line for tickets and a cursory look in our bags, we were whisked up to the incredible views of the city. We met some other Americans there, including two women from Houston and a family from Las Vegas, who are in Paris for a year to "learn the language." I envy them!

On Monday, we went to the Museum d'Orsay, but it was closed. And unfortunately, we ran out of time to go back. We walked over to the Louvre, which was open. The garden was fantastic, and I remembered my sister Steph mentioning to me how much she enjoyed it. The Louvre is absolutely massive, so we saw the two pieces we most wanted to see -- the Mona Lisa and the Venus di Milo -- and enjoyed several other pieces to get to those and back.



Monday night we had an amazing dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to me named for the chef, Jacques Cagna. Every course was a delight, but I especially enjoyed the escargot, which were served in mushroom caps and small boiled potatoes, and the crab bisque. After dinner, I was pretty tuckered out, but NM wanted to get a drink at the hotel bar. I started talking to a couple of men beside us, and played "wingman" for her, talking to the late-40's English married guy so she could flirt with the young French guy. I had a good conversation at least, but our whole party was repeatedly interrupted by this obnoxiously drunk Australian woman, who was draping and pressing herself against the two guys. Her friends tried ineffectually to pull her away, but she kept coming back. The young Frenchman was sweet and tried to calm her down when she got to the point of tears. The woman was really embarrassing herself. It was pathetic. But I did get a cute picture out from the evening:



Tuesday, our last day in Paris, we went to Sacre Couer, which is high on a hill in the Northern section of the city. There are many steep steps to get to the cathedral, and on the steps were mimes, sketch artists and musicians, along with groups of tourists enjoying the view. After a moving walk around the sanctuary and taking pictures of the gargoyles on the exterior, we walked down to the Moulin Rouge.



Back to the Champs Elysees for lunch and some shopping, we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe again to walk up 284 more steps to reach the summit and enjoy the view.

But the highlight of Paris for me was getting to meet and hang out with Irish Parisienne, my fellow singleton blogger and virtual friend for the past three years. It was exciting to meet her in person, and we hit it off immediately. She brought along a friend of hers (a girl originally from San Francisco) and we were joined by another Irish guy, and much later her boy-of-the-moment Frenchman. Irish Parisienne and I could have talked all night, filling in the details for each other about our blog stories, but out of respect for the others, we joined the larger conversation. Still, she asked me to regale them with a couple of my stories, and they responded with the appropriate exclamations and laughter.

The next morning, we headed to the train station, on our way to Amsterdam.

More City Fun

Yesterday, we started the day with some delicious bagels with various shmears and then headed up to the American Museum of Natural History. Colin loves giant squids and ocean life, and I knew there was a life-size blue whale in the ocean exhibit, and whaddayaknow, there were also a couple giant squids.










The subway stop for the Museum is also one of my favorites because the mosaic tiles are beautiful compilations of different animals, fish and insects.


After many hours there, we met up with Anthony at the newly opened High Line Park. Originally constructed in the 1930s to get the trains above the busy city streets, it was saved from destruction by people who valued the history and turned into a greenspace with plants and flowers that are native to the area. It was beautiful, and we got some gelato!

The Long-Awaited Girls' Weekend

My "big" sis Jenn came to visit last weekend. Before you chastise me for not posting earlier, let me explain that this week has been very busy with client presentations (3) and travel (Philly and Boston) with planes, trains and automobiles.

Last Friday, Jenn was arriving at JFK airport, which is the farthest from Manhattan, but since she was coming in at 9:30 p.m., I decided to take the subway out to meet her and planned on taking a taxi back into the city. I was amazed and horrified that the subway took so long to get out there! I had planned on getting out there before she arrived and brought a book to keep me company. Unfortunately, I was still on the airtrain trying to get to her terminal when she called and said she was there. (I kept her waiting 20 minutes, which stressed me out a bit.)

After waiting through a LONG taxi line, we told the driver to take us straight to the restaurant, suitcase and all (not that uncommon in NYC), since we were both hungry. I had called the restaurant to make a reservation, but the lady I spoke to said not to worry about a reservation, just show up at that hour (between 10:30-11 p.m.). The restaurant was in the ever-trendy Meat Packing district, and of course, there was a line out front and some fierce looking doormen choosing who got in. After some finagling, we did get in (thank goodness). By this time, I was quite worked up (stressed!) because I wanted everything to go smoothly for Jenn. But she's so easygoing, probably the most so in our family, and she helped me relax by telling me she was just happy to be there and enjoying whatever happened. 

Since I have a king size bed, Jenn slept on the unused portion. I was surprised I woke up before she did on Saturday morning, but she revelled in the quiet -- no kids to wake her up, and because of the holiday weekend, no construction noise from Ground Zero. After some fruit and a virtual visit with the kids back home through iChat, we met my friends (and sisters) Liesel and Erin for brunch. Then I took Jenn by my office and to the Union Square farmers' market. We also stopped into a discount store, but didn't find anything worth buying there. Back home, we dropped off our grocery purchases and speed-walked over to the Hudson River and kayaking. It was a little cold, and Jenn accidentally splashed me once with her oar, but it was beautiful and fun. Then we speed-walked back home to get cleaned up for dinner and our Broadway show.

Traffic was horrendous going uptown to the Theater District, and we were late for our dinner reservation. The Italian food was terrific but we both agreed we would have liked to have lingered over it a bit more. However, the show must go on! Our theater was just a couple short blocks from the restaurant, and Wow, oh WOW is Wicked an incredible show! I've been wanting to see it for some time, but not wanting to go on my own, and it was great to share it with Jenn.

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed uptown to go to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). We ran into a street fair, which I love, and got some cheap but tasty eats for lunch. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the Van Gogh exhibit at MoMA because it had sold out for the day. I don't go to many museums -- just not my thing -- so now I know you can (and should) buy tickets ahead of time.

However, this freed up some time for shopping. I took Jenn to Macy's, which is 7-8 stories high and a block wide. She got some great deals and we thoroughly exhausted ourselves. Dinner that night was at another fabulous Italian restaurant, and my FWB (friend-with-benefits) joined us for a glass of wine (and low-key scrutiny...he passed).

We were up late our last night, and a bit tipsy on the wine, but Jenn was up early the next morning to head to the airport. I was sad to see her go. It was so great having her here and so easy to be around her. 

You can read Jenn's recaps of the eventful weekend on her blog.

Art After Dark

Friday night I had a date with one of the guys I met at Speed Dating. He invited me to join him at the Guggenheim Museum for First Fridays, where you can jam to loud music spun by a DJ as you enjoy the art in the incredible building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The exhibition currently on display is one by Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese artist known for his "creative transgressions and cultural provocations."

It was interesting.

Traffic was congested, as usual, so I text-messaged that I would be 10 minutes late. No matter, the line to get in was around the building and down the block. When I found my date, he introduced me to his friend from work who was there and mentioned another friend was joining us. I was surprised, as I didn't realize our plan was for a group event.

We waited in line for 90 minutes before we were allowed in. No kidding. At least the weather was nice, but it was time filled with awkward conversation and many silences. Weird, to say the least.

Once inside, despite the ear-splitting music, both the exhibition and the people-watching was very entertaining. But I felt out of place. I'm not into music that loud -- oh, and did I mention my date was checking out every girl in sight? I felt strangely too old for this scene. Although there were others my age or older, the majority of the crowd seemed in their twenties. Besides, it was late and the end of a long and busy week for me. (By the time we got into the museum, it was 11:30 p.m. The event goes until 1 a.m.)

I'm glad I went and experienced something new. But I doubt I'll go again.