Celebration in Paris!

so.....court was over, Ian can soon come home

GOD HAD SPOKEN

we were exhausted, in every way possible

we awoke at 2:15 am and then.......

*************

We walked up to the Luftansa counter at St. Petersburg airport. Craig was SO tired, and I was kind of beat up too, the week in Russia was hard, despite the joy of the approval of Ian’s adoption.

I was kind of worried about springing the surprise about our day in Paris.

Soooo, I let the Luftansa agent do it! LOL. She said, “…and your final destination is…” Craig blurted out, “Chicago,” and I interrupted, “no, actually it’s Paris.” It took a while for him to get it, but then he did. John and Nina Clark already knew about my plans for our adoption celebration, so they were in on it as far as Craig was concerned.

Needless to say, he was surprised! Happy, not so much, but I hoped it would get better when we got to the magnificent city of Paris, France.

It did! However not before we had an agonizing route from Frankfurt to the Park Inn hotel at Charles De Gaulle airport. We got maybe 30 min to lie down – in a REALLY soft and grand bed! Then it was back to the airport and off on the RER train to downtown Paris to meet our guide outside of the Denfert-Rochereau station in the South of the city.

We made it, for a pretty penny, or rather Euro (Paris is EXPENSIVE!!), and found our guide Simon and our private van, and headed off for a 4 hour guided tour of the city which included all of the following.

For your viewing pleasure, may I present our day in Paris!

***************************

First order of business, Notre Dame

Maurice de Sully, the Paris Bishop, started its construction in 1163. The work lasted until 1270.

***************************

Next, a driving tour

Paris Sorbonne University dates back to the 13th century.

It was one of the first universities in the world.

The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. Part of the royal Palace of the Louvre was first opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793, during the French Revolution.

This is the Ritz in Paris, the hotel from which Princess Di took her final drive

The Pont Alexandre III bridge, 1896, named after the Russian Tzar Alexander III

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées

The tomb of Napoleon

The Arc de Triomphe

***************************

Then, on to Sacre Cour - The Holy Heart of Jesus Church

The view from the steps of Sacre Cour

The last vineyard in Paris

Our guide, Simon enjoying a mint cooler in the artists haven that is Montmarte

*****************************

Our tour concluded at the Eiffel Tower, we had tickets for a 9:30 trip to level 2. Simon dropped us off at a corner with some street café’s for dinner, right under the tower it seemed, as the view had the tower looming above us while we dined. AWESOME! Dinner was tasty! I had a typical French cuisine, Beef Bourguignon, and Craig had – hold your breathe – A Bacon Cheeseburger! It was a really great cheeseburger though! My dinner was excellent, I really enjoyed it.

From there, we walked to the tower, taking in the people and the scene at the tower, there were thousands of people from all over the world, it was great to be there, and to have time to really sit and look one of the worlds most visited structures. We admired the massive size of it, and the melting pot all around us. Several joyful little children played with us as we spent more than an hour on a bench people watching, waiting for our entry time.

The plan was to go to level two and then head up to the top. So, we began our trip up on the massive lifts.

Then, it all went sour. I FREAKED OUT! I am somewhat afraid of heights. I try to conquer it, mind over matter right? I don’t want to put my own fears onto my kids so I try to not give in, and I rarely talk about it. This time however, I lost it.

I was trying to be bold so I stood right by the door in the elevator so I could capture all of the best views as we went up. BAD IDEA! I have been to the top of the Sears Tower, The Twin Towers before 911, and to the top of the Empire State Building. The issue with the Eiffel Tower is that you can see it all as you are going up, and the elevator is just so scantly inside of the metal beams that it feels like you are close to falling out – at least it does for me.

Craig saw that I was about to cry and I moved to the center of the car. He did the best he could to comfort me. Then we arrive to the second floor and oh my!

The view was INCREDIBLE!!! I was able to enjoy it, but going up to the top in that thin metal spire, in that small series of FOUR more lifts, was going to be impossible for me on this day.

I was totally disappointed in myself. This was to be our grand celebration of Ian, from the top of Paris. I had to let it go, there was just no way, I would have panicked up there and wanted to get down.

Still, it was AMAZING to be inside the tower. It was so much more than I imagined, so massive, so impressive, so historic, so incredible, so cool.

We left the tower after dark and getting back to the hotel was another adventure that left us drained and tired and frustrated, but OH SO thankful and happy to crash in our comfy bed for a real nights sleep before heading back to Charles De Gualle for our trans Atlantic flight to Chicago to pick up Ari and then fly home to Atlanta.

and.........

we are home:)