A DUI in Paris???

"Metropolitain" Paris Subway System

"Arc de Triomphe" and "Place Charles de Gaulle" - World's Largest Roundabout

The Picasso Museum

"The Prancers and The Eiffel Tower"

The Gardens of Luxembourg

"The Louvre" and The Glass Pyramid

The Cathedral of Notre Dame (rear portrait)

Rural Burgundy Landscape

---For more pictures of Paris, check out our pixagogo album at: http://www.pixagogo.com/7084815492 ---

After Mont Blanc, we started our descent of the Alps and set aim at Paris for a short 4 day visit. Several hundred €`s later (from the gorgeous little highways!!! geez! europe takes "toll" roads to new levels!!!) and a quick visit of Burgundy - Vezélay and Avallon sampling Chablis from the region - we started getting dangerously close to Paris and its city roads. Fearing the worst, we faithfully followed our Michelin map and - without too many wrong turns - we found our "budget" hotel amidst temperatures in the low 100`s (probably shouldn`t complain to you St. Louis folk as we hear the humidity is choking sick right now...). Figuring our hotel would be complete bollocks (we love British slang)...it ended up being a total steal. Located in the Montparnesse area, the hotel was recently renovated and was a very decent deal for the City of Light! So step number one was complete: dropping off our bags in the hotel room without getting towed while parking illegally. Step number 2, however, required more Parisian driving and meant returning the rental car at the drop off point across the city. Trying not to break too many laws, we were heading towards the Peripherique (Paris` infamous outer ring highway) when, along with several other cars, we were pulled over by the police for who knows what!!! The officer came over to the car and instantly started talking French like she was running an auction at the Christy House in New York. Giving her the òl standby, "Parle vu ingles?" ("Do you speak English?" in French) she lifted up a plastic bag and said, "Please blow into this bag?" Being only 3pm it certainly couldn`t be a breathalizer, but come to find out it was exactly that and old Tom Boy piped up and gave the bag a good fill. Thankfully we left the two bottles of Chablis unopened from the previous day and we cleared the test. Whew! Back on the road after a nervous and more-than-random stop by the police, we started back towards the rental car drop off point. After these few hours of driving in Paris, we were not at ALL sad to hand over the keys and gladly paid our money to get on the "Metropolitan" subway service back to our hotel and never again drive the roads of Paris.

The next few days were absolutely wonderful. We really enjoyed our time in Paris and really have nothing bad to say about Paris and its elements. Taking certain things with a grain of salt, Paris came across to us as simply elegant and smooth. We enjoyed many great meals, took in the famous - and a few not-so-famous - sites and apart from paying a month`s mortage on a few pieces of sushi, the overall cost of Paris was rather palatable when you take into account its reputation. The main sites we saw were a combination of cathedrals, museums and monuments; i.e. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Saint Sulpice, Sacre-Coeur, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre Museum, Picasso Museum, Luxembourg Gardens, Centre Pompidou, etc...

After a storm rolled through on the second day, the weather cooled down dramatically and made sightseeing much easier than our first day. We also caught a pro beach volleyball match that featured Misty May and Kerri Walsh, for those of you that don`t know...America`s best female duo and we believe the gold medalists of the last Olympics! It all added up - except for the sushi though - for a perfect Parisian expierence.

--- Paris pixagogo link: http://www.pixagogo.com/7084815492 ---