Day 8: Paris, France

Woke up early this morning, have a long day of travel on the bus. We are getting use to the bus travel now. Everyone changes up their seats, talks more, and jokes around. Ken has managed to supply everyone with the booze to ease the pain of sitting on the bus. There were a few that stayed liquored up for most of each bus ride. We found out on this last leg of our bus travels, that Mario (our bus driver) is only allowed to drive 2.5 hours at a time, then has to take a mandatory 45 min break. Are you kidding me? That means our already long 9 hour travel day is going to be that much longer. I guess Mario's company governs the bus and knows how long he drives, how fast he drives, and how long he takes a break. Everyone was talking about their own travels and how long they drive before taking a break. We push 4-6 hours before taking a break and our kids have been doing that since their life began. I guess our talking about it rubbed off on Mario, because he pushed on for 3 hours before taking his first break and then another before the 2nd. Go Mario! The trip moved along that much faster.

We arrived in Paris around 5pm and had a little time before our "City of Lights" dinner and city tour, so Scott and I walked around near the hotel. What a perfect way to end a fabulous tour of Europe - Paris!

Tonight we had a perfect introduction to Paris! After a full-course French dinner that took a full 2 hours to enjoy, Elzo showed us Paris at night (City of Lights). We ate at a little quaint restaurant just across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral. Next to the restaurant was a souvenir shop that just opened and had the best deals on merchandise. So during the before dinner drinks, we snuck over to the shop (we thought it would be okay, since we didn't drink). We scored on shirts, hats, Eiffel tower souvenirs, and what not! I know our first night, we haven't even done the city and we were already done with our souvenir shopping for the kids!

After dinner, we loaded on the coach and drove through the city. What a magnificent city of lights. Words can't even begin to express how beautiful the city is at night. We made our way over to the Eiffel Tower which is lit up at night. The rain had started to come down, by the time we pulled up to the tower, but we didn't care. The Tower has flickering lights that come on at 9pm, 10pm and 11pm. We were there for the 10pm flickering lights that stay on for a total of 5 minutes. Scott was able to get some fabulous pictures.

What a fantastic night we had tonight. I am looking forward to more of Paris tomorrow.