Day 4- The Louvre take 2

We took a leisurely approach to our 4th day in Paris.

Because we get in free to the Museums we decided to go back to the Louvre and do another wing. FYI you are not going to see everything in the Louvre unless you spend at least a week there, get on line and pick out the things that you must see go to those and then enjoy the things you see on the way!

We learned that the Louvre is built inside a castle and some of the footings are still there.

I could have stayed in the basement all day. Paris doesn't believe in air conditioning, apparently it is hot for 2 weeks out of the year... we were there for one of those weeks.

We got to see this pyramid, which is not under this one(like I thought it was)

After the Louvre we took a walk down the gardens and attempted to visit Les Petite Palace but it was about to close so we put it on the plans for the next day.

We ordered sushi from a place just down from our apartment, put on Gladiator(one of the few English DVD's there) opened the balcony doors and prayed for a breeze to cool the place off before bed.

Day 3- Bastille Day

So we were in New York for the 4th of July and we ended up being in Paris for Bastille Day (their version of the 4th of July)

Going through Les Invalides and seeing WWII from a different perspective.

Getting stuck behind the gates at Les Invalides while the military has their parade. And Matt getting excited about all the helicopters.

We met my Uncle, who lives in Paris, and his friends for dinner. Dinner's in Paris are the event of the evening and take hours. Unlike here where we go to dinner before the event.

Seeing fireworks being shot off of the Eiffel Tower

Day-2 Disneyland Paris

After Crystal speaks Franglish with a metro worker we figure out how to get into the "accessible" station

Upon arriving at Disneyland, we learn that we must go stand in a separate line to purchase our tickets. An hour later we make it to the window where Matt is asked for his invalid card. Seeing as the US has the whole ADA don't want to discriminate so we don't make you have a special card stating that you are an invalid ( Thanks Frenchies!) we explain that we have a Dr's note and Matt's drivers license which according to the website is all we need.

15 min later Matt receives his 1/2 price ticket and Crystal gets in for free( I know the forbidden word of Disney)

Almost 2 hours late our friend is panicked that our train from Paris has jumped the tracks and we are laying in a hospital somewhere. Relieved to see each other we embrace and find some food.

The coolness that is Disneyland (in Anaheim) has not translated to the EuroDisney...but it's still cool.

A 4 course French meal served by Cinderella's mice (the princess dinner/lunch is a must for all with wee one of the female variety) Check out how fancy the dessert was :

Day-1

The Louvre:

Watched a sparrow outsmart the pigeons while waiting for friends to arrive.

"Enjoying" the experince of having 1/2 of our group evacuated from the room they were left in because of a suspicious package and explaining to the guard that we don't want to go into the room we just want to know where our family is!

Matt gets to go infront of the velvet ropes ( along with our friends wee ones) to see this :

But being more impressed with this:

Ahhh Paris

If you ever make it to Paris there are a few must sees. We were there for a week and after talking with my Uncle (who lives there) he agreed that we had seen the majority of sites.

We stayed for a week and rented an apartment. To play catch up ( we have been home for almost 5 months now...) I'll be doing a quick Highlight post with a few pictures for each day ;)

But our bags won't be on the next flight!! And where is Matt's chair?

As with every trip we've ever taken there is at least one thing that makes us scratch our heads with wonderment until they bleed. This time we got to do it in a foreign language!

We had a layover in Paris on our way to Munich from London. Because we decided to do Germany on our own dime the flight from Paris to Munich was booked at a different time then the rest of the flights, it was also on a totally different itinerary. We did not think this would be a problem, as we had over 2 hours between the flights to gather our luggage and check back in, but the gods of chaos had a different plan in mind for us.

Upon arriving at Charles De Gaulle we were met by "Johnny the wonder kid" he speaks very little English, and I speak just enough French to get us to the restroom and ask for a potato. We try to explain to him that we need to get our luggage, and find Matt's chair, to this day we have not figured out why the chair must be checked luggage in France. After running around a bit we find the chair and Matt is overjoyed to leave the tiny aisle chair ( that is skinny enough to get down the aisle in a plane). Now off to find our luggage.

Everyone we talk to continues to assure us that our luggage will be booked onto the next flight,that is all fine and dandy if our luggage had been checked through to Munich, but as the next flight is on a different itinerary the luggage is not going to be on the next flight. After explaining this in franglish to about 10 different people, we finally chat with someone who speaks English better then we do and they provide us with 3 different spots that our luggage could be.

Luggage found(after Johnny tries to get us through spaces that no one should be able to fit through) we head off to get our tickets. No one can find our reservation and we head off to customer service,apparently in the booking process our names have been flipped and we are now lastname firstname.

Johnny now informs us that we need to get to the other terminal and goes off to search for his supervisor so he can call for the wheelchair transportation. We bid good day to Johnny and pray that we can get on the plane with tickets that have different names then our passports.

Upon arriving at the other terminal we are introduced to Sulomon who will be taking care of us from now on. Joy of joys, he speaks English and we are able to explain our ticket situation. After a few minuets at customer service we head off to check in our luggage. Here we begin to realize just how foreign a manual wheelchair is, as Matt is asked time and again about the battery pack on his chair when he informs the agents that he will be staying in his chair until it is time to board the plane. After numerous calls to several people it is decided that Matt can in fact stay in his chair ( and we begin to really miss the ADA in the great old USA).

The chaos gods are not done with us, and it looks like they may actually win this battle as we wait for another transporter to take us to the plane( which is not at the gate, but is at another gate in the terminal we had left Johnny in) For some reason we are boarded onto the back of the plane after every one else is on, which infuriates the other passenger in a wheelchair, if we had known this we would not have requested to be moved to the front of the plane for ease of boarding.

Finally buckled in the plane takes off 20 min late, but the food was surprisingly yummy!

I heart Germany

A List of the things I heart most about Germany:

Taxi's that are brand new Jaguars

Big German waitresses who won't let us order our own food, and scoff at the fact that we order coke in a brew house

Stores that makes us worry about where we are staying, but turn out to be like Ikea ----->

Learning that brats should be served on baguettes

Weibserwurst, if anyone knows where we can get some of this you would make our day!

Chocolate, the good kind, not the stuff we try to pass off as chocolate here in the states(sorry Hersey's)

Women taxi drivers who can't get out of town because of the gay pride parade, and spout off all the German I know(and I don't know the good words)

The View, I would be happy living here...apparently Hitler wasn't, but I'm betting the fact that he didn't eat meat and was probably hungry had a bit to do with it