Last night we went to dinner at the wine bar down the street from our hotel. The food was amazing. We had pork poached in a creme sauce with miniature poached cabages. We felt better after about a four-hour nap. It was such a beautiful night, that we decided to just walk the streets of Paris.

Friday night, 10:00PM, Paris, holding hands with the one you love — it just doesn't get much better than this! We strolled through the quartier Latin, enjoying the street performers, other tourists, students. And the smells! For those of you who have been here, you know what I mean. The quartier Latin is packed with restaurants serving every cuisine imaginable. It's a circus atmosphere, complete with barkers standing outside their establishments hawking their wares and trying to entice you inside.

We ended up on the rive gauche of the Siene at the Petit Pont. And there was Nôtre Dame in all her glory! I just had to have a picture. We crossed the Petit Pont, and I took the picture below. It's the first time in several years that the grand Lady has not had some part of her obscured by scaffolding. But now, she's all clean and magnifique!

We kept walking, crossed the bridge from the Île de la Cité to the rive droite and stopped to take the other three pictures above. It's been a long time since we walked Paris streets at night, just the two of us. It's just about as romantic as it gets. The last picture above is another shot of the Sainte-Chapelle. If you look closely, you can see the search light coming around the top of la Tour Eifel.

We walked to Place du Châtelet where we caught the metro to the Champs-Élyesée. We went to Ladurée, a famous restaurant/patisserie noted for it's macarons. After that, it was midnight, and we made it back to our hotel and colapsed from exhaustion — tired but happy.

Until next time remember, your wine glass should never be empty…

Oh, my God!! I always knew there was a reason we always arrived in Paris early in the morning, like 8:00AM. I just knew it instinctively, but I never really knew why I knew it — until today.

OK, OK, so May is one of the biggest holiday months of the year for the French. There's May Day, May 1st, the French Labor Day. Then, there are religious holidays on the 8th (WWII Victory Day), 11th (Pentecost), 12th (Whit Monday). Normally, there is Acension Day, too, but this year it fell on May 1st, which is already a national holiday. And, when the holiday is on a Thursday or a Tuesday, the French do what any normal person would do, given the chance. They take the Friday or Monday off as well. The French are very devoted to long weekends.

So, when do we choose to arrive in Paris? Why on May 9th, of course, smack dab in the middle of one of those long weekends. And, this is an especially long weekend because not only was Thursday a holiday, but so is Monday, making for a five-day weekend — the perfect opportunity for the French to travel.

Add to this the fact that a lot of American universities are already out for the summer, and you have hundreds of additional American young people arriving in Paris, both on vacation and on school trips.

Well, we got off the plane at 11:30AM this morning, and I thought we had landed at the Mexico City airport. We've been coming to France now since 1981, and I've never, and I do mean never, seen this many people at the airport. I didn't think it could be any worse, but that was before I got to the RER (train) station at the airport. Holy lost tourist, Batman! I estimate there were about 600-700 people wandering around the train station, looking exactly like zombies.

It took us two hours to get train tickets into Paris. But, we finally made it to our beloved Hotel Marignan.

We are exhausted, and to top it off, the wine bar down the street where we were going to eat lunch stopped serving at 2:00PM, and we got there about 2:20PM. So, we had to settle for crêpes! Ah, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Until next time, remember, you're wine glass should never be empty…

It's time for another trip to France! We leave Thursday, May 8, 2008. Here's our itinerary.

We'll be in Paris for three days, staying at our regular hotel, the Hotel Marignan. Monday morning we're taking the train to the airport to rent a car and driving to a little town called Mazagné. It's right near Vendôme, about 3 hours southwest of Paris in the beautiful Loire valley. We'll be staying at a new bed and breakfast we found.

Le Moulin d'Echoiseau.

Update – 8 May 2008, 03:23PM

I thought I'd be really smart and got us on an earlier flight to Houston, thinking that maybe I could get an earlier flight to Paris. But, no! I went to the Continental information desk, and they told me they only have one flight a day to Paris, and it leaves at 6:40PM. I said, "You only have one flight from here." The lady looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. I said, more forcefully this time, "You only have one flight from here." She said, "Right." I just stood there, looking at her. She finally said, "We don't reroute you just so you can get there earlier."

At this point, I'm really getting frustrated, and I almost said, "So, if I wanted to get there later, you would reroute me?" But, for once my mind engaged before I opened my mouth, and I just walked away. Consequently, we've been sitting, wandering, eating, watching videos on my iPod, in the Houston Intercontinental Airport (I refuse to call it the Houston-George Bush International Airport) since 12:30PM. Only another three hours to go! :)