drive by paris

today austin, kerry and i 'did' paris....it was alot of fun...we were pretty busy as we had only one day to see the city...austin has never been here before...so we showed him all of our favorite places...we started off walking to the louvre, which is very close to our hotel....i love the louvre, but, we do it pretty fast...we saw the mona lisa, venus di milo, winged victory, the sphinx to name a few....onward and up! we then hopped the tour bus which i think are great and easy to see everything...we drove through the city, over the seine and down to notre dame cathedral....as always, the line was really long to get into it, so we took pics and got back on the bus...down to the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées...i love this street with all the great stores and restaurants....and of course, the arch d' triumph....so we shopped a bit, went into my favorite, louis vuitton....petite bateau and saw darling baby clothes...had lunch at a cafe...walked to the arch which is so beautiful...afterwards, we hopped the bus and drove to the eiffel tower...the trademark of paris....i think it's amazing....we had our favorite crepes...(my first sugar in 7 weeks!)...walked across the street and kerry got another crepe...gotta feed that baby!  then, we walked up the hill to the palais de Chaillot  which is gorgeous and has such a fantastic view to the eiffel tower!  walked around...caught the bus...went a few more stops and then found out that they stopped working at 6:30...the day had been pretty nice, jacket weather up until then...but, as darkness fell, it got really, really cold...my little rain jacket didn't do alot...we were lucky that the weather had been pretty nice throughout the day....so, we found a taxi and went up to the sacre couer cathedral which has a fantastic view (normally) of the city...it was cloudy...so, not so great tonight!  caught another taxi after wandering through the cathedral...drove by the moulin rouge which is basically in the 'red light' district!  and tried to go to a mall...which was closing...so we walked down a street looking for a restaurant....i think we were in the not so good part of town...couldn't find one...finally walked into one...had a pretty horrible dinner!  austin's steak was 'blackened', not really cooked, he said it tasted like fish?  my omellete had croutons in it...an interesting choice....we then walked a few blocks looking for a taxi...finally got back to our hotel and took a nice warm bath....that was fantastic after the chilly night!  russ and kristen arrived about 10:30...they had a late dinner and now we''re heading to bed...ready to go down to bordeaux in the morning!!!  a fun start to a great trip!