Paris!

City of lights

City of love

City of sights

Much spoken of

     Upon arriving in Kaiserslautern, Germany with the USAF, I was a 5 hour drive from the place I wanted to visit throughout my life. Here was the opportunity, I was going to go!

Paris, France!

Oui! Je voulais y aller! Mon Coeur etait, deja la!!!

It sounds so dirty in French, this blog is G Rated!

There was a tour of Americans, leaving for Paris France, from Vogelweh tours, I was going! The tour left uber early on Friday,  returned late at night on  Saturday. I was going!!!!

Speaking French came easily to me, classroom French. Conversational French is different. It was a time to put my knowledge of the French language to the test.

Learning a language a person learns as a 1 - 4 year old child happens with relative ease. It's learned from relatives! Ha ha!

Classroom language instruction is different from conversational, every day verbiage. It takes concentration to learn the language.

It takes a whole lot of confidence to converse with native speakers of the language. I was about to discover just HOW much confidence I had in my French language skills!

The tour bus was full of sleepy people who were excited to go to Paris, France. It was a 5 hour bus ride, leaving at, 12 midnight. The tour guide was a very lively, haughty native of Paris. He spoke with only a trace of an accent, loaded with snobbery, barely polite. I was going to a dream destination, everything else was non importante!

 Small town girl from the northern USA, I was on my way to Paris, France! Oui!

Arriving at the Eiffel Tower, acrophobia served me well at this time! When the other people in the tour were waiting for the elevator to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower or climbing the stairs, I chose to stay on the ground, admiring the view from below.

There were artists set up with their easels, sketching, painting, smiling at the people who were obvious tourists. Strolling along, I noticed the food kiosks. They were selling typically American breakfast foods. Knowing that a French breakfast usually consisted of sausage, beef broth, croissant, butter, jam & cafe' au lait, I passed them up. The wait for the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower aka La Tour Eiffel was over an hour and then the wait to come down was just as long.

I had time on my hands.

It was around 10 am and the kiosks were preparing for lunch. One kiosk, which was selling gelato had opened. I didn't know what gelato was, had never heard of it. It was a more yummy-yummy version of sorbet!

There were so many flavors! They were all very natural colors which told me that they were even better than the brightly colored, artificial sorbets & sherbets.

The man behind the counter saw me looking, he smiled.

"Madame?"

I froze, my confidence in my French language skills left me, right there!

He smiled, lightly chuckled, then, with a French accent, he said:

"Madame likes what she sees?"

I blushed.

"Oh, Madame wants to sample the wares?"

I blushed, again, still mute.

"Or maybe Madame simply is deciding!"

Finally, I decided that using my classroom French skills would be for another time.

In English, or as they call it in Europe, Amerkanische, I asked him to give me the flavor he liked the most.

He gave me a scoop of what I thought was raspberry, it was such a delicately tangy cranberry!

I paid him, thanked him, then, walked around, stopping to admire the artists.

I walked underneath the Eiffel Tower, looking up, turning in slow circles, taking it all in!

Then, the gelato was gone! So delicious, I had to have more before the tour bus departed!

Going back, I saw some of the other people on our tour. I told them about the gelato kiosk. As I returned with them, the people from the tour told others. There were 22 people with me. Having already had some of this absolutely delectable gelato, I waited until after the other people had theirs. I told the flirtatious hottie that, I had come back for more! He asked me if these Americans were my friends. One lady in the group called out,

"We are, now!"

I stepped up to the counter.

The man smiled, "Madame liked what I gave her?'

I blushed, "Yes! Very much!"

He saw that I blushed easily, "This, I love, when the beautiful woman comes back for more!"

I asked him how much for 3 scoops. One of the flavor he gave me, plus 2 different other flavors.

"For Madame? These is no charge, tell me what it is you desire!"

I asked him for one scoop of cranberry, one of orange, one of apple. He scooped my order out, in front of me, smiling and softly singing a song in French.

He handed it to me, "No charge, please come to see us, again!"

I boarded the tour bus 10 minutes later.

All of the people from the tour were remarking at the delicious gelato!

Our next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral. So historic, so beautiful......so touristy! I grew bored, wandered outside to look at the flying buttresses in the architecture, the beautiful landscaping. A garden in the middle of the city.

It was time to board the tour bus, we were on our way to the Parfumerie. As we left the bus, walke 1/2 block down the street, I could smell the richly scented air before I saw the shop. Some of the people on the tour began to sneeze, the poor souls had to go back on the bus. The scent was, I admit, quite strong. I have never had to deal with allergies.

The scented air bathed me, delighted me, it was heavenly!

The director of tours told us how the essences of herbs & flowers were extracted, distilled, then blended into the various different perfumes, then judged by the perfumers.

There were people who were simple dubbed "le nez" or a Nose, due to their fine tuned sense of smell.

It was wonderful!

After an hour in the parfumeries, we boarded the bus to go to the tomb of Napoleon. On the way, we stopped at a small café which had a lunch counter and an outside area to eat. It was so expensive, I was glad I had brought some food with me! I bought a bottle of mineral water, a small green salad and a croissant with chicken salad filling and a small cluster of red grapes.

I was astonished when I paid the equivalent of $25. !!!!!!!

After 30 minutes, we boarded the bus, again, on our way to Napoleons tomb. The tour guide told us that he doubted that Napoleon was actually entombed there, yet, it was still a beautiful tribute to a defeated General! French humor, gotta love it!

We spent an hour, walking through the beautiful 2 story, white domed cathedral. It was good to be out of the confines of the bus. We socialized, walked around, enjoyed the warmth of the day.

Boarding the bus, our last stop was Rheims, France, where a noted gothic cathedral, circling back toward Germany, lay. We walked, took in some village sights, then, boarded the tour bus for the approximate 5 hour+ drive back.

I dozed sporadically, listening to the snoring of the others in the group, wanting to be one who did not have to subject anyone to my snoring.

My mind was buzzing with all that I had experienced in the last 24 hours. I was tired, when I arrived back at was my temporary home, in Germany. I stayed as awake as possible until 8 pm so that I could get back on a regulated sleep cycle.

It seemed like a dream, a beautiful dream.

Paris was beautiful, magical to me! I knew I would return.

Bonne nuit, chers lecteurs!