Gregg and I were unable to get home for Christmas this year, but we were able to spend a week in Paris! I needed to get some medical tests done, which went very well, and we needed some R&R in a 1st world country. Paris totally fit the bill.
We took gloves, hats and coats and loved being able to see our breath because it was cold. Our coldest was 3 degrees C. We had rain, but no snow. We loved the Christmas decorations. The biggest Christmas tree we saw was in front of Notre Dame.
We took time to see the Louvre (boy, that's a hike walking inside that place), Musee de Orsay (I loved the impressionists and Gregg tolerated it well), Versailles (our coldest day, so looking at the stuff inside was better than the gardens), the Eiffel Tower (they lit it up like a Christmas tree), and Notre Dame. We went to a huge mall and a hypermarket twice the size of Costco. We even spent time with the sharks and seahorses at an aquarium called Sea Life.
Gregg thought the best part about the trip was the French cooking. He literally moaned during some of the meals. I must admit that savoring well-prepared beef is heaven. I enjoyed the duck immensely (I had it at 3 different meals). Wow, you can tell we live in Africa when we spend a whole paragraph talking about food!
Some of the things we enjoyed were orderly traffic flow, smooth streets without potholes, restrooms that are clean and available, drinking water out of the tap and salads with every lunch and dinner.
In an exciting moment, someone tried to pick-pocket Gregg as he entered the subway turnstile. They picked the wrong hombre and Gregg set them straight.