Jen's View of Paris Part 1

This was one of the deciding factors for us in taking this overseas assignment - the fact that we'd be able to easily travel within Europe. The boys had time off school at the beginning of October so we decided that Paris would be our first big excursion! Ethan has filled you in on a lot of the details, so I'll just add some of my comments here. Neither Scott nor I had ever been to Paris. We drove, and we figured that it took us about the same time most of us in Michigan would need to drive to Traverse City! The drive took us through the Netherlands and Belgium, and it was really surprising how much open space there was most of the way there. I always thought of Europe as being heavily populated, but clearly there are still lots of open fields, farms, and forested areas. We stayed at a hotel near Disneyland because it was a much better value than being right in the city, and we got about 4 times the amount of space as we would in a city hotel.

View of the hotel villas.

It took us 30-40 minutes to drive into the city, and yes we were crazy enough to drive into Paris. I should say Scott was brave enough to drive in the city, he took on that challenge and now he could drive just about anywhere with this experience! We had gotten used to German drivers who stay in their lanes, pay attention, and obey the traffic rules...drivers in Paris were pretty much the opposite. It is a free-for-all, with no clear lanes marked, motorcycles constantly pulling between cars and darting in and out of traffic, and gridlock. We successfully got in & out of the city and really enjoyed it!

Unfortunately, Griffin was under the weather most of the trip. He was getting over a bad cold, and we made a questionable decision to eat big fat waffles before walking up the Eiffel Tower - not so good on G's stomach. However, he was a trooper and Scott got great workouts in by carrying him around a lot (including up & down most of the tower!). The weather was drizzly a lot of the weekend, but both the city and the amusement park were not very crowded so we waited in very few lines - very uncommon in Paris, so I'll take so-so weather over heavy crowds any day.

The Tower itself really is a lovely structure, from all different angles, I've never seen anything else like it. The views from the top are definitely worth the hike.

Walking and driving around the city at night was one of my favorite parts of the trip. All of the beautiful buildings are lit up so you focus just on them and you don't see all of the practical parts of the city that may detract from the incredible surroundings.

In front of the Arc de Triomphe at night: