Memorial Day weekend of 2012 was arriving and I needed something to do with the long weekend! I called my friend Timperince whom I met when I was stationed in Korea to see what she was up to. Timperince was in the Army and we met when we both joined the Osan Air Base basketball team. It just so happened that we both were stationed in Germany afterwards. Timperince told me she had gathered up a small group of friends and were going to head to Paris for the weekend. It was my lucky day! They had to pass by my neck of the woods to get to France and agreed to pick me up along the way.
After a four-hour drive we finally arrived in Paris and couldn’t wait to see the sites! We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and made our way towards the downtown area near the Eifel Tower. Oh my goodness! Let me tell you…I am so happy I was not driving. The French drive like maniacs! I’m pretty sure we went through a roundabout that was approximately 12 lanes across, and there were no lane marks! It was nuts. I thought I was going to die that day. I’ve provided a picture below that I found on Google to give you an idea of it’s insanity.
After what felt like three hours, we finally found a parking spot and made our way on foot to visit the sites. We walked around the corner of a building and there it was…the Eifel Tower. Huge! So tall! So beautiful. After we walked around the Eifel Tower area we walked all around Paris to see all the sites the beautiful city had to offer. We ate at several small restaurants we found tucked away on quaint side streets. The food was so incredibly tasty. And, the way one waiter pronounced, “mojito,”…mmm…I thought my knees were going to buckle. Such a sexy accent! Seriously though, I’ve had the best mojitos in Europe. The best!
Because Paris is huge tourist city, there were several means of transportation: bus, taxi, bikes and even water taxis. Our group chose to walk everywhere we went. It was good exercise; there were several things to see on the streets as far as books, trinkets, art and musicians, and it just started warming up in Europe. The weather was perfect. Besides, if we didn’t walk, we wouldn’t have found all those delicious cafés.
We visited Notre Dame, the Louvre and Arc de Triompe, but never went inside of any. The lines were terribly long and we really had no desire to go inside the popular landmarks. Some people say we probably should’ve, but others say it’s a waste of time. We were only there a day and a half and didn’t want to spend them standing in lines. No fun…
Overall it was a great city. It was beautiful. It was also nice to hear the French language for once instead of German. I would definitely go back to the City of Love and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Europe.
Air Force Chick 