Party in Paris

Amazing, right!

Beautiful night photo.

After saying so long to Rob's family, we hopped a taxi for Manchester airport, winged our way to Paris, and were dumped off at what can only be referred to as the "arm pit" of the airport.  Our driver was waiting though, and after another 40 minute drive, we were dropped at the front door to our home for the next few days.

Chillin

While the apartment wasn't to be mistaken for a palace, it was cozy, and in a really nice neighborhood.  It was already late afternoon, so we dropped our bags, and headed out for the Eiffel Tower.  We were all a little hungry so we spotted a cool little place on the street and stopped for beer and food...in that order.  After that we found our way by foot to the Tower.  To see it for the first time in person is really amazing!  An experience that I thought I would never have.  We hung out on the lawn as twilight approached amongst all the other revelers, some with baskets of bread and bottles of wine to usher in the lighting of the tower.  As darkness approached, the tower became lit up with twinkling lights!  We didn't know this, but they do it every night when it gets dark.  It's an amazing sight!

The day's travel was catching up to us, so we piled in a cab, and headed back to the apartment to have some wine and cheese.

Blue hair bus ride

From the Eiffel Tower

This is classic King family

The next morning we were up and out early to get to our four hour tour.  The weather was ok as we left the apartment, but after the three train trip to get to the start of our tour, the skies opened up and the rain came down hard!  This was good and bad.  The good thing was that we were on a bus for the first hour of the tour.  Once we were unloaded for our trip up the Tower, we got pretty wet though.  Visibility was pretty poor from the second level of the Tower, but it was easy to imagine how spectacular it would be on a clear day.  Once down, we were considering blowing off the boat tour that was part of our package, and doing it another day, but we sucked it up, and the rain cooperated (kinda) for the next hour plus.  The cruise along the Seine is amazing!  So much history and architecture!  It was truly something I will always remember.

After the boat ride we got a little street food, then walked back to the apartment, stopping along the way for more wine, bread, cheese and fruit, which made up our dinner....that and the 9pm sushi run to the restaurant on the ground floor of our building!  Yum (with the spice prince of India's accent) Some of you will get this.

It happened

Birthday beer

September 10, 2013!  Thankful that I lived long enough to celebrate my 50th birthday.  And how does a man of my dignity and class celebrate such an occasion?....I went to Disneyland! 

Up early to catch a series of trains that would land us in Mickey's playland. We hit the park hard and didn't stop until we were exhausted and on the verge of losing our cookies.  The Paris Disney has some of the same rides as the two in the states in name, but are very different in their design.  Space Mountain was off the hook, and Indiana Jones is an outdoor roller coaster that does an extremely tight loop. (we did it twice)  Mark took the prize for highest score in Buzz Lightyear, but I think they let me win on account of the birthday thing!

The turtle crush ride is a roller coaster that spins!  The car actually spins in circles.  I got off that feeling a bit like Nemo!  We raced of to the rocking roller coaster and waited in line for 30 minutes for our turn.  We finally loaded in the car and were bracing ourselves for another wild ride.  And we waited, and waited, and waited.  It soon became clear that there was an issue with the ride, and we were asked to step out of the car.  Not wanting to be the crash test dummies once they got it running again, we exited the building.

We were winding down.  It had been a fun day, but we decided to grab a bite and hit the train for the long ride back to Paris.  On the walk back to the apartment we got more bread and wine and fruit, and had another amazing snackfest.

Lou and Craig had sent money along with Cody for a birthday round of cocktails, so after chilling for awhile, we went across the street to a nice restaurant and bar.  The language was a bit of an issue here, and after some awkward exchanges they agreed to let us sit inside for a round of drinks.  Thanks Tates!

At the Louvre

A kid with a monster heart

Parental Abuse!

Our host is the artist

Our final full day of vacation arrived with dry weather, and a list of things we had to do and see before leaving Paris.  Number one on our to-do list was to get Cody to the Moulin Rouge.  After two or three trains we exited the underground, and there is was, in all it's glory!  Well, really not that much to look at, but Cody got himself a sweet poster from the gift shop.  He has alway been a fan of the movie.

The upside to our trip to the Moulin Rouge, is that it sits in a very cool neighborhood!  We started walking, and after dropping a couple Euro in a cup so that I could pet a pygmy goat, we were surrounded by cheese shops, sweets, outdoor eateries and all sorts of interesting sights.  We wondered through, but it wasn't quite food time so we headed underground, and to our next stop...the Louvre!

We didn't have the time to do the Louvre properly, so we were happy just to mill around the courtyard and admire the architecture of the palace turned museum.  From there we walked down to the bridge that is literally covered in locks.  After snapping some great photos, we hopped a train to get us near the Hard Rock, so that we could get Tater a guitar pin.

Now it was lunch time, and we love the Moulin Rouge neighborhood so much that we went back and copt a squat at an outdoor eatery and munched on some grindage with wine to wash it down.

After some cheese shopping trained it to the Champs de Elysee to snap some photos, and stroll the boulevard, then headed back to our neighborhood and picked up wine and bread for our evening snack attack.

All good things must come to an end (hate that saying, but seemed appropriate)  We were up way too early the next morning, and due to a broken elevator had to lug all of our luggage down five stories.  Our van was waiting, and after hugging Cody good bye, we headed home to Abu Dhabi, where Kayleigh and Rob would be waiting at our apartment!  But thats another blog all together!