Christian #3: May 22

Due to our late night last night, Henry's Birthday celebration has already begun and is off to a good start. We started the day by sleeping in till 9:00 am!!! What a treat (although still exhausted from our escapades the night before)! Then after having Cedric corral us all out of bed, we had our usual breakfast and then stowed our luggage to pick up later for our night train to Berlin. We headed out to the Catacombs of Paris, but due to previous flooding in the spring, they were still closed. So we all headed up to the Pantheon where a lot of famous French men and women who have made significant contributions to France and the world are buried. People like Pierre and Marie Curie, Hugo, Dumas, Rousseau, Voltaire, and many others, all who have had large impacts on this place we inhabit called Earth. It was especially powerful to see Rousseau's tomb; to imagine on the other side of the stone is a man so influential in helping to create and promote the ideals that our Founding Fathers would use to create our great nation weighed particularly heavily on me.

After our grave-robbing expedition, we continued on to a French tradition of which we would not forgo for any reason: crepes! For those who don't know, crepes are, for lack of a better description, very thin pancakes (although don't tell Cedric; he would not agree). While often eaten as dessert item, they are also eaten as a main course and one that we eagerly dived into. I had a particularly delicious one that had goat cheese, honey, creme, and walnuts. Oh, did that hit the spot! And then the dessert crepes, which were fantastic and quickly devoured.

After our delicious lunch, the Luxembourg Gardens was next on the list to visit. We saw the place we had had dinner at the night before with the excellent escargot and then entered the gardens. Once again, it was a beautiful and pristinely maintained garden that was wonderful to stroll through. In the central part of the gardens, there was a large pond with several boats and fish that held our attention for a while. These great little sailboats would dart from side to side of the pond and little kids would fight over sending off the ships on their next voyages. These images and environment brought me back to an earlier age of great ships sailing the oceans and wanting to know everything about them.

After a short train hop on the wonderful Paris metro, we arrived at the Opera of Paris. Once again, beautiful architecture with busts in tribute to many famous composers and their works on the facade. We briskly walked on to the next stop: Galeries Lafayette, shopping capital of the world. Contained in three buildings that would all qualify as large department stores back in the U.S., it was a sight to behold. As soon as you entered, big name designers instantly started closing in on you from all sides: Dior, Chanel, Gucci, and many others started bombarding you with advertisements and magnificent displays in a bid for you to drop 300 Euro on a bracelet. And the constant stream of people flowing in all directions from all sides seemed liked a coordinated strike technique used to confuse, intimidate, and subdue all potential buyers. I was under attack from all sides! This was a war zone unlike any other Walter Kronkite has ever reported on before. After a fleeting look at the inside of the building, we managed to stay together and after several long minutes reached free air!

After our battle with fashion, tired and adrenaline pumping, we decided the safest thing to do was to go to Sacre Coeur, a church in the Montmartre district of Paris. Yet another large cathedral, it looked like it was greatly influenced by Islamic architecture. We wandered through it and then went and wandered the streets of Montmatre. We found a little bakery that looked excellent and had fantastic pastries, even though the proprietor was very rude as we were scrupulously considering what to buy. After ambling back to the metro station, we headed back to the Bed and Breakfast to collect our stuff for our night train to Berlin. With goodbyes complete, we went to the Vitry train station and finally learned the correct way to enter the train station. I was taking off my backpack while we were waiting for the train, when to my disgust, I discovered that gum had somehow gotten on the inside of my pack strap and was now attached to my shirt as well. Not fun! After catching the metro to the train station, we activated our Eurail pass and jumped on our night train to Berlin. I have never seen so many people fit in such a small compartment as we did in our cabin! We eventually learned how to stow the extra bunk and move some of them around to give ourselves some more room. Once we got settled and started moving, we got the music going and had a right good time into the wee hours of the night.

So goodbye Paris. You were wonderful, fun, large, packed with things to do, had great food and EXCELLENT weather. Berlin, here come Five Rings of Gold!