Parker #2: The Evening of May 21

Our hours apart from the guiding light of our great ambassador, Cédric: This is the story of what could have been a disaster: It may have become a tragedy worthy of comparison to those of the Greeks or Shakespeare; Imagine the grief that would crush the hearts of thousands if our journey had fallen into darkness, but today was not that day.

Cédric's few hours of reunion with his family meant that the four of us remaining no longer had a fluent translator to guide us. Train maps, restaurant menus and street names? No problem. What was a problem though was our encounter with an unforeseen nemesis: one who was lurking in our very midst undetected. We came upon this creature shortly after dropping Cédric off at his uncle's house. Naturally upon being left to fend for ourselves the groups first thought was FOOD. Sam found an interesting place that was supposed to be near Le Arc de Triumph and we soon found it with little problem. While I knew we were in a nice (as in crazy expensive) part of town I did not know just where we had landed ourselves. Sam's research lead us to a Hotel not too dissimilar from La Plaza but as teenage tourists we figured we had nothing to lose in peeking in to see the restaurant. All appeared to go well as the bellhops welcomed us in and we found our way upstairs to what must be the fanciest rooftop dinner-place in Paris. Upon exiting the elevator we where greeted agin by friendly staff who asked if we would like to be seated. At this point I would just like to point out that we where all feeling quite underdressed although by incredible luck I did chose to wear my only collared shirt today. Anyway we politely told the hosts that we wanted a minuet to look over a menu before committing (without any trouble in translating, who needs a French-men anyway, just kidding Cedge). Then it happened. As a glanced down my friendly smile simultaneously twisted into an expression of shock and disgust as I gazed upon the hated enemy of our European adventure: high prices! This however was not just any expensive French dish it was a common and lowly item I once thought I knew all about, being from ATL and all. A 12 Euro coke…REALLY!!! Do you realize that in the States one could buy half a dozen 40oz-infinite-refill-sodas for that price? Needless to say our dining plans quickly and unanimously were changed, though sadly I must admit the view from that rooftop ALMOST would have made that soda worth 12 Euros. There was however another benefit that must be noted on our short-lived journey into this hotel. Both Sam and I used it as a prime opportunity to visit the nicest "toilette" I have laid eyes on in a long time.

After our ordeal with shockingly overpriced soda we decided to take the metro a few stops over to a district that is friendlier to ones' wallet. We found the perfect place on the perimeter of Luxembourg gardens, a balance between price and quality. I don't know if you guys are getting tired of hearing about all of our food yet but believe me I have good reason to mention this meal as well. For an appetizer we shared a dozen Escargot and they where, i must admit, amazing! Cedge and Sam were proud of the rest of us for branching out into the more unusual aspects of French heritage and I'm glad we did because although snails themselves are not in my opinion all that great the sauce was soooo worth it!

After dinner we went to our favorite metro station, St. Michelle-Notre Dame to meet up with Cédric (don't know why we just always seem to end up there but hey there are worse places to hang out than PARIS so works for me). Christian got some fantastic pictures of the cathedral lit up at night and we were all soon reunited to enjoy our last night in Paris. Because Henry's Birthday was in only a few short hours (at least in French time) away we decided that it would be rather memorable to see the EiffelTower when it sparkles at midnight. To bide our time, we walked about a billion miles towards the distant tower and along the way we stopped for dessert aka second dinner. As Cédric already described the three different French desserts we tried were amazing and after leaving a "generous" (there is some debate on if its too generous) tip of three Euros we walked the remaining couple of lightyears across the Seine to watch the tower. With a gloriously out of tune melody we brought Henry into his 18th year in style! All that was left was our 0:11 RER train home…or so we thought…

Due to a slight error in timing we arrived for our 0:11 train at 0:12 which of course was frustrating in the extreme, not because we have little patience to wait ten minuets for another but because that was in fact the last train until the next morning. With some quick thinking we formed plan B and took a metro (different train lines from RER) to a station somewhat near our hostel and would have to walk the rest of the way. The reason this fact is interesting is not because Sam thought it was fun, (he was the only one with this opinion) but really because it was now 1:00 and we had at least a mile-and-a-half walk to our Hostel in Vitry Sur Siene. If you are not familiar with this region of Paris I personally did find it too bad but it is probably not the fanciest region of the city to say the least. I cannot describe our long dark walk home in too much of an interesting way for you but I do have to share a relating fact. If you had seen the Bernelles' expression of shock when we told them where we're staying you might have thought aliens had just kidnapped Cisco (their dog) because each of the jaws instantly hit the floor upon hearing the words Vitry Sur Siene. As a side note, Sonia, don't worry about your hubcap; we saw it laying on the side of the road along the way and it should reach your house along with about 10,000 packing peanuts any day now. Peace from Paris.