A Week in Paris

Silver Flats: 7 Ways in 7 Days

For my “29^th” birthday my mom offered to fly me out to Paris to visit her. This would be my third trip to Paris, but probably the first that I’d really remember since I was so young the first two times. I only had a week of vacation left for the year and wasn’t sure if that would be enough time, but heck, an offer for a trip to Paris no matter how short it would be was something I couldn’t pass up. Thanks mom!!

First order of business: dog care. I usually leave my dogs with my petsitter for short trips, but for longer trips I’m usually fortunate enough to leave my dogs with my friend Diane in Phoenix. I’ll drive the dogs out to Phoenix, and then fly in/out of there. This works out great since the dogs get to visit with their Westie cousins at “camp”, and I can fly direct to my destination because Phoenix is the main hub for my favorite airline (via Gold Elite handcuffs) US Airways.

Second order of business: footwear. I had already been warned by my mom and countless people that my signature footwear (3-4” heels) would not bode well in Paris. The problem? I don’t own any flat shoes besides flip-flops and tennis shoes. The first are my staple weekend wear in sunny San Diego, but a quick review of a “What to Wear in Paris” site labeled them a fashion no-no. As far as tennis shoes go, for me they are made for running. They do not get to be on my feet for a moment longer! I decided to go out and buy …. My first pair of flats. I was looking for a cute, versatile black pair, but somehow ended up with something totally different. Silver satin ballet flats with bows! I know, not very versatile… or are they? As you’ll soon see, I was able to find seven outfits that went with these (foreign-to-me) flat little shoes. Yay!

Day 0 (Saturday)

On Saturday afternoon I drove out to Phoenix from San Diego with my dogs to have a little pre-trip party with Diane and her husband Bob, and Jenna and her husband Paul. Appetizers, drinks, small dogs, good company, and Jenga! Overall it was a great night. This was my second time ever playing Jenga. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m not much better the second time than I was the first. Oh well!

Jenga Party at Diane's

Day 1 (Sunday)

Outfit: Grey shirt, jeans, silver flats.

Sunday morning I bid farewell to my little furry loves and headed to the Phoenix airport. The itinerary was Phoenix to Charlotte, and Charlotte to Paris. Several days earlier I had been notified that I hadn’t been upgraded on the first leg of the flight. :o( Right before the flight from PHX – CLT took off though, a flight attendant came and got me and upgraded me at the last second to First Class! :o) Someone must have missed the flight. Their loss, my win. Yay! My plan for the flight was to sleep the whole way in my oversized First Class seat. I did sleep for about an hour, but then began an activity that I would blame three days of jetlag on. I started reading Twilight. And continued reading it on the next flight from CLT – CDG. All I can say is OMG! My cousin Donna raved about this series to me and how great it is. Part of me was curious about it, but more of me was doubtful. All I have to say is that everything she said was true. Twilight was great! I can’t wait to read the next three books.

I finished Twilight halfway through the flight to Paris, stared out the window day dreaming about it for another hour or so (pathetic), and then started watching DVDs. For some reason I wasn’t tired. I blame the vampires!

Day 2 (Monday)

Outfit: Grey sweater, black shorts, silver flats.

I arrived in Paris at 6:40am local time. That was 9:40pm PST. My Uncle Thuy picked me up and drove me to my mom’s where we all had breakfast. Shortly after breakfast I realized how tired I was and lay down for a “few minutes”. Those few minutes turned into a little over three hours!

Breakfast Upon Arrival in Paris

Jetlag Hits a Few Hours Later

The day was now half over and I was anxious to start my vacation, so we headed out. First stop, the Eiffel Tower of course! We walked around the area of the Eiffel Tower and took pictures from several view points. The line to go up was really long and I was starting to lose steam, so we decided not to try. After the Eiffel Tower we headed over to Notre Dame.

Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

The area around Notre Dame was really pretty and we walked down the narrow streets lined with tourist shops and sidewalk cafes and restaurants. You’re probably thinking that we had a nice French dinner to start off my vacation? Wrong! I’m partial to Asian food and fearful of cheese so we ended up having Korean BBQ. I liked it, my mom and step-father George weren’t too impressed. After having dinner I looked at my watch and realized it was almost 10 pm … and it was still light out! I was amazed! It looked as light at 10pm in Paris as it is at 7pm in California. We walked around a bit after that and finally headed home close to midnight.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

Outfit: Black t-shirt, jeans, silver flats.

The primary plan for Tuesday was to sightsee, and then prepare to have my Uncle Thuy and his wife Alice over for a home cooked Vietnamese dinner. The next stop on my Paris checklist was the Louvre. Oddly, the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. In between discussions regarding what we should do for the day, I decided to lie down for a “few minutes” again. Um, guess who ended up napping for hours again? Yep! Me!

My uncle wasn’t going to be coming over until 7pm, but the meal that my mom was cooking was quite elaborate, so the rest of the afternoon was spent grocery shopping and preparing for dinner. The dinner was wonderful! I was a bit embarrassed to have spent my second day in Paris doing nothing of note, but what could I do. Jetlag had hit me pretty hard.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch … my dogs were enjoying a great time at Camp. Diane sent me the cutest pictures I’ve ever seen of my dogs and her dogs floating around in a little raft in her pool. I couldn’t stop thinking of the “I’m on a Boat” song while smiling at the pictures. Kona would be T-Pain of course. ;o) What? One of the four had to be!

My Dogs & Their Westie Cousins

Enjoying the Good Life at Camp

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Outfit: Black linen dress, silver flats.

On Wednesday morning when I woke up I felt more refreshed and was convinced that jetlag was a thing of the past! The plan for the day was a matinee movie and then the Louvre. We went to the movie theater that played American movies in English with French subtitles and watched the Hangover. Hilarious!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Louvre. My mom and George had been to the Louvre several times but had never made it to see the Mona Lisa. Our primary goal in this visit was to see the Mona Lisa, and other works of art along the way. When we got to the Louvre I couldn’t help but think about the Da Vinci code! I was also amazed by how enormous the Louvre was! It took us over an hour to navigate to the room that housed the Mona Lisa.

The Louvre

When we walked into the room I was shocked at how small (or should I say normally sized) the painting was. For some reason I had always pictured a huge, grand masterpiece. The painting was actual a normal size. It was on a wall of its own, protected in heavy glass, and roped off by about five feet.

The Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa Up-Close

The Wedding Feast Painting

After we left the Louvre we went back to the area near Notre Dame to have dinner. This time we agreed to try authentic French food, and chose one of the many sidewalk restaurants. The food was incredible! I had mussels, salmon, and chocolate mousse. My mom had escargot (eww), Coq a Vin (yum! though I swear it was beef and not chicken), and crème brulee. George had French Onion Soup (or would that just be “onion soup”?), beef, and an apple tart. The dinner was great and cheese free. My stomach was happy.

Day 5 (Thursday)

Outfit: Black sleeveless blouse, silver and black skirt, silver flats.

At Chateau Versailles

On Thursday my Uncle Thuy picked us up early and drove us to Versailles, home of the French King. Versailles was amazing! The house and the gardens were so beautiful! It’s incredible to think that this sprawling palace was what someone considered to be “home”. I need to find my way into royalty somehow. Hmmm….

The Gardens at Chateau Versailles

After touring Versailles (for hours!) my uncle then took us to the financial district of Paris. We had lunch at the shopping center there among all of the high rises.

After lunch he then took us on a driving tour of the city. After walking around for days I was happy to have the break and to get to sit and relax on a tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah so I run marathons! That doesn’t mean that walking around for hours each day is easy. Even in comfortable shoes I find walking to be a chore. Maybe I should have just worn my Nike’s and done a power tour of the museums.. hmm… maybe next time.

L'Arc de Triomphe

Day 6 (Friday)

Outfit: Black cotton dress, silver flats.

Friday was an exciting day. I got to drive in Paris! My mom recently purchased a Microcar, which was “une voiture sans permis”. That means it’s a car that you can drive without a driver’s license. HUH? Apparently in Paris its near impossible to get a driver’s license if you are foreign. My mom found out though about the cars that don’t require a license, and went out and bought one. The main difference between these cars and real cars is that these cars only go at a maximum of 50 km/hr (that’s about 30 mph) and they are not allowed on the freeway. I’m still not quite clear on how the government decided that driving under 50km/hr was deemed acceptable without any type of driving test or license, but okay!

Me & the Microcar

I was really excited to drive the car, but a bit nervous to be out on the street with all of the maniacs I had seen driving. After being in the car for only about 5 minutes, I was even more nervous. The car rumbled and shook like a lawnmower, and it had no power steering! It was like driving a fun center go cart! This in itself would be okay in a normal city, but people zip and fly around like speeding maniacs in Paris! I have to admit I said a prayer before heading out on the streets, and then we were off!

In Paris new drivers are required to have a standard issued "A" sticker placed on their car for the first two years. My mom made me a homemade "A" sign. She also added her own "1er Jour" sign which meant "1st day". People were staring, but somewhat left me alone on the road. Whew!

Homemade "A" on Left,
Standard "A" on Right

We were headed first to the Mussee de Picasso and then the Mussee d’Orsay. Both were high recommended by my world traveling friend Beth from college. The Picasso museum was pretty neat. It was a small and funky museum which went well with Picasso’s funky art.

After Picasso we then went to the Musee d’Orsay which was a fairly large museum. The layout of this building was very open, and it appeared that most of the building was lit with natural light.

Musee d'Orsay

I had made plans with my cousin Laura to meet for dinner after she got off of work. She took me to a neighborhood whose name I can’t remember, and we ate at a restaurant known for its Southern French food. At this dinner I had my first taste of French wine for the week. Ahh! It was amusing to me to see how small the wine glasses were. They were little bulbous glasses that held maybe 3 oz of wine. For dinner I had mussels (again, I know. Hey, nothing wrong with sticking with a winner!), duck, and … chocolate mousse again! The chocolate mousse at this place was amazing! It was home made and to die for!

Best Chocolate Mousse Ever!

The server would walk around with a wood bowl of it, and would dole it out until you told her to stop. During dinner we talked about the shopping in Paris and Laura mentioned that I had come at a great time because of all of the sales. All around the city I had seen the sale signs (SOLDES) and had noticed that these sales were running from June 24 – July 28, and virtually every single retail store was participating. We agreed to check out the sales tomorrow and to then head over to an adventure park that I had seen pictures of on my other cousin’s facebook page.

Day 7 (Saturday)

Outfit 1: White wrap shirt, black shorts, silver flats.
Intermediate outfit: Tank top, shorts, and Pumas for ziplining.
Outfit 2: Black, silver, and gold dress, silver flats.

Laura picked me up early Saturday morning and we headed over to the big department store Lafayette. My other cousin Laurent explained to me later that this was basically the Bloomingdale’s of Paris. There were three separate buildings for this store. Men’s, Women’s, and Home. Similar to Macy’s concept but much, much nicer. This store was amazing! Designers galore! This place had designer everything, even designer baby wear. And not just a small collection of designer baby wear, collections of baby wear! I couldn’t believe the Baby Dior sandals and Burberry onesies. Ridiculous! But admittedly, cute. I was surprised to see that this store even had designer Hello Kitty clothing and baby wear. Wow, HK is sure moving up in the world!

Lafayette Store

After getting gifts for a few people on my list we then headed over to go zip-lining. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting an adventure park! Wait, before seeing the adventure park I didn’t even know what one was! I had seen pictures of my cousin Emmanuel’s kids zip-lining and had assumed it was a park with one zip-line. Instead it was a huge park with picnic areas, a lake, and an adventure course. There were several types of activities you could choose (we almost did the huge plastic hamster ball that you run in), but we ending up choosing to only do the adventure course with the zip-lines for two hours.

Me & My Cousin Laura
(Pre-Adventureing)

Being the risk-averse wimp that I am, I was sooo scared to go down my first zip-line! And it was only about 20 feet long and maybe 8 feet off the ground. The way the course worked was that you’d pick a starting point and then travel from zip-line to zip-line through various crossings. Think Real World/Road Rules Gauntlet challenges in a way.

Tightrope Between Platforms

First Zip-Line Ride!

As we went further on the course the zip-lines got longer and longer. Luckily I was getting less and less scared. Finally we made our way to the ultimate zip-line! It started on top of a hill and flew over a lake. It looked terrifying but amazingly fun. I was pretty nervous climbing up the tower to the zip-line and thought back to last summer when I took trapeze lessons. Lesson learned: the longer you stand on the platform and think about jumping, the worse the first few seconds are.

View from the Top

So I kept that in mind and as soon as we’d climbed up and latched on, we went! Wow, it was amazing! The descent wasn’t as fast as I thought and it was so fun to be flying down a hill and then over a lake. At the bottom you hit a bungee cord which bounced you back several times before you could get off. That’s pretty fun to. We did this tall one three times before calling it a day.

Video: Aerial View Flying Down

That night my mom had planned a family get-together to serve as a bon voyage and belated birthday party. The rest of my extended family that I hadn’t seen yet in Paris came out for this dinner. We met at a Vietnamese café near my mom’s place. It was a nice night out and we were able to snag several tables outside. The food was great, I got to catch up with my cousins who I hadn’t seen in 10-15 years, and I also got to meet more extended family. Ten million pictures and several great dishes of Vietnamese food later, it was time to call it a night, pack up my stuff, and prepare for my vacation to end.

Family Farewell Dinner

Day 8 (Sunday) Return to Reality

On Sunday I would be flying back from Paris to Charlotte, and Charlotte to Phoenix. Since my flight was scheduled to get in at 7pm and the drive back to San Diego was 5 hours, I decided to spend the night in Phoenix at Diane’s house before driving back to San Diego with my dog’s. I’m actually typing this blog right now on my flight from Charlotte to Phoenix. I figure I’ll be too tired once I get there, and I’ll be too busy tomorrow after driving and then trying to catch up on work after a week out of the office.

Looking back at the week it was a great trip! Jetlag hit me worse than I could have imagined and I lost a lot of time napping, but I still got to see a lot of Paris in a short, week-long trip. I also managed to get through the week walking all over the city and around huge museums with happy and rested feet thanks to my dutiful silver flats. Hopefully the next time I come to Paris I’ll be able to stay longer. Thanks again mom for the trip!