Nice is nice!

Oh so creative, I know. Well this keyboard is so confusing - the m, a, w, z and probably other letters are all in odd places. But I will do my best.

So first, a quick thanks for all of the birthday wishes! 23 seems pretty much the same so far - you know, life is normal, traveling through Europe and all... we were in little Orange in the region of Provence - a bit bigger than Port Angeles, the same latitude as Portland, and the warmest city in France (thanks, dad, for that info). And it was gloriously warm - hot, even! The girls bought some champagne to drink at midnight, and we had dinner at a Chinese/Thai food place for my birthday (of course we seek out the Chinese and Mexican food places everywhere) that was way too overpriced for the amount of food that we got, and we got more Champagne for the evening. So, sort of a quiet evening (although I did get to order a Royal Bacon that night!) but they have promised me that we will get to go out dancing in Nice. Orange, overall (oh, and it's O-range, but we like to say Orange) was a nice relaxing stop after the glamour and dazzle of Paris, so to speak...

So Paris!!! We originally planned to stay 4 nights, and ended up extending it by 2 more days. Sarah was still recovering from her awful sickness, and I had developed a coughing/sniffling cold, so we took it easy the first day or so. Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre - but I think we all agree that we prefer the Impressionists better, so we all absolutely loved the Museums Orsay and Orangerie - both full of Monet, Manet, van Gogh, Cezanne, and all those guys. Walking into the Orangerie was incredible - it's an old greenhouse that now houses 8 of Monet's huge waterlilly murals, and the effect was sooooo cool. We took pictures, but I don't think we could capture the feeling.

We also did one of the free tours offered, and it was amazing - I think we were all apprehensive about a 3 and 1/2 hour tour, but the time flew and we saw everything and learned so much about Paris. (That tour included seeing the bridge where Carrie and Big reunite on Sex and the City, the fountain in the Devil Wears Prada, and the Samaritan Hotel that had something to do with Jason Bourne.) Other sites - Arc di Triomphe and that crazy roundabout, Champs Elysees, the eternal flame, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge...and as usual, we found ourselves searching for Mexican food - tacos, in particular - but I'm not sure Paris is really the place for Mexican food. There were a ton of Japanese restaurants, but otherwise the cuisine seemed mostly French.

I knew I'd like Paris, but I didn't count on loving it so much. Of course, the French women really have lived up to our expectations of them. Never before have we run across so many unpleasant women - and it does seem to be just the French women. We'll have to tell those stories later... for now, I'm off to read by the water in Nice! It's so comforting to be near the ocean again - or whatever sea this is. I hate that feeling of being landlocked. Even in Edinburgh, there was water but from where we usually were, we couldn't see it. Our hotel here is just a couple blocks from the beach!