Paris - the bagette stereotype is so true!

Everywhere people are carrying bagettes some are even eating them. I think its a look in Paris to carry around a long thin loaf of bread. So we tried it and they are really tastey - very fresh. The other stereotypes like the barets - not as true.

Mare and I had a spectacular time is Paris. It was short but sweet. The highlight was eating lunch with my parents ON the Eiffel Tower. It was in a plush restaurant about half way up the tower. The food was mouth watering and the service was pretty good too. We sat next to the window with amazing views of paris - all the popular sites like Arc de Triumph, sacre coeur Basilica (Im sure the spelling is wrong here so pronounce the words phonetically, cause thats how I spelt them:). For those who have been to Paris you will understand what Im talking about. For those who have not - it will all be giberish.

Anyways, Mare and I stayed in the red-light district, Montmarte, as you do. We got the room included in our plane ticket. To our suprise, it had a view to die for. For those who have been to Paris - we had the basilica sacre coeur on the right and the Eifell Tower on the left and all in between too. For those who have not been - sucked in :). just kidding. It was an amazing view - check out the photos.

There is a lot to write about, like Notre Dam and the area, how freakin huge the Lourve is, and all the history and museums scattered around the city.

One thing that I had heard about and experienced while over there was many of the French peoples aversion to speaking English. Its kinda funny. They speak it very well. They will greet you in French, thats understandable, and they will continue to speak in French, which is ok because we are in France. But if you do not try to do the same, or act in anyway impolite while speaking English, they will act like they dont speak the language - until, off course, there is money to be made. Then they seem to understand your every word. They live off tourism in many places and they know it. Most tourists dont speak French. Maybe, they are just too proud to be submissive to any other culture and language - why? "...Cause we're French" (pronouced 'fhench')

The easiest way to get around this is to say "Bon jouir, hello" and then speak english. It shows that you would like to but cant speak the language - it worked well for us. Before I got the hang of this, I messed up a couple of times. The best was greeting a bar-tender with "Hello, merci."
This means "Hello, thank you" - no wonder he didn't understand my english when I asked which way to the Moulin Rouge. It turned out that it was just down the road from our hotel and he told me to go left - why? "...cause we're Fhench"