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Other entries in Paris

Poor Julie

All I can say is poor Julie. I was not making her life easy by having been to Paris in the (far, far distant) past - 14 years ago on a high school whirl wind tour of France and Italy. What that meant is that I had already been to and up/in the major attractions like the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles and so forth. So I was really taxing her idea generating capability. Despite all that, I must admit I was overwhelmed with the amount of ideas she was still generating - many of them more "typically French" ideas.

Anyway, since I must still have been somewhat jetlagged and still tired, I slept until 12:30, leaving poor Julie to creep around in her own apartment. I felt really bad about that, but on the other hand I now felt like a million bucks and ready to go. On the previous day I had been experiencing what I can only call hot flashes. I assume it was likely a combination of jet lag, lack of sleep, too many pubs, and simple stress on my body. But it seemed that I was mostly passed them now (or so I hope).

During our visiting the night before we had jokingly discussed taking a spontaneous trip to Venice to give Julie a couple days off of trying to come up with things to do in and around Paris (though as I witnessed, I'm sure she would have come up with plenty of ideas - my main problem was deciding what I wanted to do with all the ideas she was throwing at me). Well, I asked her if she seriously wanted to go to Venice and the smile on her face and the way she started bouncing around the apartment told me all I needed to know. So we went down to the train station and booked two 2nd class tickets on the night train to Venice. I had not been there on my Italy trip and had always wanted to, so both of us were looking forwards to it. We ended up booking the night train on Aug 30, returning on the night train on Sept 1.

Once that was booked, we headed over to Julie's parents house where they were kind enough to wash my dirty clothes. We visited and had a great chat about their travels all over the world, and their recent trip to the mid north and northwest of the US where they drove a huge number of miles in 3 weeks (6000 miles?). They have a very nice house and yard and welcomed me like another family member. I also saw where Julie's brother and sister live (separate locations). The whole family is still where they grew up and within blocks of each other. Quite amazing in comparison to my family and how spread out my brother and I are from the rest.

That evening we went to a party at a friend of Julie's house not that far away. Granted we were in the outback in Australia and this was only the second time we were together, but it was the first time I had seen Julie wear a dress and she looked amazing in it with her new haircut that she gotten around her birthday to look older (people kept asking her what she was studying in university and she had become tired of it). I can honestly say this is the first time I have heard of any woman I have met (beyond teenagers trying to get into bars) getting their hair cut to look older instead of younger!! Well, the party was great fun, and Julie's friends truly are crazy, but I loved every minute of it. It's amazing to me how they can break out into singing, dancing and such on the spur of the moment - but it was a great time. As most of you know, I can't drink beer or cider, and I really don't like wine, but Julie convinced me to have some. She rarely drinks it either, and only a sweeter type. I can't really say I enjoyed it, but I did get it down.

After that, we headed off to Paris to do a drive of Paris by night. It was fun and something I hadn't done before, but our timing was off as we arrived to all of the attractions with the lights off. I asked Julie why she couldn't just run over and flip the switch, to which she just rolled her eyes and laughed at me.

The highlight of the evening was Julie pulling over in the circle around the Arc de Triomphe and handing me the driving duties. She did tell me the "secret" of driving the circle, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell, so I won't for now. Anyway, I did most of a loop around the circle then drove down the Champs-Élysées to the other end at the Place de la Concorde. I quite enjoyed the drive as it included the circle and no traffic lanes. But I do say the traffic lights were hard to get used to. Not that they work differently, but that they are on the wrong side of the road at driver eyesight level (at least in comparison to North American style traffic lights). Anyway, we made it in one piece, so that was the main point. She did point out that my drive only sort of counted as it was night and traffic around the Arc de Triomphe was light. I would normally not have any hesitation taking up that challenge after doing it once and seeing her car was easy to drive (manual transmission), but since I am not on her insurance I would dread it if something did happen, so I probably won't.

After that we headed back to Julie's where I phoned my parents. I guess they didn't realize the time difference, as it was 3am in Paris and evening back home. It was good to talk to them and the connection was amazingly clear with no lag - not like the lag I have experienced from Australia, etc. Anyway, after that we crashed as we had a number of things to do the next day.

QOTD: What's the secret of driving the Arc de Triomphe circle?

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