Off to Paris

We got in the car the day after the party, and we heard the "other jeans" song. We spent pretty much the entire day driving, and then a frustrating hour returning the car to the airport. We took ill advice from the bitchy navigation system (a womanly voice we started to call "Victoria"). She must have had a boyfriend in the German countryside, because after perfect steering she sent us on a ridiculous route. Oh well, it was cool to see what it looked like in the area (Happy Accident-from my Ireland trip friends!) We ate lunch at a town called, "Kirchheimbolanden". I was excited to stop in a town with a name that long.

Car return ended up being a lot more work than I expected. Usually around the world, there are obvious universal symbols on airport signs. I furiously thumbed through the phrase book, but could not find the French term for "car rental" on any signs. We stopped at an airport map twice, asked for directions, and finally when about to give up, Mike spotted the little symbol we were searching for at another terminal. The stupid maps at there info stations had the rental locations mapped incorrectly. It was pretty maddening. I even spotted billboards advertising the car rental firm we used before finding out where to turn it in. By the way, we were upgraded to a Mercedes in Germany, but it was hilariously small. I will see if I have a picture to post. Of course the people working the car drop were aware of the poor signage.

We stopped in a town on the way to Paris called Rheims. There is a HUGE cathedral there (bigger than Notre Dame) called the Catherdral of Notre Dame, Rheimes. It was built in the 1200's, burned down, rebuilt, and really destroyed in WWII.

http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/orion/eng/hst/gothic/reims.html

It was worth a look, and it was really huge inside. It was also dark and candle-lit which made it more imposing. Holy Buttresses!


We took the train in, stumbled around for a few blocks with our bags, and we made it to our hotel. We had a little bite to eat, and took a short stroll. We immediatly became aware how close we were staying to the Eiffel Tower. As we marvelled at the sight of it lit up, the lights went out for the night.