DAY 10

July 23, 2022 (Day 3 of Paris, FRANCE)

Breakfast today is the same assortment of wonderful things that we had yesterday – all awesome. For some reason, the scrambled eggs were not in the place where they were yesterday. When I asked about the eggs, I was told 10 minutes. Sadly, I left without my daily protein fix.

Heading To The Seine River...

We left the hotel around 9 a.m. to walk the streets of Paris, and catch the metro underground as we headed towards the Seine River for a one hour boat cruise. This famous river flows from east to west through the heart of the city and divides Paris’s left bank and right bank. Along the river, we saw many of the buildings that were pointed out to us yesterday on the bus tour of the city. Catching the cool breeze and getting pre-recorded information over a loud speaker in different languages including English helped us understand what we were looking at on each side. Michael pointed out the flame sculpture that was given to France the same time as the death of Princess Diana, and was placed at the entrance of the tunnel where her car crashed.

Lunchtime at The Underground Mall...Châtelet

After the boat cruise we had some free time before we had to be ready at the hotel for 3 p.m. So Michael took us again on the Metro to a place called Chatelet that had a large 4 level mall, 3 of which were underground. It had all of the names we were familiar with – Sephora, Levis, Five Guys, H & M and the list goes on. We had one hour to eat, and go exploring. While others found restaurants and clothes and shoes to buy, I HAD to stop to Burger King for a $5 meal. For some reason, it was calling me. When I went in I noticed no one was taking your order. You had to stand at a touch screen panel and place your order YOURSELF. Talk about 21st century. When are these being installed in The Bahamas? Thankfully, I was able to switch over to English on the touch screen and got my order placed. I went to the counter to pay my 5 Euros and noticed the number on my ticket was 88. So as I waited for my number to be called, something said to me – ‘how do you know they will call 88 in English?’ So I did the quickest thing I knew – I asked a young lady next to me “Do you speak English?” “YES” came the reply. Thank God. I asked how you say ’88’ in French, because by this time, I head them calling words from behind the counter that definitely did not sound like “eighty-eight”. She told me 5 times how to say it in French and I thought I had it – until they apparently called it and I didn’t realize – so the young lady had to motion to me to take my food. MERCI! (or MERCY!) Afterwards I noticed a small ice cream stand on the sidewalk and tried to order but the lady said something in French. Thankfully Mr. Deane was there to translate – she didn’t want to serve me because the ice cream was TOO HARD. I know, too hard? Maybe too soft you cant serve it, but too hard? He convinced her that I didn’t mind and she was able to scoop out the pistachio onto a cone – what a delight! By this time it was almost time to reconvene at the meet up point and I found Mrs. T and Mrs. Deane finishing some lunch. Back to the HOTEL!

To The Palace - Château de Versailles

We set out at 3:30 to go to Versailles to the Palace which was about 50 minutes away. We were stuck in traffic in downtown Paris for a good 20 minutes before even getting on the highway. At the palace, we were met with more men from Senegal selling their scarves and replicas of the Eiffel Tower. More on that at the end of this story….

We met our two tour guides and split the group of 31 people into two groups. Each guide gave us headsets to wear while they talked throughout the tour. No matter where you were, as long as you were close to her, you could hear her loud and clear.

And the history she gave in each room in the palace was astonishing. She told of the Kings Louis the 14, 15 and 16, their wives, families and their impact on the French society. The rooms were stunning and contained massive paintings on walls and ceilings along with tapestries in the Queen’s bedroom.

At the end of the tour, we had to cross the huge courtyard to get to the bus and again were harassed by Senegal men to buy their products. After brushing them off and boarding the bus, they followed behind and practically boarded the bus. When one person bought some scarves from him, it became a frenzy and he was almost throwing scarves and bags at us to buy them from him – it was a sight to behold and I am sorry I didn’t get any footage of it. It was worse than the straw market could ever be. This one guy had to have taken home $100 euros from our last set of purchases in Paris.

Onto DINNER!

Dinner At Les Diamantaires...

The bus dropped us off right at the restaurant – Les Diamantaires – a Greek Restaurant where we were treated to a salad with tomato and lettuce in a balsamic vinaigrette with a side of quiche. The main course was beef in a red wine brown sauce with roasted potatoes, and dessert was cream puffs with ice cream drizzled with chocolate. I stopped counting calories back in Brussels….

As a special treat, at the end of the dessert, the waiter came out with a small plate of cake with sparkling fire on top for Christina for her birthday surprise.