Here’s Us on the Arc de Triomphe:

Headed out to market and then to Montmartre.

Bye!

Bonjour! Today we got a lazy start (our first real day without an alarm…what kind of vacation is this?) and took the Metro to Champs-Elysees. And on a side note, I had some trouble with the translation at the Post Office and you will probably be receiving all remaining post cards in envelopes…sorry….;) Anyway, we climbed the 283 stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. The view was amazing and Gabe took a 360 degree panorama for future viewing. We sauntered down the Champs Elysees, wandered though the shopping district in the 11th arrondissement, and wound up in front of the Louvre. I guess it was about a billion mile walk but I think perhaps it was more like 2 or 3 😉 We settled down in the Jardin du Carrousel for crepe du fromage, bagette avec fromage et Kronemburg. C’est bon! On the way home, we walked through St Germain des Pres and oggled at all the amazing artwork…perhaps we will see how much money we have left at the end of the week and splurge…or perhaps we will take pictures of post cards and blow them up and frame them. Sorry, the budget in me tends to overtake the Versace in me…Mom, I do my best. Now we are relaxing in our little apartment with a cheap bottle of French red table wine and MTV. Tonight, perhaps we will climb the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps we will get drunk in our room and shout at the people on the street below…viva la france! OK. Love you all. And we especially love Adobe…Linda, please pass on the message. Your pals, Gabe & Maya

Well after our crappy Amsterdam hotel anything would look nice, but the Hotel t’Kierzoft was really nice. Breakfast was just toast and coffee, but compared to the sick inducing fare in Amsterdam, it was a treat.

As I said yesterday, Maya toughed it out through not feeling well (she’s still not 100% actually, but Paris will make her better, I’m sure of it). We saw lots of very old churches, such as Church of The Nazareth Replica and a place where Mary of Burgundy and Charles the Bold were buried and they have a Weird hand statue (Actually, that same 13th century church, The Church of our Lady, has Michelangelo’s ‘Madonna and Child’ statue as their main claim to fame.

We took the train to Paris this morning and are having fun from our great little apartment (about one third the size of Maya’s old apartment in downtown Eugene, for those that recall) right next to the Notre Dame and all the downtown-Paris-tourist-action.

More later,
-G&M

Both Maya and I are now feeling tip-top (well, Maya not quite so, but nearly there). We are tourist-ing through the Rennaissance town of Brugge, Belgium today. We will see some churches, some relics, drink some Belgian beer and maybe have a grilled cheese sandwich.

Leaving for Paris tomorrow morning where we’ll be able to upload some pictures for you, our faithful readers.

Happy birthdays to Niki and Kathy and Joanne (and anybody else, in case we forgot ;).

Love,
G&M

Well, I got over my stomach flu, after pretty much a full day in bed yesterday… not quite the Amsterdam experience I was hoping for, but so it goes. We walked around town a little bit before catching the train this morning, but really didn’t get to see very much of the city.

The train ride to Belgium was beautiful and Brugges is even more so… old and pretty and old.

Unfortunately, Maya started to feel ill on the train and now she’s repeating my performance from yesterday… stuck in bed in another beautiful town in Europe.

I hope it will only be a 23 hour thing for her as well. That’s all from your globe-trotter friends, more later. -G&M