My Dad Made it to Paris

Today was yet another early start for me. You would think when you are on vacation you would have the luxury of sleeping in, but that has not been the case for me, I’m afraid. My dad arrived in Paris this morning. Yesterday I arranged a shuttle to go to the airport to go meet him and this morning arranged for the shuttle to pick us back up. The shuttle picked me up this morning at a little after 7:00 this morning and so I got up around 5:30 in order to shower, drop my laundry off and eat some breakfast before leaving.

Once at the airport, I waited and waited and waited. I also bought a L’Equipe, the French spots paper with the Tour de France final on it. About an hour after my dad’s flight arrived, he finally came through the gate. Apparently there had been some craziness at customs as someone had left a bag on the plane and they had to determine to whom it belonged. I called the shuttle to tell them we were ready and about 10 minutes later, it arrived.

We made our way to the hotel which was about a 45 minute drive. My dad dropped off his suitcase and we headed out with Bernie and Catherine to Pere Lachaise Cemetery which is where Jim Morrison is buried. We stopped by his grave as well as the graves of Chopin and Oscar Wilde.

Jim Morrison's grave

Chopin's grave

Oscar Wildes' grave - it was covered in lipstick kisses.

Maybe it brings you luck in love.

Does anyone know?

After our cemetery stroll, we found a place to eat and had steak and fries, a salad and some crème brule for lunch. It was a pretty good lunch. We then headed to the area of the Bastille but apparently there is no Bastille to tour or if there is, we never found it. It was rather confusing.

At this point we split up from Bernie and Catherine and headed back towards the hotel so we could tour the Arc de Triomphe. We bought a museum pass while there which gained us admission to the Arc but also to other spots. After a few minutes at the top, we came back down and watched the traffic for a bit and then headed back to the hotel where it took my dad about an hour to email my mom. He is very tired and not thinking properly. Hopefully he will get a good night of rest tonight because we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow as we are heading to London on the 7:13 a.m. train. Yikes! So, it’s early to bed for us and also early to rise. I’m not sure if there will be a post tomorrow as we don’t get back to Paris until after 11:00. So, if you miss hearing from me tomorrow, then check back on Wednesday. Our week is jam packed with activities but I hope to find some time to post at some point. Until next time…

Waiting in line at le Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at le Arc de Triomphe