Au Revoir a Paris

(Second time writing this - netbook has keys made for 3-year olds)

We're hanging out in CDG - waiting for our flight to Tel Aviv. Diana is napping (because Diana naps) - I was going to snag a pic to post, but the El Al guys have big guns and take security VERY seriously. We were grilled for quite a while on our business in Israel before given the green light. But now we're on our way.

Yesterday in Paris we headed out early (10am - not bad for the morning after a wedding!) and went up to Montemarte. We wound our way through the mad crowds of souvenir peddlers and tourists dropping too much money for junk and got up to the top of the hill to see Sacre Coeur. It is definitely one of the 5 most beautiful churches I've been in. It is extremely unique on the outside (look for pics online, mine are in the checked baggage). The inside looks like a regular church, but it is done up very nicely. We happened to arrive during Pentecost mass, so we hung out, understood a couple words and had Communion. The church is on top of the hill that is Montemarte, so you can see forever. Paris is very large and they pack in quite a lot over a lot of space. One of the best views of all this...

Then we headed to the Louvre to see a few things. Don't tell them, but we got in for free! (Some other Americans were on their way out and gave us their tickets - the tickets are good for a full day) We saw some highlights and wandered around for a few hours. There's no way you can see everything in there in a month, so we didn't try. Enjoyed it though, thoroughly.

Our night ended with a picnic with our friends in a park in view of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. As the sun set (at 9:45pm) the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre pyramids lit up. Beautiful. Then on the hour (and every hour) the Eiffel Tower sparkles - pretty neat (if not a little cheesy). We had a good 3 hour / 3 bottle of wine picnic, headed towards our hotel (with a stop for another bottle of wine) and got to bed at a reasonable time (1:30). Please, please, let Israel be more tame...

We got up, headed to the train and got here in no time. The trains here run amazingly well (but there isn't any A/C and it's supposed to be 28C today). We managed to figure out Metro and RER in time to leave, but we'll know for next time.

We miss everyone at home and are thinking about you. Shout out to my mom, it's her Birthday! (You're what, 40?)

Au revoir!