Road Trip to Paris
It started out as just another average Saturday. We had our first Dutch lesson at 9:30 that morning. Let's just say that the southern twang and the harshness of the Dutch language do not mix. I can't say the letters Q and U in Dutch to save my life. I can successfully introduce myself, however : Ik been Lacy Eichenberger. No one in Europe has a problem pronouncing our last name. You should ask us to say it in Dutch/German for you sometime. It sounds like we're choking on something when we say it!
After the Dutch lessons, we were off to get trash bags and curtains for our living room. We had not had lunch yet so we stopped at this little town called Damme for lunch. It's about 4 miles from Brugge. We drove this time but we hope to bike there next time. We took a few pictures of the one windmill there and me with a metal figure. We then decided to drive to the France IKEA for curtains and we would get the trash bags on the way back. Brugge has specific trash bags that you have to use and you can only get them in Brugge. 40 minutes later we make it to our exit in France and we make a split second decision to keep driving and follow the signs to Paris.
We are off to Paris with no map or no tour book. We only have Friedel, our handy car navigation system. (That was the best European name we could think of) We type in Eiffel Tower and Friedel leads the way. With car navigation systems you have to be careful b/c they will say turn NOW when they really mean turn IN JUST A FEW SECONDS. As we are arriving into Paris I tell Scott that hopefully Friedel will lead us the back way toward the Eiffel Tower because we had both heard that going through the center of town is an accident waiting to happen because of the largest round-a-bout at the Arc de Triomphe. Friedel then says turn NOW and of course we turn now and we are on the wrong road so we are on own own until Friedel recalculates. All of a sudden, the Arch de Tiomphe appears in our view. We are heading straight for it. I take a moment to take a picture of it while Scott prepares for the round-a-bout. The round-a-bout has about 16 entrances and exits. It is mass confusion with everyone because there are no lanes, you just cut people off. Friedel then tells us to take the 7th exit off the round-a-bout. Back to my picture that I was taking (the one above) after this picture of course, my camera batteries went dead! (Don't worry, we bought more and have extras since this seems to be an ongoing thing with me.) We survive the round-a-bout, successfully park in a parking garage and find the Eiffel Tower. It's about 6pm at this time. We didn't get to go up in the tower because the lines are so long but I'm sure we'll be back a lot during our stay here. Paris is very large and spread out so we really only saw the Eiffel Tower side of town. We did take a boat tour and saw the Louvre and the Norte Dame Cathedral. We had dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the Eiffel Tower and then headed home. We arrived about 12:30am. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive. I guess we'll get the trash bags next weekend!
Click HERE to see our Damme and Paris pictures. If you scroll down on each picture, I added comments to these.
Click HERE to see our Atlanta-Albany-Antwerp pictures from last week. No comments added these pictures. These are un-edited and there are a lot of the Cathedral talked about last week.
It started out as just another average Saturday. We had our first Dutch lesson at 9:30 that morning. Let's just say that the southern twang and the harshness of the Dutch language do not mix. I can't say the letters Q and U in Dutch to save my life. I can successfully introduce myself, however : Ik been Lacy Eichenberger. No one in Europe has a problem pronouncing our last name. You should ask us to say it in Dutch/German for you sometime. It sounds like we're choking on something when we say it!
After the Dutch lessons, we were off to get trash bags and curtains for our living room. We had not had lunch yet so we stopped at this little town called Damme for lunch. It's about 4 miles from Brugge. We drove this time but we hope to bike there next time. We took a few pictures of the one windmill there and me with a metal figure. We then decided to drive to the France IKEA for curtains and we would get the trash bags on the way back. Brugge has specific trash bags that you have to use and you can only get them in Brugge. 40 minutes later we make it to our exit in France and we make a split second decision to keep driving and follow the signs to Paris.
We are off to Paris with no map or no tour book. We only have Friedel, our handy car navigation system. (That was the best European name we could think of) We type in Eiffel Tower and Friedel leads the way. With car navigation systems you have to be careful b/c they will say turn NOW when they really mean turn IN JUST A FEW SECONDS. As we are arriving into Paris I tell Scott that hopefully Friedel will lead us the back way toward the Eiffel Tower because we had both heard that going through the center of town is an accident waiting to happen because of the largest round-a-bout at the Arc de Triomphe. Friedel then says turn NOW and of course we turn now and we are on the wrong road so we are on own own until Friedel recalculates. All of a sudden, the Arch de Tiomphe appears in our view. We are heading straight for it. I take a moment to take a picture of it while Scott prepares for the round-a-bout. The round-a-bout has about 16 entrances and exits. It is mass confusion with everyone because there are no lanes, you just cut people off. Friedel then tells us to take the 7th exit off the round-a-bout. Back to my picture that I was taking (the one above) after this picture of course, my camera batteries went dead! (Don't worry, we bought more and have extras since this seems to be an ongoing thing with me.) We survive the round-a-bout, successfully park in a parking garage and find the Eiffel Tower. It's about 6pm at this time. We didn't get to go up in the tower because the lines are so long but I'm sure we'll be back a lot during our stay here. Paris is very large and spread out so we really only saw the Eiffel Tower side of town. We did take a boat tour and saw the Louvre and the Norte Dame Cathedral. We had dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the Eiffel Tower and then headed home. We arrived about 12:30am. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive. I guess we'll get the trash bags next weekend!
Click HERE to see our Damme and Paris pictures. If you scroll down on each picture, I added comments to these.
Click HERE to see our Atlanta-Albany-Antwerp pictures from last week. No comments added these pictures. These are un-edited and there are a lot of the Cathedral talked about last week.
posted by Lacy Eichenberger at 10:22 PM
2 Comments:
Great side trip! & I LOVE the name for your navigations system. I told Bob we need to come up with a name for ours. Maybe something more Italian to go with our last name. Come get a trash bag from us if you need one! :)
How do you set up links for your photos?
I'm SO glad Danielle has a link to your blog! I dig the misadventures of Lacy and Scott. Thanks for sharing!
Post a Comment
<< Home