Paris A Day Trip: Just back from our trip to Paris, and a Transatlantic cruise

We left for Paris on October 27 and arrived at DeGaulle Airport at 7:30 am. We had made arrangements prior to leaving the states for an Airport shuttle and only had to call the number at the airport for them to come. The driver was polite but not very talkative. He all 4 of us to Vincennes Royal Regency Condos and the cost was 61 euros which I found very reasonable. We spent a couple of hours resting and cleaning ourselves up and then set out to find the Eiffel tower. We found a charming cafe close to Eiffel and had dinner there. Very good food at a reasonable price. We watched the 10 minute light show of the Eiffel tower and walked around the surrounding area in awe that we were in Paris. We traveled from our condo in Vincennes by taking the subway, which we found very easy to understand, and we were able to get anywhere we wanted to go to. I was most anxious to go to Bethillions for ice cream as I read so much about it on this sight. They were closed but we did find some of the ice cream at a cafe and it was very good. I made the mistake of sitting down at a table at the outside cafe to eat my cone with our friends and was scolded very severely by staff as my cone purchase was not enough to deserve a seat. The cafe was not busy and had several empty tables. We did the chunnel to London and even though we enjoyed it we would not wast a day doing this again as it did not allow us to see much in London and it wasted a day away from Paris. We also did the Giverny-Versaille trip in one day and as a poster stated, prior to our trip, it is difficult to do both in one day. I loved Giverny and the gardens but wished that we had more time to see the village. Our favorite activity was wandering around a neighborhood and just taking in Paris and the beautiful people. We loved walking along the Seine but noticed that there were a lot of people who appeared to live there. A lot of them had the same tents and was wondering if these were homeless people and if some kind of organization provided them with the tents. We were stopped by a female with a sign saying that she and her brother are from Bosnia and are hungry and asked for money. We started to walk away from her but she was pretty persistent so I gave her several Euros and she left. My husband told me that she was probably a meth user as her teeth were damaged and I informed him that people with malnutrition have poor teeth also. Also as a substance abuse counselor she did not appear to be under the influence of anything and I do not know if there is even a problem with meth in France. We also took a boat ride, at night, on the Seine River and really enjoyed the beauty of Paris. It is a great city that I would love to spend more time in. Wish I had at least 6 months to wander around Paris. We left Paris and took the Artesia train to Rome and then took the Carnival Cruise Liberty back to the states. Our cruise was the one that was reported in the papers and on the news as having problems with the norovirus. We docked this past Sunday 11-19-06 in Fort Lauderdale. Will write more about our trip to Paris and how much we enjoyed the city and the sights.

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Giverny was one of our highlights too, and we will go back! We thought that the tents etc along the Seine were a good idea for backpackers. Maybe I%26#39;m naive but I thought it looked like fun. Loved the people playing instruments along there, picnicing, it all added to our cruise down the Seine. Isn%26#39;t Paris just beyond description? Apart from home, my favourite place.

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Its not that your cone purchase did not merit a table. Take away items purchases at a walk up window have a lower tax. If you want to eat a cone and sit you have to sit and order it first. You put the cafe workers in an illegial situation by sitting basically. Its really a common mistake as tourists would not be aware of the inner workings of the french tax system.

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