Our first full day in Paris was great except for the fact
that Jackie could not believe that all the TV channels were in French. She called the front desk to complain but
they didn’t speak English. The best
news was that on our way up the room, the desk clerk told us that tonight was
daylight savings time and clocks would be moved back. That is a homerun for us as we were getting
up at 6 am for Normandy. Up like an
early bird and on time for our meeting place for our 13 hour tour to
Normandy. I was asleep before we got on
the highway. First stop, bathroom break
1 ½ hours in where Jen found the perfect down coat to buy, at a rest area on
the highway. She did not like any of the
ones we saw the prior week at the Patagonia store even though I insisted she
buy one for this trip. Who knew she
would find the perfect coat, while freezing, at a truck stop.
Bottom line-We (The US) saved Frances ass in WWII and if we didn’t,
they would be the German’s bitches. They
are very grateful to the Americans and show this with a sense of pride many Americans
have lost. US flags everywhere! Our tour guide, Emerich, said please no
spills in the van—oh shit as Jen loaded 2 2 liter bottles of coke (no
sugar). The gals on our trip are from
Texas where everyone has a horse, a gun and is a hunter. It was like being in a bus with Jo from the Office
the whole day. Bernie, the almond
farmer from CA told us that the mini series, Goliath, was 100% accurate—I do
endorse this program. Bernie (know-it-all)was
very loose with the word, “hillbilly” which I wonder if we can even say
anymore. Once again, our guide was awesome
and we saw Omaha Beach, German strong holds and the largest American cemetery
in Europe. We had a buckwheat crepe for
lunch. On the way home, we had a great,
reasonable and understanding discussion on gun control in the US. This is with a group from Texas, California, France
and CT. We asked Emerich if all French
really hated Americans because we have not seen it and he said, older French do
hate Americans but the younger generation are starting to like us but French
people are really lazy and do not want to learn English and we all know Americans
expect everyone to speak English (especially Jackie) so we are in a catch
22.
Home in time for dinner with Jackie and Steve to a place
that Richard recommended. When we got
there, they reserved us a romantic table in the upstairs section. Jackie said, “do we have to climb stairs?”
and the matredee did not respond. The next
question from Jackie was at the second to last stair, “is there a bathroom upstairs?”
and this time, he did respond, “NO, in the basement.” LOL Typical “Jackie” ordering process in English to
people that do not speak English. I was
waiting for Jackie’s off the menu order of mashed potatoes be French fries mashed
up like a baby’s dinner but they made them.
They would not put whip cream on the crème brule though and I
thought that may have been a fight, but worked out ok. I want to take the time to thank Richard and
Gene for their recommendations (gene is the girl) as we heard about it all
night. Picture the Capt. And Tennille
and that is R & G. After a few bottles
of wine and we loosened up, the jokes started flying. “Three Mexicans go into a bar…” SHUT DOWN BY
JEN!
The reason French people hate us is because they do not
speak English and too lazy to learn and we (Jackie) continue to speak English to
them and not only “easy” words, but tier 3 words. Listening to Jackie ask the cab driver to
pull away from the curb with the door open so she could step on road first was
classic. “I do not understand, away from the curb?”
Next morning we were not the early bird but more like the late
snail. Breakfast at Jackie’s favorite
place in Paris 12 steps from the hotel door-at 10 am. Our $70 Croissants were delicious and almost
as good as the free ones that come with our hotel breakfast. Next to the Hop on Hop off Bus. We planned on meeting J & S so we toured
all of Paris and met them at Notre Dame—so sad to see it burned. Anyway, I said to Jen-do you want to walk or
take bus to meet J & S. That was it,
I had gone too far and the fight was on like donkey Kong. I was doing the back math in my head and figuring
where I went wrong-maybe when I said, “you should look for a smaller bag of
jelly beans,” that morning? Anyway, now
Jen had to go to a bank to get her own euro’s, she had to stop at a store to
get jelly beans and we just missed the bus because Jackie was buying a hat from
a street vendor. Then Jen said as we got
on the bus, “I AM GOING BACK TO GET THAT PAINTING TODAY WITH OR WITHOUT YOU” and I thought “the one you were standing in
front of for 10 min’s?” When we told J
& S that we were on a double decker bus, she said, “oh, are there stairs?”
We decided to sit downstairs only to find out J does not sit backwards on even
a full bus with only seats facing backwards.
[This is Jen: this is absolutely NOT why the fight went down, but I am letting
John have his say in his blog, lol I am sure
that my mom would also disagree with a few parts as well lol]
So after a little mishap on my side, Jen and I became separated
in Paris. This turned into a text fight
which l actually like, because I can say what I want without getting
interrupted but here is the issue. Jen
will not use her phone unless it is in WIFI.
She does not want to spend the $10/day.
I told her the first day, I just spent $15 on a martini and most likely will
have another but she gets a bee in her bonnet.
Thank god she got back to hotel as it was becoming a very one sided text
fight. It turned out just fine and Jen apologized
to me and I proceeded to make the most romantic gesture and put a lock on the
Love bridge in Paris.
We met for our dinner cruise, Eiffel Tower and Moulon Rouge
(incidentally, we did not make the last part).
Steve told me about the best cab ride he had so far, which seems like
the best one is always the last one. The
night was great until Jackie had Steve steal some water from the bar and fill
up her cup but in actuality It was Vinegar, so that did not go over well.
Paris is built just like Buenos Aires with the one exception
being in Paris, they do not have all their electrical attached to the outsides
of their buildings like Christmas vacation and there are no fat people in Paris. I also found a place where the Polaris
Slingshot looks cool—In Paris.
Does anyone know where my comments “Turkish prison” comes
from? If you do, message back and we
will see who knows me. Well Richard said
we should get to bed early as we have a big day tomorrow getting on train to
Lyon for our Viking Cruise. Peace and Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment