We just arrived home, a relatively early day for us 11:45.

We wanted to do a lot today over long distances so we decided to go the same place where we had the bike tour and rented a couple of bikes. It turned out to be a great idea.

First, we rode to the Louvre.

All the people that looked like complete chaos at the louvre

We were able to get in quickly but were quickly overwhelmed with the amount of people. There was just too many people to really enjoy anything. We decided to run through, saw the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo and got out of there. We saw a little more, but couldn’t handle the people, so left quickly.

We then took our bikes and rode down the Champs Elysees. We were able to make it about halfway before the streets were blocked off to only pedestrians because it was a national holiday. There was a festival of some sort going on – looked like a tree festival, with every Parisian going home with a tree! How green! We took an alternative route and parked halfway along the boulevard and walked for awhile. The crowds here were also too much to handle, and so we got back on our bikes and rode the rest of the way to the Arc De Triumph.

Here we are standing in front of the arc - with a pole sticking through our heads 🙂

We walked below the Arc and admired the structure while we rested for a little bit.

After the Arc, we wanted to get to the Eiffel Tower. After we left, there was no around it – we had to ride through the MASSIVE and intimidating rotary – well we did, and even though Dave lost his glasses, a nice man on a scooter picked them up for him and we made it through. Holy Crap was that scary!! We had to take it about about half way around and I think we are lucky to still be alive. We needed our blood pumping though to make it to the Eiffel Tower, which we finally did.

We spent a good portion of the day at Eiffel Tower, we had lunch under the great structure and then took a short nap on the grass field in front. We were pleasantly awoken by the national smell of France – cigarette smoke – when we decided we had enough and needed to get up. We wanted to get to the top but the line was too long and we had to get our bikes back by 6pm, and so left to make sure that happen.

Getting home was the best part of the bike trip. On holidays, Paris closes down the little expressway they have next to the Sienne. We drove our bikes almost all the way home this way and it was really incredible to have the whole highway to yourself. It was really great!

We made it back to the bike place and then stopped at a Cafe for a beer for me and a juice for Tsany. We then went home and got ready for dinner. We went this great restaurant in the Marais. Tsany had Artichokes and I had Veal. We then had dessert, cake for me, and custard stuff for Tsany (“what is Pancotta?” I asked. “Like cheesecake, except better.” And yes it was!!!!). Everything was remarkable, a truly great meal.

After dinner we rushed to the river for a late night cruise.

In the menus at the restaurant, they were notebooks and you could draw in them. Dave decided to draw something like looked nothing like me - with a big schnoz to boot.

We were able to get discount tickets from the bike place and took a nice boat ride. It was really nice and a great end to a great day. Needless to say that the further back and down you got (we were on the second floor), the harder they partied, with bottles of wine and champagne for all!

I am running out of steam so I will clean this up later.