Two years ago, my wife and I boarded a plane on Christmas Eve and fulfilled a life-long fantasy of hers. No, neither of us are in the Mile High Club, as far as I know. Besides, that would be my lifelong fantasy, not hers. Christmas morning we landed in Paris. The only thing we did to spoil the fantasy glow was to take along our surly, moody teenager. I know, those adjectives are redundant when describing teenagers.We arrived early Christmas morning Paris-time to a nearly deserted Charles DeGaulle Airport and took a shuttle service to our hotel in Arrondissement Seven. To say that our room was small would be to say that the Louvre has a few paintings. Our triple room, which was hard to find in this hotel class (further discouraging any future of taking teenagers along), was a skinny double bed with about 1 foot clear on each side and a roll-away bed blocking the door to the bathroom. Still, we were in Paris.
Since we still had most of the day ahead of us we decided to walk the few blocks to the Eiffel Tower just to have a look at it. The Eiffel Tower does not disappoint. I don’t know what fake partial scale replicas you may have seen in Vegas or at Kings Dominion, the real thing is just plain huge. We swooned and gawked and then noticed there were people in line at the base.
Travel Tip: The Eiffel Tower is open Christmas Day.
We spent most of the afternoon going all the way to the top and slowly descending the tower. We took picture and wandered and just soaked in the atmosphere. At dusk, we took a water boat tour up and down the Seine, just like in Before Sunset, and took more picture of the Eiffel Tower. In all I think I took over three dozen picture of the Eiffel Tower or parts therof that trip. The one on the right is from the only clear sunny day we had that trip.
The weather was cold and usually gray, but nothing can take away that magic of having been in Paris on Christmas Day.
Merry Christmas
from
The Yellojkt Clan.
14 comments:
That is simply the coolest way to spend Christmas ever, dude ! Though I don't think I'll be making the trip anytime soon, it sure would be great to do something like that on Christmas someday.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, YJ :)
Our most exotic holiday vacation was New Year's Eve in Doylestown, Pa.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to the jkt family from the G family!
What an awesome way to spend Christmas. Tell me, are the French as arrogant as they are portrayed, or is that an urban myth?
Merry Christmas yello, Mrs. yello an Son of yello from Down Under, where we finished Christmas before you!
sounds wonderful! we plan on williamsburg, va for next year and doing something different each year after. as our girls get older we will expand to various areas going international. hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
How lovely. Of course it was HER fantasy-mine is a Christmas in Provence so, I am GREEN after reading this.
Hope this year was just as magical, even without the tower :o)
The French were very polite and friendly. It helps my wife knows just enough French to be dangerous. We had no rude frog encounters.
What a great story. I want to go to Paris some day. I am debating turning 40 in Paris, Greece or Italy. My money is on Italy.
Happy celbrations to the Yellojkt clan!
Wow. What a way to spend the Christmas holidays!
I was lucky enough to go to Paris when I was 15 and the memories are still just yesterday-fresh in my mind. One thing I remember is that they weren't rude if you at least attempted French. Which is only common courtesy, yes?
Have a great holiday!
Keb. Do it. DO IT! You will never say "I shoulda stayed at home for my birthday."
I can't think of a cooler way to spend Christmas! I'm going to have to put this on my "to do" list. Thanks for the idea.
Yay, now I have a new life long fantasy :) Your wife has great ideas!
Paris is an incomparable city. I'm a big fan of sitting out at sidewalk cafes (in the summer, anyway) and doing some serious people-watching. This is also a good pastime in the Tuileries, and in the Englischer Garten in Munich in the warmer months. We always manage to meet interesting people there.
Bringing along surly teenage son... not such a great idea.
I spent Xmas in Paris in 2004, it was one of my best Xmases ever, I went only with a couple of friends and wow, one of the craziest parties of my life.
I would love to spend the christmas there. but it is a pretty expensive trip there.
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