We flew out of PDX on December 2nd and met up with Toby and Lynne'e at LAX. Air France had the cheapest air fare, so we headed to Paris for a 12 hour layover on our way to Johannesburg. On a side note, i was quite pleased with Air France. We flew on Boeing 777-300's which i think are the newest of the 777 family. The service was excellent and the food was good. I'd fly with them again.
The flight to Paris was around 10 1/2 hours and none of us really slept that much. The seats on the plane were fairly comfortable, and all things considered, there was enough leg room, but those seats are clearly not made for adults to be able to sleep in. I sat next to a German guy that was coming back from the SEMA auto show. He works in Italy for Lamborghini - i want his job.
We made it to Paris in one piece, and had around 12 hours to do some sight seeing. One of the other passengers gave us some tips on how to get around on the subway, so we plotted a course and headed out to see the City of Lights.
Paris was chilly and raining on and off, but not bad enough of either that it stopped us from doing our tour. Warmer clothes would have been a wise choice, but since we were on our way to summer in South Africa, our wardrobes were a little slim.
We caught the subway into town and wandered around in search of something to eat. We found a small cafe and headed in to get out of the rain. Right across from the cafe were these Christmas trees - it seemed funny that in the middle of Paris we would find Christmas trees for sale, but there they were, and were priced around 70 Euro each (around $100).
After a light lunch, we decided to go to Notre Dame. We asked directions and somehow in the translation i snuck a 'si' in which the French cafe owner understood, but thought was very funny that i didn't use an 'oui'.
The directions were a little vague, i suppose there might have been some steps lost in translation, but eventually we found it.
It seemed a little sacrilegious to take pictures in a church, but it was quite awesome in there. This is one of the two huge stained glass windows that are approximately in the center of the cathedral.
After Notre Dame, we headed to the Eiffel Tower - i'll put that in a new post ...
