(what follows was extracted, edited and expanded from my written journal. all times are in paris unless otherwise noted.)

12/23/06, 0900 hrs, aboard AF051, approaching paris

we’re descending from our first-ever business-class flight.

for dinner, we chose the poached lobster salad for starters. she drank a bordeaux, i had un biere. the special for the evening was my choice-lamb stew. she chose the steak. i wonder if anyone chose the halibut dish.

as i dozed off in my fully-reclined seat, laying on my side, feet stretched completely out in front of me, my thoughts drifted back to our stay in the first class lounge at o’hare airport, when nicole politely reminded me that i no longer live the bohemian existence i once did. broke, never going anywhere, rarely doing anything. my life could only get better, and the fact that my life has indeed improved dramatically was proven once again tonight, laying down on this flight.

the tv screen in front of me is showing the passing french landscape below us. i’ll pause to watch…

12/24/06, 1030 hrs, lobby, hotel etoile trocadero, paris

it is christmas eve, and families are still families. i don’t really want it any other way.

breakfast, included with the room, is served in the hotel’s carpeted basement, and consisted of croissants, baguettes, coffee, orange juice, and the appropriate condiments. the sugar is cubed.

i caught some nighttime photos and video of the eiffel tower and its light display last night.

also snapped a few good photos of the arc de triomphe.

hotel rooms are small. no sign of an iron yet–i’ll be living out of my suitcase. there’s not even enough storage space for one of us to put our clothes away. the good news is, though, that the water is hot and our room has a tub. we have a double bed; the others wanted twins. i was told they seem to think that two twins are more room than a double bed. i say i’d rather snuggle in a double in the city of romance, without falling through the middle.

as i scribble here, i have no idea where anyone else is. we’re due to meet any moment now. there was talk of visiting montmarte and the pere lachais cemetary. ah, here they come. off we go.

12/25/06, 1127 hrs, room 16

we have plenty of pictures of our travels yesterday. we visited montmarte, plowing past the gypsies, pickpockets, and con artists to walk the breath-stealing stairs up to sacre couer.

at the top of the hill, in front of the basilica, the view of paris is equally breathtaking.

as i walked in the church, glancing sideways at the signs in multiple languages asking for silence and no photographs, i realized mass was taking place. it was nearing its end as we weaved through the crowd. by the time we’d reached a set of seats off to the side, the final procession had begun. the basilica itself is gorgeous on the inside. it seems like an ancient cathedral in this old town, so you can imagine my surprise to learn from the guide book that it was consecrated in 1919, as i recall, as an act of contrition for the franco-prussian war some 50 years before (or so). despite the sign asking for no photography, i snuck a photo of part of the beautiful ceiling work anyway.

once we left, we made our way back down the hill, once again past the gypsies, pickpockets, and con artists towards the famed moulin rouge for the obligatory photo sessions. before the movie, i doubt i would’ve known of the place’s existence.

i was amused to learn that the area of montmarte we travelled through was the sex district. growing hungry following our church visit, eric and i were especially jazzed to find a mcdonald’s (next to a porno theater).

we felt a great urge to try a royale (with) cheese while quoting lines from pulp fiction. we were pleasantly surprised to learn that these burgers actually contain beef, unlike our american counterparts, which contain patties of meat-flavored product.

after our meal, we made our way down the street to the museum of erotica. this was one of the few museums open during the holiday weekend, as we’d learned online beforehand. everyone but nicole seemed interested in visiting the museum (”um, we’re with my parents…”). even if it bothered me that we were looking at erotica with her parents, which it didn’t, the fact that we were doing it on christmas eve was too good a story to pass up. the museum of erotica consists of seven floors of photos, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other various artistic media, depicting all kinds of naughty parts and, er, creative recreational activities. eric felt compelled to capture every inch (hehe) of the museum, which makes for essential viewing (check either of our sites’ photo pages for that), whereas i was content to take it all in with the camera in my pocket. for a measly 8 euros each, our little family experienced what i consider to be the true meaning of christmas: spending quality time with loved ones…even if we happened to be surrounded by nay-nays, weiners, and coochies.

shall we spend a moment now contemplating this heartfelt sentiment? wipe that tear from your eye and read on.

after the museum, my right foot was beginning to get stiff. (hehe) actually, it was rather painful. feet aren’t meant to be stiff. we continued heading east on our journey towards the pere lachaise cemetary. i was blown away by both the scope and magnitude of the winding necropolis. it is an infinitely more intense place than any cemetary i’ve ever seen in my life. it is a community of streets containing distinct neighborhoods of mostly elaborate homes for the dead. one of the decidedly less adorned graves was that of jim morrison, which we eventually found with the use of marc’s guidebook (by rick steves, of course). it seems as if its golden age has passed. eric said that it was once a place for people to congregate, camp, picnic, etc. there used to be grafitti pointing towards the grave, but it has since been removed. it was, when we arrived, a simple grave littered with, among other things, flowers and notes. it was gated off, to deter people from getting too close. amy and i took our sad-face photos and we all pushed on.

we walked all the way up to oscar wilde’s grave–eric and i even kissed it, (sans lipstick), raving homos that we are. oscar wilde may be revered as a nineteenth century symbol of homosexuality, but all i ever cared about was his sharp wit and his way with words. by the time we left pere lachaise, my foot was killing me. it wasn’t blisters, it was the muscle. it contracted and wouldn’t relax. it was an ailment i would suffer to varying degrees for the rest of the trip.

we were challenged to find an open restaurant last night. the third place we looked at proved acceptable and available. it was a rather nice italian bistro. nicole was happy to learn that french wine didn’t make her sick.

after dinner, marc wanted to go to the christmas midnight mass at notre dame, but my foot was not up for more punishment, so i declined. amy and eric bowed out, too. we hung out for a bit after bonnie and marc left before we went off to bed. it turns out that their notre dame experience was quite the ordeal. given the crowd and the amount of walking that was ultimately involved, i was definitely better off having skipped it. today, the eiffel tower, tonite the river cruise and christmas dinner.

12/26/06, 0350 hrs, room 16

something happened on the metro tonite. some guy was apparently ran over by a subway train. i don’t know how or why, but we were warned not to enter the platform by other passengers. we had to take two cabs to the bus tour/cruise/dinner. “i wanted to take pictures,” eric lamented, referring to the dead guy at the train station. “me too,” i replied. as it turned out, the two people that told us not to go to the train platform were on their way to the same tour. however, we didn’t learn that until after we found the bus, which we barely did. the cabbie dropped marc, bonnie, and i off a few blocks away from the bus and gave us bad directions. it took us a while to figure out where to go. the other three had to wait longer for a cab, but at least their cabbie figured out where to go. anyway, once we were there, we had a good time, even though it was very cold that night.

tomorrow, amy and eric will sneak off for a day of their own. we’ll see what we do. we’ve seen a lot so far already in this trip. today’s list of places:

-notre dame

-the river and its surroundings

-amy and nicole wrestling each other to the ground on a metro platform.

what else could i need from a day?

12/27/06, 1245 hrs, hotel lobby

we kiddies left the ‘rents at home and hit the town last night. we travelled to the quartier latin, but found the only action was in a bar called ‘the long hop’. we were near some school, i realize in retrospect. it would explain the presence of mostly 18 year old american kids. we bolted from the joint before you could say ‘junior expatriates’. once we found a cab willing to take four of us, we ended up back in Pigalle and quickly found a cool bar steps from the moulin rouge. they were spinning lots of old school hip hop, which was a relief after the bad 80s american music that we seemed to hear everywhere we went. french radio has more bad american music than american radio! how is that possible? anyway, we drank jaegerbombs (the energy drink was ‘dark dog’ instead of red bull), beers, vodka, and champagne. we danced, we laughed, we had a great time partying in paris.

1846 hrs, room 16

Sainte Chapelle was okay. probably the most interesting thing is that it was consecrated back in 1248. it was once a rather interesting reliquary, but it is now simply a historical monument. we all seemed underwhelmed.

marc went home sick. he’ll be skipping dinner, in fact. i hope he feels better. we skipped the eiffel tower due to the long lines–we’ll try again first thing tomorrow morning. hopefully there will be no fog! we have a lot to pack in tomorrow, our last full day, so after dinner, we intend to turn in early.

2350 hrs, room 16

4 different air france coach lines

#2 line, arc de triomphe

13 euro/person

extensive schedule

1 rue carnot

every ten minutes

800 237 2747

+33 141 567 800

0 892 350 820=34 cents/min

12/28/06, 1455 hrs, outside 94 rue victor hugo, street bench

bonnie and nicole are shopping. amy and eric went to the catacombs. i’d've joined them, but my foot was threatening me again. marc still feels under the weather, so he remains at the hotel for the time being. i’m sitting on a street bench in the freezing cold as the girls shop in the store in front of me. i hope i can read this entry later. ever try to write legibly with gloves on in cold weather?

we hit the eiffel tower this morning. we endured the lines that had already formed, and went on up into the clouds. i bet it’s nicer in the spring. i was still excited as hell to be all the way up, though.

i still can’t believe i’m in paris, and we leave tomorrow. even now, i must force myself to let it all sink in.

I AM IN PARIS.

i never thought i’d say those words. it’s an incredible dream come true even to set foot in europe.

a pigeon just waddled by me. he looks more relaxed and cool-headed than his chicago cousins. it otherwise perfectly resembles the pigeons we’re used to.

it’s been cold all week, but today is really bad. there is a little dog inside the store, attached to its master by a leash. if he’s allowed in, then so am i, of course. however, my foot hurts now, so i’d rather sit down out here and endure the cold. i think even the dog, from the look on its face, would rather be out here with me. we could converse in french.

“bon jour. comment-allez vous?”

“le woof!”

12/29/06, 1000 hrs, chicago time, 32,000 ft. over atlantic ocean, just south of iceland

le suck.

we were spoiled irreversably on the flight to paris in the business class section. today we’re in the ghetto seats near the tail of the plane. every time nicki bends down to pick something up off the floor, she bangs her head on the seat in front of her. surely, amy, eric, bonnie and marc are all reading this and gloating at our terrible misfortune, since they didn’t have the perk of first class for either flight.

the onscreen map and data feed is telling us that we have less than 3 hours to go, even though we’ve been in the air less than that amount of time. i think it’s a bullshit move to make us think we’re closer than we are. we’ve only gone about 1300 miles, which means there’s about 2800 to go. how the hell do they intend to cover that remaining distance in the same time it took us to travel the first 1300? it’s definitely a load of crap. all it will serve to do is make this flight seem even longer than it already is. great.

neither one of us wanted to leave. home? friends? chloe?

pffft.

it’s paris!

if they were real friends, they’d join us in paris.

anyway, all week, nicole asked for one sunny day to give us a break from the overcast skies day after day. well, she got her wish. the day we left, the sun finally made its appearance. ah well. back home we go…

(on the plane home, i asked nicole to contribute a few thoughts about our trip…)

Paris-

I love paris! The city is beautiful. The rumors alone make the city sound romantic. However, being there lived up to my expectations and more. I do think it might have been a little more romantic if there wasn’t 6 of us shuffling around together. Still…I wouldn’t have have done it differently. Remarkably, everyone got along and had a great time. The sun sucked due to the fact that it did not show its face until the last day but the wine and escargot were amazing. I could live in Pari. The beauty and fantasy of the city will definitely bring me back for more.

(we collectively took over two-thousand photos on our trip. only a tiny fraction of the interesting photos are contained in this post. so, if you’re completely bored, check our photos page for more!)