Home > On Tour > Jungle Adventures > The Europe Tour 2000-2001 > Paris, France
	Paris, France Lille, France <<<   Den Haag, The Netherlands >>>   After last week's bore of a city, it was time for a city with non-stop possibilities: Paris. Paris has more things to do than half the rest of the world combined. While it's still in France and inhabited by French people, it's still an exciting place to visit, especially if you have a good companion to go with. Although it was a fairly dismal day, we wasted no time in going out Monday. After only a few hours of sleep (ok, it's now 2:00pm), I was up to head into town with Renee and two other guys. We boarded the metro (thank God for these trains...I bought a packet of 10 tickets which would last me into the next week for $7...everything we did would have cost hundreds in taxis). Our first stop was an obvious one, the Eiffel Tower. I had been here once before, but wanted to go again. So up we went for a spectacular view of the city. It was from here that we looked around and planned our next moves. Leaving the Eiffel Tower, we headed toward the Arc d' Triumph. Just after we had crossed the street from the tower, it lit up. Not just with floodlights, but with thousands of little strobe lights making the tower sparkle. It looked incredible. I managed to get several pictures which came out perfectly. Look for them soon! On the way to the Arc, we did a little shopping, and just short of the Arc, our tired feet told us to sit down for a while and have a drink. The the group of us shuffled into a little bar and sat for well over an hour just talking about anything. After a short look at the Arc, we all decided we were too tired to carry on, and returned home for some slumber. The next day brought on another full day off. I'm not going to go into extreme detail for they day because of a few things, but today we covered a lot of ground, including Sacre Coeur (an amazing cathedral which requires climbing literally about 200 stairs to get to), Place du Tertre (a square packed with tons of incredible artists and painters), The Louvre (a HUGE famous art museum; just walked by it), Notre Dame (the home of some guy with a big back), the Opera House, and a shopping area. By around 6pm, the other two wanted to carry on, but I was ready to come home, so I returned to the hotel. And Wednesday was load-in. No wonderful stories, except that the building is only slightly bigger than last week's, making it yet another fun place to try to fit. Thursday was a continuation of load-in, so I didn't do anything this day either. Friday was another day out, as I was off until late afternoon. Renee and I started early and headed back up to Place du Tertre (damn those stairs) to see if she could get a portrait done by one of the artists. From there we just walked and shopped, ending up in some insane store selling clothes with missing zippers and holes for $1.50-$3.00. These were real nice clothes, just with a few imperfections. The crowd there was unbelieveable though, it was like a riot at the discount bin. I managed to pick up a nice pair of sweatpants finally from inside (yeah, full price)...I've needed some sweatpants to bum around in. Having to throw on jeans all the time is annoying. By mid-afternoon I had to head into work, so we returned to the hotel and I went to work. The next few days were three-show days, so nothing of interest happened. Well, Saturday brought kind of an interesting incident. This hotel has horrible bartenders. I mean really probably the worst in the world for service. Every time I have been to the bar, they have been picking at this little computer monitor they have with a glazed look, like they have no idea what they are doing. And they sit there and pick and pick and ignore people who are waiting for a drink. Then they disappear for 15 minutes at a time inot the restaurant. Well, Saturday night I went down for a drink with some friends. I got to the bar and the guy was picking at his screen. I asked for a drink, and he said "No, wait." So I waited a few minutes, then asked again. He said "No, wait," again, then left. So when he returned about 5 minutes later, I asked "Can I have a drink now?" and he replied "No I am busy, wait a minute." Then walked off again. I was pissed. He went into the restaurant for a few minutes. He came out of there and went to the front desk. I was thinking "This is crazy, he's not back in 2 minutes I pour my own." Then I saw him leave the front desk and go upstairs. That was it. I walked behind the bar, grabbed a glass and headed to the tap, right as the other bartender showed back up out of nowhere. He yelled at me "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? NOOOOOO!" I replied "Well, if someone was here to serve me and not ignore me 3 times in 10 minutes, we wouldn't have this problem." And he's trying to tell me how busy he is and all this (meanwhile, we are the only ones at the bar...4 of us, and the restaurant is empty, so how busy could he really be?). It all got pretty heated and I just finally said "Please pour me a beer." And he didn't want to, so I asked again in a slightly stronger tone, and finally got it. This is 15 minutes after arriving at the bar, so I think it was all well deserved. I guess I ruined his day, because someone tried being nice to him later and he was just all miserable. Oh well, buck up little camper. Monday was another day off (can this really be? a third day off in one city?). All I knew was that Renee and I were heading out and we were being joined by the friend of another skater who had to leave town. We had no real plans, except to stop back at the square with all the artists to see if she could get the portrait done. But the guy who she wanted it done by was not there, so we walked on. We didn't really do anything of importance today, just wandered around. The only interesting site was the tunnel where Princess Diana died. Not that it's a happy site, but one that should be visted. Other than that it was just a wander through the Latin quarter. By the time we returned home we were all beat and I watched a little TV then took a nap. I think it literally took me less than 30 seconds to fall asleep, because I remember nothing more than turning off the light before my alarm went off again an hour later. Monday night I just went and hung out in a friend's room for a while, then visited some people at the bar to say hi. I htink I was in bed by 1am, a near record as of late! The next few days were show days, and I don't think anything really interesting happened, other than winning the raffle at work for one of 8 free Disneyland Paris tickets. This is interesting because Disney NEVER gives any free tickets to any of our shows. You would think that a Disney show could get a few tickets, but believe it or not, our company actually had to PAY for us to go see Disney World's Tarzan and Lion King shows. Anyway, all the people who won are friends of mine and are all a great group, so I'm sure we'll have fun. Thursday was another day off, and thus it was a rainy, miserable day. A few of the ticket-winners decided to go ahead to Disneyland, but I decided against that! Renee and I decided to go visit a place called the Catacombs. The history behind this place is that back in the 1700's, Paris's graveyards were overflowing and there was nowhere else to bury bodies, even in mass graves. So almost every body from every graveyard was dug up and placed in some old underground mining shafts. Now imagination can only take this so far...it was unbelievebale. There are over 6 million bodies down in these tunnels. Most are just thrown in piles of bones. But on the borders to the walking paths, they used leg bones and skulls to build decorative retaining walls. The leg and arm bones were carefully placed in a pattern to build the wall, then mortared, and the skulls were placed in patterns such as crosses, hearts, etc. I literally felt like I was on a movie set for Indiana Jones or something...I just could not conceive this as being real. Unfortunately my camera's battery was dead, so I did not get any pictures, but Renee bought a book, so maybe I can scan a few. That night we planned on cutting some music for Renee's audition and watching a movie. However, by the time we got the music cut, and then went off on a total tangent of other things, it was too late to watch a movie, so I went to bed. The next day was mostly a day off, because there was only one night show. However, mid-afternoon I get a frantic phone call from Renee at the police station because her wallet had been pickpocketed. I spent the rest of the afternoon calling her mom to get her cards cancelled and figuring out what to do about everything. A very tough situation indeed. BY the time all that was figured out it was time for the show. The next two days were three-show days, so there's nothing to speak of there either, except that a friend of mine from Pocahontas and Toy Story was visiting, so I got to chatting with him every now and then, pulling up hysterical stories from the past (The Mark, dates in the pack-out flannel, weld burns, etc). Monday was the day for Disneyland. I met up with about 4 people and we headed off on the train. It was an easy ride and only cost us $2 to get there on the train! Well, until you get there and run into a sign that says "Your ticket is not valid at this staion, you must buy another one for $15.00." Okay, so we shell out a few more bucks. Now by all appearances, Disneyland Paris is nearly identical to Magic Kingdom in Florida, without massive throngs of people and hour waits at every ride (not very crowded and a near walk-on to every ride). However, a friend came up with a new adjective to describe it, and many other things in France. It's been "frenched." Things are not very well maintained or run very well. For instance, in Florida every inch of bush is trimmed to perfection, while in France, there may be weeds growing out the sides, etc. Also, several rides and attractions were closed for technical difficulties, etc. And then the worst, this "ice show" that we went to...Mickey's Christmas Adventure or something like that. Now I have seen some really bad shows in my life, but I think this ranks at the top of the list. First of all, none of us could follow what on earth was going on, because it was half in English and half in French...even within the same sentence. "Parle vous ferme with your skates on the je ne oui?" Not that that sentence really means anything, but that's what the whole show was like!! Someone would ask a question to Donald in French and he would respond in English...Donald and Mickey only spoke English, Minnie was bilingual, and the two guides just mixed it all up. The worst part was the acting. Now if you play Donald, Donald freaks out all the time. Well, at one point in the show Donald's voice track is freaking out and yelling and screaming about something, and Donald is just nonchalantly walking across the stage. We're like, shouldn't he be waving his hands around or something? It was just a terrible experience, and those of us wearing Disney on Ice clothing were embarassed!! Tuesday was another nothing day. I did a little bit of shopping, then went to work. Wednesday was two shows and a pack out. Finally time to move on from this city! We've just been here too long!! Pack-out went fairly well, considering one of our main locals was out (he does half of my load-in...and I had no clue what to do to cover, especially since I was training two new people!!!). Although it took longer than usual, we made it out in time to get some food at the kebab shops before they closed. Then we boarded the bus for what we were told would be an 8-hour trip to Den Haag, Netherlands.