14 Paris Day 1

We drove into Paris today, OMG! a horrifying experience. We stoped at the Parc de Bagatelle one of Paris’s 4 botanical gardens which helped settled our nerves. We sat down and had a glass of wine bought from basically a hot dog stand and watched the Parisians with their children, their dogs, their lovers, many reading books in the park with peacocks strutting around, surrounded by rose gardens of outstanding colors. Created in 1775, the park and its chateau were built in 64 days after a wager between Queen Marie-Antoinette and her brother in-law, the Count of Artois. This is a beautiful and peaceful place on the outskirt of Paris. It contains giant trees and varied plant life, little bridges, caves, expanses of water and artificial waterfalls, a 19th century Chinese pagoda, a spiral garden winding up to a hill top with views of Paris and 10,000 rose bushes from 1,200 different species. We strolled for 5 mi thought the park enjoying every bit and taking photos.
Unfortunately, we had to get back in our car and continue into the

heart of Paris to the ‘Ibis Paris Tour Eiffel Hotel’. It was only 6 mi away and would take 20 min of terrifying driving. Jim and I were barely speaking to each other when we arrived. We ended up in the garage of our hotel and tried to find the lobby, not an easy task, since you needed a key card to use the elevator. After opening a door in a hall of many doors we heard voices and bounded up the stairs (at this point there was no bounding for us, but we had hope). We found ourselves in a confusing place. I asked a man in a suite if he spoke English and if he could help us, I thought our luck had changed he spoke English and gave us our room keys. We dragged our bags though the garage to the elevator up 8 floors and than a 3 block walk to our room, Jim with his giant bag. Guess what the key did not work. I had to go back down to the lobby and wait behind a bus load of Japanese tourists. I finally busted to the front of the line and ‘excusez-moi' but my keys don’t work. He was very accommodating and gave me a new set of keys and an apology. Jim has now been waiting 15 min in a narrow hall with our bags piled high. We open the door to our room which was the size of a refrigerator (maybe a side by side). It did have a great view of Paris above the street and we could open the window wide. In France if you fall out of a window 8 stores up it is your fault, your are actually responsible for yourself. Imagine that! We made a picnic hotel dinner with wine than ventured out walking to the Eiffel Tower, lite up in the night sky, a spectacular sight. The lights twinkled every hour on the hour to the crowd’s “oohs and aahs”. We walked along the Seine crisscrossing bridges over the river and watching the barges carrying dinner cruises and sight seeing tours. After a 4 mi walk we returned to our hotel safe and sound for the night. Paris by night was beautiful and fascinating, not to be missed.