Paris

I've been in Paris for the past week and have enjoyed most of it. I managed to find the hotel Elise had booked for us without difficulty. However, I was reunited with a slightly ill Elise and to make a long story short: guess who now has a sore throat. Not impressed.
It was weird to be back in a city I haven't seen in over a decade. Sure I've seen tons of pictures of the major tourist sites, but it's something completely different to spy the Eiffel tower peeking from behind fancy looking buildings as you are trying to find the entrance to the metro. We did the basic tourist stuff: The Eiffel tower ( didn't go up, though, the line was about 11 miles long), the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (can you believe they have Da Vinci Code audio guides???) and the Notre Dame Cathedral. We also checked out some more sinister areas: The Ritz Hotel and the tunnel where Lady Di tried in vain to avoid the Papparazi, The Catacombs (tons of dead people and their remains... creepy) and the salacious neighbourhood around Montmartre, which was actually quite pleasant. Saw the Moulin Rouge and lots of strip clubs, but we also checked out the Sacre Coeur and had a drink in Amelie Poulin's cafe (Le Cafe des Deux Moulins)... which is pretty awesome in itself.
Finally, we celebrated Bastille Day. We were present for the morning parade, where I saw the President zooming by at high speed in a military jeep, and we watched the fireworks at night from the Place de la Concorde. Walking back to our appartment, some douchebag on a motorcycle shot a firework near us and it left a pretty annoying ringing in our ears, but at least we were unharmed. The metro that night was just as annoying and dangerous.