August 11, 2011

France Day 5: Au Revoir Paris....

So, our last day in grand pear-ee we took a night time bike tour. I had been on one of their day time tours before and it was AMAZING so we decided the night time one was worth a shot! If you want a GREAT tour of a city you are visiting check out these guys: http://fattirebiketours.com/
They do great tours, really reasonably priced, they are an American company, and they think Fat Tire Beer (from New Belgium Brewery in FORT COLLINS!!) is amazing. What more can you ask for??
So we started out meeting at the Eiffle Tower-good place to meet! And they hold up this HUGE sign showing where they are.....



While we waited for everyone to gather we took some nice photos like this one.....
Don't we all look great?


And goofed around of course....


We headed off to get our bikes and start the tour! It was great fun with mom almost getting hit by a taxi (and Matt actually getting spit on/near/close hit by same taxi), great picturesque views throughout the city, tasty ice cream, some very interesting history given by our guide Alex (who is British and comes from a town called Ipswich which is apparently known for a serial murder of prostitutes-always need to have sort of claim to fame right?), and just general biking fun! We did have some on the tour who obviously weren't big bike riders and they slowed the group up and REFUSED to "dominate" the road as we were instructed to. Losers.
Anyhew, the end of the tour included a river cruise on the Seine with wine-yum!! It hit almost all the places we just swung past on our bikes but from the comfort of a chair without having to fight for a spot on the road! We had some more amazing views and photo ops like this beauty...


When all was done on the cruise we hopped back on our bikes (at which point Matt almost wheelied himself OFF the back end of the bike, going up hill, it was pretty funny, but what do you expect from a guy who was doing this on the cruise.....)


As I was saying, hopped back onto our bikes to head back to the bike rental place to finish for the evening. We ended up right next to the Eiffle for it's grand lighting time and show (it sparkles!)!


This tour was supposed to last 4 hours, to leave us enough time to take the metro back to our hotels. Nope, this bad boy didn't finish until about 1145 and the last train was at 12 since it wasn't the weekend. Yippee! It's ok, we took a taxi instead. So thus concludes our time in Paris, but don't fret. We still have Belgium to visit!

August 7, 2011

Paris Day 4: Venturing into the Music of the Night

So in case you didn't get this title's reference, day four we went to Opera Garnier, the opera house that is the inspiration behind "The Phantom of the Opera." And in case you still don't get it-there is a song in the musical called "Music of the Night"-oh just look it up people! Anyhew, since it had been rainy we decided to take an easy day and since mom and dad's hotel was RIGHT next to the opera, we figured it was good day to do the tour there. I didn't get a chance to do this tour when I was in Paris 4 years ago so I was really looking forward to going and seeing it all. All I can say is that I was not disappointed! The opulence yet beauty of this building was amazing. Not like Versailles where you want to puke because it's so gawdy-no. There was the same types of extravagance but not the same feel. It is kind of hard to describe. We did a guided tour which was really cool-we got some good information and stories about the place. There was a rehearsal going on so we got to go into the theater area after they were finished-it was really awesome. Make sure to check out http://thecypruslife.shutterfly.com/ for all the pics!!

The stairwell area-this was THE place to be seen during the height of the Operas time!



This was another big spot to be noticed-mom looks quite smashing don't you think?


THE chandelier that is the inspiration in the book/musical/movie-it actually fell on someone!


A different view of the main stairwell-only the season ticket holders were allowed to walk here-snooty!


One of the entrances-it's right before that main stairwell.


Always have to have some flair where the theater is involved!