Paris in the Spring
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
As much as I'd love to write down every impression I had of Paris (I could write volumes), right now I'll just post some pictures, and state a couple highlights. It was overwhelmingly wonderful! I'm going back this week *tee-hee* to get some more out of it. I just didn't get enough those two days. I'm going to see some shows and immerse myself a bit more. I want to see some more things, and I really want to be immersed in the gorgeous language.
Our camcorder's batteries ran out of juice our second morning there, and I REALLY wanted ONE DECENT picture of John, Michael & me in front of the Eiffel Tower. So one highlight from yesterday, toward the last 2 hours of our time in Paris, I heard some Chinese-speaking tourists, taking each others' photos in front of the Eiffel Tower. ...John tried to talk me out of it, but I resurrected my Chinese skills to ask one of them if they could take our picture, then email it to me. I was relieved that a nice man was happy to do that for us. And I was so happy to have battled two of my fears at the same time: 1) speaking to people in Chinese; and 2) speaking to people in general.
If you're curious, our conversation went something like this:
me: Dui bu qi, xiansheng. Ni hao.
(I had his attention) Huashuo Zhongwen...ma? man: Dui. me: Uh.... women mei you zheige...(I stumbled for the word "camera," then pantomimed taking a picture).
man: (He's following me...then offers the word "camera" in Chinese.)
me: (excitedly) Dui! Suoyi, nimen keyi (I pantomimed taking a picture again) women, yi....
man: Email?
me: (excitedly) Dui! (I hand him my email address)
man: (Smiling good-naturedly , got his camera ready)
Beaming happily, I motioned for John & Michael to come on over...we took our places in front of the Eiffel Tower. The nice man was about to take a picture, but he paused, indicating that he was going to wait until some people in the background were out of the shot. A moment later he counted " One, two, three!"
Sheesh, if I'd known he spoke English...ha. To be honest, speaking Chinese was most of the fun. If I'd approached someone in English with that request, I'd come across as a desperate ignoramus. At least this way, I got to exercise my brain, made a friend, AND we'll have a high-resolution photo of ourselves in Paris.
So here are some pictures of our last two days. Since our camera is primarily a cam*corder*, I'm beginning to see that it doesn't take the highest resolution photos ...but I'm glad we got to capture some fun moments anyway.
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John & Michael devant les pyramides d'Louvre
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Angela & Michael devant le Mona Lisa
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Angela & Michael à l'intérieur de l'entrée de Louvre
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John & Michael à l'intérieur de l'entrée de Louvre
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Angela devant la Seine
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John & Michael devant la tour d'Eiffel![]()
Angela & Michael sur le carrousel devant la tour d'Eiffel
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And here's Michael reaching the top of the stairs to the Eiffel Tower. He loves stairs. There were a lot of happy, healthy people standing in line to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower. Although we waited in line more than 30 minutes to get to the base of the stairs, it was a heckuva lot shorter than the line for the elevator, and cost less. So we saved money AND we got delicious exercise!
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Our camcorder's batteries ran out of juice our second morning there, and I REALLY wanted ONE DECENT picture of John, Michael & me in front of the Eiffel Tower. So one highlight from yesterday, toward the last 2 hours of our time in Paris, I heard some Chinese-speaking tourists, taking each others' photos in front of the Eiffel Tower. ...John tried to talk me out of it, but I resurrected my Chinese skills to ask one of them if they could take our picture, then email it to me. I was relieved that a nice man was happy to do that for us. And I was so happy to have battled two of my fears at the same time: 1) speaking to people in Chinese; and 2) speaking to people in general.
If you're curious, our conversation went something like this:
me: Dui bu qi, xiansheng. Ni hao.
(I had his attention) Huashuo Zhongwen...ma? man: Dui. me: Uh.... women mei you zheige...(I stumbled for the word "camera," then pantomimed taking a picture).
man: (He's following me...then offers the word "camera" in Chinese.)
me: (excitedly) Dui! Suoyi, nimen keyi (I pantomimed taking a picture again) women, yi....
man: Email?
me: (excitedly) Dui! (I hand him my email address)
man: (Smiling good-naturedly , got his camera ready)
Beaming happily, I motioned for John & Michael to come on over...we took our places in front of the Eiffel Tower. The nice man was about to take a picture, but he paused, indicating that he was going to wait until some people in the background were out of the shot. A moment later he counted " One, two, three!"
Sheesh, if I'd known he spoke English...ha. To be honest, speaking Chinese was most of the fun. If I'd approached someone in English with that request, I'd come across as a desperate ignoramus. At least this way, I got to exercise my brain, made a friend, AND we'll have a high-resolution photo of ourselves in Paris.
So here are some pictures of our last two days. Since our camera is primarily a cam*corder*, I'm beginning to see that it doesn't take the highest resolution photos ...but I'm glad we got to capture some fun moments anyway.
John & Michael devant les pyramides d'Louvre
Angela & Michael devant le Mona Lisa
Angela & Michael à l'intérieur de l'entrée de Louvre
John & Michael à l'intérieur de l'entrée de Louvre
Angela devant la Seine
John & Michael devant la tour d'Eiffel
Angela & Michael sur le carrousel devant la tour d'Eiffel
And here's Michael reaching the top of the stairs to the Eiffel Tower. He loves stairs. There were a lot of happy, healthy people standing in line to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower. Although we waited in line more than 30 minutes to get to the base of the stairs, it was a heckuva lot shorter than the line for the elevator, and cost less. So we saved money AND we got delicious exercise!