African-Americans in Paris

As part of our week in London, Sarge and I took the Eurostar, the fastest train in Europe, over to Paris for three days, two of which were spent in the Louvre, but I get ahead of myself.

The Eurostar runs like clockwork, I have to say, and they don't play with security. At the train station, they announce "Do not leave your bags unattended" just like they do in the U.S., but Europe goes further than that. They add, "If you do, your bags will be detonated."

So, clutching our bags, we boarded the Eurostar on time and arrived in Paris on time down to the minute. I still haven't figured out how they're able to run such a tight ship. Fear probably.

Anyway, as soon as we checked into our hotel, I asked the concierge if he could procure dinner reservations at the Jules Verne restaurant, as I had been unable to do so via the internet. He was, and we went that night. This was not our first trip to the Eiffel Tower, but it was the first time we saw it at night all lit up.

Dinner was prix-fixe and fabulous. It was seven courses, and I swear it seemed like we had seven waiters. Every time a crumb dropped, someone that wasn't me brushed it away. Thank God the crumbs never landed on my chest. Tres expensive, but the memories of that night are priceless.

The next day, we got up and walked over to Le Louvre, #62 on my Bucket List. It's true what they say, it takes more than a day to see everything; that's why we went back the next day. I loved seeing Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. She is only 12 x 15 inches, but she is the crown jewel of the museum. We saw many other famous paintings, but what I found most interesting were the apartment rooms of Napoleon Bonaparte. His furniture was moved to the Louvre and set up exactly as it was in his apartments.

Leave it to us to go all the way to Paris and end up in an Irish pub. That night was great, because the bartender drank right along with us (it's allowed) and ended up giving us our drinks on the house. Was he that drunk? I just know it was a good thing we could walk back to our hotel instead of driving.

I thank God for blessing me to see Paris again. Maybe now Sarge will take me to the shooting range?