Nadnerb

A sad day in paradise
9/14
Although it was our last full day today we made the most of it and had a full day indeed. It started at Starbucks where I though I could use the wireless there. I wasn’t going to pay for it so I turned off my puter and enjoyed my mocha and pain chocolat. I needed to check my email and stuff before we left and Mcdonalds was the place to go, you don’t have to talk to anyone or sign up for any crap or pay. If only we had that in America, they could make even more money. Anyways, I left after I was done scouring the internet and went back to the hotel,  we wanted to go to the last big place we hadn’t seen, that was Napoleon’s tomb and Invalides. It was any easy metro ride with no transfers and a good driver.
The place is this big gold dome church-like thing that has lots and lots of gold on the top. Like millions and millions, that much gold. These guys were not cheap. First we walked through an armament museum that had lots of knights armor and swords and guns. It was a lot of the older stuff so it was harder to identify, but it all looked very cool and we all seemed to like it a lot. One of my personal favorites was a sword owned by a duke that was red and gold with that pearly inlay. It looked like something Inigo Montoya would bust out. I would get three of them so I could fight with my brothers or Zoltan and Kevin. Or we all get together and fight evil with 15th century swords, we don’t need guns, but they did have this sword that had a gun attached to it that was pretty sweet. If only I could have it, oh well.
That wasn’t really the highlight of the area though. Napoleon kinda stole the spotlight. I mean honestly, do you really need seven coffins made of 6 different materials, he had two made of lead, that are stacked inside one another? It was really big and is now a national attraction, but was that really what he was aiming for? It just seemed a bit excessive for me after we went through the building, It’s kind of like the arc de triomphe, you look at it take a few pictures and go, we found a cafe that was close. We all got salads and I had one with jambon. Last time I checked, I thought that meant ham, but according to these people I said something totally different and asked for a carpaccio like meat that tasted smoked. It wasn’t bad it was just totally different from what I was expecting.
Going back to the hotel we had the worst metro driver ever. You’d think that driving something on tracks would be really easy, but either this guy hated us and liked starting and then stopping in the station, or he was new and didn’t know how to use the brakes. Once we got back to the hotel we needed to pack a bit. So we did that and time went on and then it was time for dinner. It was an early dinner today and we had a place already picked out. It was a regular cafe/restaurant that was next to the Hard Rock Cafe. It must be a hard gig to be next to, but they did it quite well. This time I had chicken and French fries. Although I guess here they are just fries. Speaking of fries, I didn’t know if they really called it a royale with cheese at Mcdonalds, but they do and if you don’t get that reference, boo at you.
So back to the food, I had a Guinness with my food, it is surprising hard to find a good dark beer here, everything they have seems to be an amber. Not that I don’t like ambers, they just mostly all taste the same. The chicken was terrific and cooked just right. Gramps had the duck and grams had the salmon. They both liked theirs but I didn’t try it so I can’t vouch for them. When we were done eating we went to the Hard Rock to see if any rugby was on. Even though it wasn’t on, Grandma and I stayed for a drink, grandpa went back though. I had something that was like a new age daiquiri, the blended foofy drink with not much alcoholic taste, I liked the pineapple taste, but I have never liked coconut and don’t like coconut rum at all. Over all it was OK, but not something that I would order again.
We had a good time here in France and it was a good way to end things, but I wasn’t done yet. No after we got to the hotel I took a break and waited for it to get dark, when it was of appropriate anti-lightness, I left the hotel to go see some of the places at night. OK it was only the Eiffel tower that I wanted to see, and It was pretty easy to get there, I took a wrong turn after I got off the metro and had to walk around this big hotel, and then construction was blocking another road, so it took a while to get there. The tower is normally just lit up, but for about ten minutes every hour it has flashy lights that they turn on. It was really purty and looked like a big Christmas tree. I should have gone earlier in the trip though. It was much better looking at night. To really end the trip, It was probably the best way to finish off my time in France. I hope I have another chance to come to this city, I love it so very much. I kinda want to be half French and half Irish and nothing else. A good sleep to end and a long flight await my future so I must end this entry.