Pic from Paris

Thursday was happy to not be in 100+ degree heat and dirt storm day and invovled a 4 hour ordeal at CDG airport in Paris after hopping a direct flight that null and voided my itinerary to get back to the London tomorrow. Needless to say I got to the Hotel and now have the blessing of taking a train throught the chunnel tomorrow to London. After I got in and showered, I went to Luxembourg Gardens which is less than 500 yards from the hotel and then to the Pantheon. Then to the hotel for a breather before meeting up with some students pursuing the saem masters I am after, and studying in paris at the moment. The next day was Bastille Day and the french put on a hell of a eventful day. My feet hurt from all the walking and sightseeing and I haven't even scraped the surface of what Paris has to offer for a tourist. I went to the parade on Friday and the Arc du Triumph, took a nap and then went to the Eiffel for the fireworks and dinner. The photo above is not indicative of how many people were there. Imagine shoulder to shoulder from the Washington Monument to the Supreme Court Building on the other side of the Capital. That and the frenchies have an unspoken of pastime in freelance pyrotechnics as the serious amatuer fireworks started at about 7 and conitued hours after the main show. The fireworks lasted about 35 minutes and were set to Classical music that was piped through out the greenspace where everyone was chillin. They started pretty late as it doesn't get dark in Paris in the summer till 10:30; a lot different than KSA when it was pitch dark at 7pm. Today I went the Tour Montparnasse, the highest building in Paris at 59 stories, and then continued onto the Louvre for about 3 hours. I did take one noteworthy stop for an expresso on Avenue Daumesnil in the 12 Arondissement. For all my family members out there, regardless of whether we spell our name wrong, just to clarify, there is a Daumesnil... Place, Avenue, Rue and Lake in Paris, mostly on the southeast side. I looked for our spelling and found nothing sans "a". After the Louvre and a late lunch I went to the the hotel for some down time and then out for an adventure outside of Paris to the Institut of French Petroleum, where I intend to be sometime in the next year or so. It is suburban by still relatively high density, on the west side of Paris about a 35 minute train and or bus ride. Then back to town for dinner and that gets me to here, 11:30 and dead tired. Off to bed because I go to London tomorrow. Wish I had some of ya'lll here to take it all in with me (preferably someone that is fluent in french).

Au revoir!