Paris

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and got to our room, which was the cutest hotel room I have ever seen. Complete with a Queen Bed and a single bed in the same room (it was as if they knew that we were coming, Mom & Kenny and myself were staying in the same room), a terrace with a table and chairs, a dressing area and closet, a bathroom with a BATH TUB (highly unusual), wood floors....and our room was built (literally) right above the Metro. So, every time a train would go through the station below, we could hear the train on the rail. It was cool, actually, an experience that I would, otherwise, never have encountered. The walls would vibrate and the floor sounded like it was humming. Unlike hotels in, say, New Orleans...you hear humming alright, but it ain't the Metro!

This was my first view of the Eiffel Tower from ground to tip. It was a sight, and I hate to be a cliche', that was unlike anything I had imagined it to be. A magnificent monument that you never get tired of staring at, being around or taking in.

We took a boat tour at dusk and one of the most romantic scenes, for me, was the dance lessons at riverside. They are teaching the tango and the salsa. More than the buildings, more than the intricate carvings of the architecture, the thousand year old bridges overhead, I was drawn in by the sound of music and the bodies that swayed along with it. SO incredibly romantic...seriously? dance lessons, on the river, in Paris......orgasmic actually! (no offense)

After I watched the dancing, as far as I could see them, until they were a tiny spec and the music was gone, I had my cigarette to wrap up the um, oooh, ahhh, yes! yes! yes! experience and went on to enjoy a view of the sunset via boat tour, at around 10:00 PM.

To wrap up a perfect evening, we sat at a bar, on the water, looking up at the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory, while drinking champagne. Vendors on the street were selling their wares (lighters, mini Eiffel Towers, paintings, key chains) and most of these street salespeople are from Africa. brain does not compute. I perched myself on the edge of this magnificent experience and did my best to absorb each sound, the smell, the air and the romance of it all so that I could bottle it up and sell it to you here, on My Sassy Pants blog.

When the Eiffel Tower lit up and the lights began to dance, with the beam of light shooting out of the top of the tower, the moon approaching in the distance, as if to see what all of the fuss was about, I realized that this experience would change me. In all its intricate details, and yet simply, sitting on a red leather chair, on the deck of a restaurant floating on the water, sipping champagne with my family, I would walk away knowing that in my heart I would have a fullness that will nestle in to my memory forever. Maybe the same or similar way that Stephane felt when he came to the USA for the first time? Oui?

So, I encourage you to take that trip you have always wanted to take, go, now. Life is full of twists and turns, you don't know what tomorrow holds, so go grab that experience, orgasmic or not, and relish it, let it sink into you and allow it to change you in a way that only you can understand....then, come back and tell us about it so that we can celebrate with you!