My days. My nights. My life. Lived well.

My sweet Rob G looking over Paris at sunset- a moment of peace before getting out of the way for another tourist’s picture. The Eiffel Tower was so crowded, but at sunset it has the best view to share with the one you love.

Leaving London, we couldn’t get a cab in time and we missed our first train to Paris, but caught the next one. Upon arrival there was an hour wait for a taxi in the taxi line so we haggled a private car down for our trip to the Four Seasons Hotel George V. The lobby of the George V was beautiful and they had these beautiful flower arrangements of orchids and hydrangea (one of my favorite flowers) and at night they displayed the flowers by candlelight!

The room we stayed in had a nice view of the inner courtyard and we went to Brasserie Flo for dinner and had a great German meal of sausage and sauerkraut as it was originally Germans from Alsace that opened the brasserie.

The next day we went to the Louvre and I was unable to see my two favorite paintings, David’s “Coronation of Napoleon” and Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” as those rooms were closed. I did take Rob to see the Mona Lisa though so he could see in person how small it really is. We went back to the room for awhile and then we went to the Eiffel Tower at Sunset. It was a beautiful view and every hour the Tower sparkles with strobe lights. We then went to a restaurant called La Cuisine which had great food, but my only complaint is that it was filled with Americans and no French people. But the food was fantastic and Rob and I both got to eat chicken with morels (a sweet mushroom). We hightailed it back to the Eiffel Tower and were able to catch the last boat of the night for a Seine River cruise. It was a gorgeous night and it was nice to be there with Rob.

The next day we were supposed to take an overnight train to Rome, but the train was fully booked. We tried to get on it, but to no avail. The concierge at the Four Seasons had made us an alternate reservation on Air France, but that was 711 Euros! We found our own flight on an Italian no-frills airline called Volare and it was only 109 Euros to fly from Paris to Rome.

On the way from Chicago to London, we were upgraded to business class since we had mistakenly been issued “plain coach” seats instead of the “coach with more legroom” seats we paid for. That was nice since the seats folded down flat into beds and we were able to catch some Z’s on the flight over. The food was horrible, and we tried to sneak into the lounge for the pre-flight meal, but apparently we weren’t entitled since we had a complementary upgrade and not a paid one. Oh well.

So, we arrived in London and we were at our hotel by 9:30 a.m., but our rooms weren’t ready so after some coffee and some breakfast we hopped on a sightseeing bus. We made it down Kensington High Street and up through Notting Hill and down Regent Street and over to Waterloo, but both of us kept nodding off the whole time. How you could nod off on the top of a double-decker driving around London on a beautiful day, I donàt know, but we did!

We went to Wagamama for a nice Japanese dinner and then met up with my friend Herb for a coffee. After I got the updates on all the Londoners, it was off to the Milestone Hotel to actually check into our rooms.

The rooms were beautiful and the service impeccable and completely personal. The staff was absolutely lovely and the room was extremely comfortable. It was a complete shame that we were only staying there for one night.