Hello Everyone!
Well we decided, Monday night, to go to Paris. So we stayed up late and planned out our trip for seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. With much excitement we left the house at 8:00 am, hoping to make the four hour drive so we could be there by noon. First bump in the road, we didn’t actually get on the road until 9 am. Still, it was with much excitement that we crossed the border of Germany into Luxemburg (which is, by the way, the smallest country in the world), and then crossed the Luxemburg border into France. We were a little bummed that there were no checkpoints because that meant we didn’t get any other stamps in our passports. 
But, undeterred by this small disappointment we headed on to our goal: Paris! The countryside of France is beautiful and sprawling, fields and trees and small villages dotting the landscape. You could almost believe you were in the Midwest. (Can you tell I love my home?) Paris got closer and closer and the traffic, predictably, got heavier and heavier. This is where the adventure begins to turn less adventure and more survival. 
We quickly realized that the language barrier was going to be a little bigger of a deal than we had anticipated. We were not going to be able to decipher the french language. Other than following the word Paris, we were effectively illiterate. We took what we thought was the right exit off of the auto-route (like the autobahn but in french!) and promptly got lost in the congestion of drive-in-circles Paris streets. We quickly realized that we were going to have a very difficult time getting anywhere. We folded in the side mirrors on the car so as not to have them torn off by maniac truck drivers and motorcycles whizzing by inches away from our car. The realization that the only rule was “No blood, no foul” made us all a little panicky. It was decided that we would find somewhere to park so we could figure out where we were and if it was possible to get to the Eiffel tower from where we were. Great idea, but not a parking space to be found. We couldn’t read the signs even to find a parking garage. As luck would have it (God’s watch-care?) we stumbled upon a parking garage and entered it. Israel took a ticket and wedged ourselves into a parking space apparently made for electric cars and economy cars, not a Volvo station wagon. After we all calmed our shattered nerves, slowed our breathing and wiped our brows, we decided to look at the map we had bought earlier in the day. It was a map of France, but did not include a close up view of Paris. Our map was useless. We then decided to see if we could find a city map somewhere in the parking garage. We left the maze of a parking garage and as we are blinking in the sun, I turn around and see…. the Eiffel Tower! It looked like it was only a few miles away! I took a picture in the event that we would get no closer.
Alas, this was as close as we were to get to the Eiffel Tower.
After realizing that we were not going to be able to read the bus signs, we headed back to the parking garage to see what we could find there. The parking garage was actually the parking garage of the metro (subway) and the train station. We found a small shop and purchased a city map. As we look at and study the map, we realize that there is no way we will be seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre on this trip. Now for a bit of explanation. Paris is set up like a snail. Every intersection is a round-a-bout with about 5 choices of directions you can choose. There is no direct route anywhere.
The blue dot marks where we found ourselves
Yes, we could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and figured it was only about 3 miles away, but we weren’t going to be able to drive directly there. After thinking about it, we decided that we would rather make it out of Paris alive than attempt to make it to see the sights. We made it out of Paris by the skin of our teeth (by the paint on the car?) and then decided that rather than stay over night in Rhiem like we had planned, we just wanted to get home.
Just some interesting information for all of you that we looked up once we were safely back at home. The population density in Sioux City, IA is 1,500 people per square mile. The population density in Paris, France is 65,000 people per square mile. Might explain the congestion we ran into, ya think? And then, for a little more comparison, the population density in New York, NY is 27,000 people per square mile.
We are leaving tomorrow morning for Verona, Italy so my next update will probably be from there.
