July 16th - It's Liptonic!

On our way home last night, we stopped off for something to drink. We decided on some good old lipton iced-tea. However, nothing is ever that simple in France. When we got home we realized the horrible truth, it was carbonated. Either we didn't notice or didn't understand the "Liptonic" in bold writing on the label. Or it could be that we would never in our wildest dreams imagine someone would carbonate iced-tea. I think I thought it was just some horrible marketing campaign word like "crumbelievable" or "schweppevesence". Apparently, it actually meant tonic.

Apparently a large cog in the Parisian economy is the accordion grinder on trains. On the way in from the airport, a couple of kids jumped on the train and began playing a song to try and get some money. One kid played the accordion and the other "played" the tambourine. The whole time I was thinking, boy I hope tambourine boy isn't getting a very big cut, he's not bringing much to the table. Then on our epic train ride to Versailles we encountered another duo. This time a father/son (Tom thinks it was probably uncle/nephew) team boarded. The father had an accordion and the son had a guitar. They played a little ditty that sounded oddly out of tune. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, but then I realized, the kid could not play the guitar. He was simply strumming the open strings to the beat. And I thought tambourine boy was bad. This being a double decker train, I shudder to think how much money these guys made as I saw a few dumb tourists reaching for their pockets. I wonder if these guys can make a living?

Another huge money maker is the trinket selling business. At all the major tourist hot spots there are a gang of people selling miniature Tour Eiffels. These guys are pretty funny. They come up to you about once every 15 seconds. It's like, "you just saw me say no to the last guy selling the same thing." They even go back and pester the same people they just sold to. The old adage is true: "don't feed them, they'll just come back for more." At Versailles, a different bunch of guys selling the same miniature Tour Eiffels had lined up across the exit road completely blocking people from leaving without running through their gauntlet. I admire their persistence, but wouldn't miniature Versailles palaces have made more sense? I did almost buy an umbrella hat though because it was pretty hot!

Today we went back to Notre Dame for a tour. We did a walk by last time because the line to get in was insanely long. After a few days in Paris, we've figured out how to get around lines though, just say you need to get in for the lost and found. Or just walk right in through the exit. They never seem to be paying attention as a huge mass of people is simultaneously leaving. April does not advocate this line cutting method-- this is all Tom.

Well it rained today on and off but it wasn't too bad. We did some more walking around the city. For those of you familiar with the Boston area, today we stumbled upon Paris' version of Downtown Crossing, complete with grime and high schoolers. We tried to go to the catacombs but they are closed on Mondays. So now I guess we have something to see if we come back. We also tried to rent one of those bikes we mentioned the other day. Boy they look fun. But alas, we still can't figure the machine out so no soup for us.

We are flying down to Nice tomorrow morning and then heading to Marseilles on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll still have access to the Internet to bore you with our rantings. At least now we will have an answer when asked "how was your trip?" -- Read the blog!