January 13, 2017, Charles Du Galle Airport, Paris:

And we are off, good news, not so good news. Brand spanking new plane coming back from Paris, its first flight was just coming into Paris, we are on its second run. The not so good news is that it had a few glitches, engineers had to come on board and tweak a few things causing us a hour and a half late departure, so we just, I mean just missed our connection. Now we have to wait a couple hours. I know first world problems. It's all good, we are comfortable and most importantly safe. By waiting until the later flight we were fortunate to have the sleeper type seats rather than the regular business class seats, so in the end all good. A very nice way to end this wonderful New Years visit to Paris. An incredible way to begin a new year. Time to plan our next getaway… 

January 12, 2017, Paris, France:

It's a wrap, our two week visit to this vibrant amazing city of over 2 million comes to a close. That would 2 million inside the city limits but metro Paris is more like 12 Million. So it was a low key wrap up day, only one pic of the Pantheon today as I took a stroll down some of the streets showcased in the movie, Midnight in Paris. Jan took a Sea day today, for you cruisers out there you will know what I mean. Unfortunately we weren't in the mood to tackle the malls here as of yesterday the big sales started. Paris waits for a week the new year and for most of the New Years tourists to leave before putting almost everything on sale, the Lafayette Galleries were crazy when we strolled through yesterday, sorry just not in the mood, even there were some amazing fashion items on sale. Packing and getting ready for our return flight tomorrow. 

January 11, 2017 - Paris, France: Part 2

January 11, 2017 - Paris, France: Part 1

The Eiffel Tower a closer look. We took advantage of an okay day and visited the Eiffel Tower as we felt the crowds would not be present, we guessed correct. After walking right through security, there were no lines at the ticket booth or the elevators, something I have never seen. Up we went and had a very nice visit where at times we had the whole floor to ourselves, again something I have never seen before. A nice visit to this iconic tower built as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 Worlds Fair. My recommendation here would be, well try to book a reservation to get up at a certain time - we could not as they sell out three months in advance or wait until not the perfect day and with the time of year you are planing to go hope for the best. Take the elevator up to the second level (and if open or possible or desirous go to the third level). Once on the second level and finished your ohhing and awing take the stairs down to the first level for some more sightseeing before again taking the stairs down back to the ground. Taking the stairs down is not difficult and gives you a  great different perspective of this engineering masterpiece besides the elevator lines on the way down can be almost as bad as going up.

Back to the hotel for a little rest as tonight we headed down to the Seine and a combo dinner cruise aboard the Bateaux-Mouches, the oldest boat company in Paris and a night at the Crazy Horse. Dinner consists of a glass of bubbly to start with followed by a four course gourmet meal with a bottle of wine while cruising down and up the Seine past all the iconic buildings all light up for the occasion, very nice and very romantic. As mentioned earlier we had an okay day but during this cruise the clouds left us under the watch of a beautiful full moon. Did I say romantic… Once docked we headed over to the second part of our double header evening and the Crazy Horse, another oh, la la, but with a few more la la's. I heard about this place through a friend back home and thought it worth checking out. The Crazy Horse history goes back to 1951 where today it is known as the place to see the best nude show in the world, did I also say tasteful, tasteful nude show in the world. The program includes about a dozen separate vignettes telling their our story. Unfortunately we only stayed for half the program, something did not agree with Jan from dinner and she was just not feeling well at all, to play it safe as we were leaving to come home in a few days thought it best to leave. May try to pick up the rest of this show on a future visit. All in all wonderful dinner, wonderful cruise and a very ahem, interesting show. Part 1 of 2...