Words and Pictures: LOS ANGELES REPRIEVE

Well, back to back days of posting. I must warn you this post has 31 photos in it, and that was really holding back on the number I really wanted to put on here. We have taken 1,136 photos on my new camera, which all of today's photos are from. There is an additional 250 or so on the smaller snap and shoot camera we brought also. Suffice it to say we are going a little nuts with the photo taking, but what else do we have to do right? This is a mix of photos between Monte Carlo, St. Paul de Vence, Ville France sur Mer, Interlaken Switzerland, and Paris. Right now it is a little before 1am here in Los Angeles. I am typing on the first regular keyboard in quite sometime, compliments of Mindy. Nancy is asleep and I am getting ready to head there myself. Due to jetlag and the fact we just arrived from Paris our bodies think it is 10am right now, and we will be in Australia in a couple of days where it is 6pm right now. We are meagerly attempting a plan to avoid jetlag for our arrival in Australia as much as possible. Our last day in Europe awarded us with a day of rain and thunderstorms to break the heat streak we had ran into, so it was quite pleasant. We were able to put our warm cloths on and walk around in the rain a bit. While we were on the top of the Eiffle Tower we were enjoying a dry and windy view when we noticed a storm moving pretty quickly towards us. We were blasted with a burst of stronger wind and rain, I stayed outside on top to enjoy a little nature adrenaline rush and met Nancy back inside after a few.

Our last stop of the trip was after eating out last meal and walking about in a neighborhood we hadn't yet stubbled upon in Paris. We saw a group of 100 people or so sprawled out on the street with tables and chairs and a 5 piece band of 20 year old kids playing jazzy tunes. We decided to watch the festivities for a few minutes when a man stood up from one of the tables closest to us and started towards us speaking French. Once he arrived at our spy base we let him know we don't speak French, he launched into English telling us we must come sit and enjoy the festivity. He explained that he was a friend of the mayors and throughout the city neighborhoods people were blocking off streets and hanging out together on this special day. I am sure there was some lost translation there, but we were sure he wanted us to stay. We enjoyed our last time in daylight with this group of people and headed our way back to the hotel to get sleep before our way back to America.