Preparing for Paris and Ireland

Well, we’re now trying to learn a little French using Rosetta Stone. We don’t expect to become fluent with just Level 1, but it would be nice to learn enough to understand some of the conversation around us and improve our enunciation. French is difficult for us as it’s not phonetic at all, so reading phrases and words may only serve to make us sound like imbeciles.

I’ve used the Rosetta Stone Spanish software and like it. It includes the computer software, a headset to work on enunciation, and a CD to listen to and practice in your car or on your iPod. Right now, if someone around us is discussing a “boy drinking water”… by god we’ll know it!

I usually just try to learn the essentials… greetings, please and thank you, requests for menus and such, but if we can learn a little more it will undoubtedly make the trip more enjoyable.

We had a little mishap regarding lodging this week. The place we initially booked had already been spoken for, so we (we meaning Kim) had to scramble to find another place. She did find a great place in the 7th arrondissment located between the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides. If you look at the photo, Les Invalides is the golden dome toward the right. It was originally built as a solidier's hospital but today houses Napolean's Tomb and a military museum. Our apartment is located just to the left of it, which is an excellent location, and it provides room for all of us to stay together when Marnnie arrives.

We’ve put together a general daily itinerary to see the things we’re interested in. We’re also going through the guides and maps I brought back from my first trip to Paris to see if there’s anything else we’d like to see and to make sure our itinerary fits.

It seems that my sister Brenda and her family are headed to my favorite place on the planet… Kauai (see the picture of the Kalalau Valley rainbow I took there in the blog entry below this one). They visited Hawaii for their honeymoon, with every intention of spending time on Kauai, but that was the exact time that Hurricane Iniki struck, forcing them to stay on the big island (if memory serves). I hope they have as great a time as Kim and I did when we were there in 2007. We’re somewhat jealous, even though we’re about to go on a great trip of our own.

I’m so looking forward to seeing Marnnie (and Travis), sharing Paris with her and Kim, and to my first visit to Ireland. My only exposure to Ireland has been in movies, news and in what I’ve read. Now I’ll get personal exposure to the land from which my Great Grandparents came.