Colossal Waste: EuroTour 2010, Day 2, Paris

I did my very best to sleep on the flight, even taking one of Barbie's sleeping pills to aid me, but it was not meant to be. I got in maybe an hour or two, which means that our first day in Paris is going to have to be caffeinated. By the way, I watched The Wolfman on the flight, which like many films falls into the, "Could not have been worse if they had literally tried to make it worse," category of film-making. After my hour or so of sleep I then watched Where The Wild Things Are. A very creative and visually stunning film. My shout-out-on-the-Waste-loving-friend Albert is a huge supporter of this movie, and I will have to discuss it with him. My thought... it is all about how terrible children can be until they mature just enough to see that being terrible causes them more pain that it does anyone else.

Barbie had the window seat; this very first view of France is brought to you by our guest photographer, Barbara Howard.

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle Airport. Why is the Paris Airport named after this man? Perhaps because he led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969. I had no idea until I looked him up. I mean, LaGuardia has an airport named after him and he might have been the mayor of New York City who said, "This city needs an airport," but did he lead the fight against fascism and establish a democratic republic?

The drive to the hotel was not eventful, except for this.

We see this often in Los Angeles, but this is the first time I have seen a car shoot in another city.

Checking in at the Castille Hotel. Here you see our bags for the next 48 days. The garment bag in the center has the tuxedo, suits and gowns that a Parisian wedding weekend requires. Otherwise we might have traveled even lighter than last year. Perhaps this is the right time to mention it. Paris is hot. HOT. Like, 90 degrees Fahrenheit and humid.

The view out of room 215's window.

Time to meet up with Sean & Lon, our travelling companions for the first three weeks of EuroTour 2010. And we are hungry.

Sean with a menu at the closest brasserie to the hotel, on Rue de Madeleine. You might recall from last year that La Madeleine is a Catholic church and Parthenon replica in the heart of Paris. I love when Catholic churches imitate pagan temples. Our hotel is just down the block from La Madeleine, which places us a few blocks from around a trillion points of interest. And we are near a few different Metro stations, which puts the rest of Paris inches away.

Get used to seeing the Croque Madame on my plate. Considering how often I order it in Los Angeles, there is no way I will not be enjoying these while we are in Paris.

The four of us went for a walk, really to just take in the city. Here we are, on the way to the Louvre, passing the Vendome Column, built by Napoleon to celebrate his victory at Austerlitz. I just learned, or re-learned maybe, that the Battle of Austerlitz, sometimes called the Battle Of The Three Emperors, was Napoleon's greatest victory. The French, Russian, and Austrian Emperors all sent their armies to the same place, and Napoleon triumphed. In these days of limited conflicts between non-governmental groups, I cannot even imagine three empires going to war. I know it is simple and modern to say, but empires were stupid.

Sean, Barbie and Lon in front of Paris's version of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the Louvre behind them.

I cannot help it. When I see the Place de la Concorde obelisk and Eiffel Tower in the distance, I have to take a picture. A crop would have been very cool here.

I cropped seconds after typing that above.

We have a dinner hosted by the groom tonight. Time to get ready and get over there. And, shall we say, dressing nicely and then walking through a humid, ninety degree city is not what I expected to be doing.

Lovely people having a lovely time. We ended up sitting across from an actress whom a friend of mine dated around 15 years ago. It was funny to tell her that I have basically followed her career all that time solely because my friend dated her. I am still shocked that I met her at a pre-wedding dinner in Paris, when she does not know the people getting married and is a guest of a guest at this dinner and is not attending the wedding.