Well, that was fun. There is so much to experience, see and do in Paris that at times our trip felt like it was three weeks long. Other times, it feels like it was about 12 minutes. Not to overstate the obvious, but if you have the chance and have never been there, you need to go (particularly if you don’t mind the absolute bludgeoning the dollar is taking vs. the Euro these days). Getting around on the Metro is ridiculously easy, and even in a little under a week you can do Paris justice. We would not attempt to bore you with every detail of the trip, but we did think a little highlight tour — RandBall’s Guide To Paris — might be in order before we get all of our bearings about us and get back to regular programming (seriously, we don’t even know what’s going on in the world of U.S. sports. We didn’t find out until yesterday that the Wolves got the No. 3 pick, and so on). So here we go (and nice commenting while we were gone, by the way. The store held up nicely).

The sights: The Eiffel Tower is amazing. We happened upon it our first night there after dinner, just as all the flashing lights were coming on. Incredible. The RBBH concurs. … The Musee d’Orsay is similarly breathtaking. The most impressive collection of Impressionist paintings in the universe. … The Louvre is surprisingly humid and not surprisingly teeming with people. The second floor was closed the day we went, which might have caused us to flip our floor plan in disgust at the information booth and declare, “Well, that’s stupid!” before leaving. Might have=definitely, by the way.

The sports: We saw the most random things on late-night EuroSport viewing as our body clock adjusted. This included: A WNBA game between Chicago and Sacramento; an old Bulls vs. Pacers NBA playoff game; and more rugby than we could ever have imagined. The French Open actually started while we were there, but there is apparently some sort of lottery to get tickets. Tennis is fine and all, but we don’t love it like the French do. Same goes for cycling, auto racing and, of course, soccer. There was extensive coverage of the U23 tournament in Toulon, and the TV commentators spared nothing when bashing the lazy play of the U.S. side. The second picture above is of little French boys playing soccer outside the Jardin du Luxembourg, another of Paris’ finest spots. You’ll notice there are construction cones covered in jackets used as a goal.

The random: The Lord of the Rings pinball machine inside a cafe on the banks of the Seine; the saxophone player hammering out George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” in the Metro station; the man on the Metro so drunk he wasn’t sure he could navigate the two-inch gap between the train and the platform. Did we mention he was showing off some rear cleavage and had a rip in those jeans that would make Stephen Pearcy blush? Yes, indeed. But we knew right from the beginnin’ that he would end up winnin’; the Frenchman decked out in full stereotypical costume, including scarf, as we sipped cappuccino at 9 a.m. after our flight; the breakdancers outside the Arc de Triomphe (who were really quite terrible); the man doing soccer tricks outside the Sacre Coeur; the fact that McDonald’s is referred to as McCafe in some parts and that it really is called a “Royale with Cheese,” per Pulp Fiction; the fact that Deadspin’s Will Leitch was in Paris almost the exact same time we were, giving us a chance to hold a sports blogging summit over seven bottles of wine that ended with a plan similar to the end of the movie “Fight Club.”*

Overall: The proprietor of a cafe at which we dined probably summed it up best. After we declared the meal to be excellent, he said, in accented English, with a hint of snootiness but mostly pride, “Yes, well, that is the aim. We do our best.” Indeed. Do not be surprised by excellence. Hey, that might be a new slogan for the alleged RandBall T-shirts.

*Not true. Didn’t see Will there. Nor Buzz Bissinger.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.