First, there were Rob & Rachel, who visited us in March. Many a nights did we spend wining and dining in the restaurants of Paris. It was a good thing they are such gourmandes, since they missed out on the Louvre (they were on strike), the Musée D'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower (the lines were 2 hours long), Arc de Triomphe (they closed early that day), and Versailles (terrible weather). Despite all that, Rob and Rachel do rank Paris as their favourite European city...after Roma.

In May, Becky and Roland arrived and many a nights (again!) were spent wining and dining chez Thuy and Julien. During the days, our friends ventured out on their own to wander the streets of Paris, visited Montmartre (where they will strongly advise you NOT to exchange your money at any of the foreign exchange counters!!), the Louvre (this month they were not on strike), Musée D'Orsay (the line wasn't too long), and other fun neighbourhoods as the Latin Quarter, the Marais, the Jewish neighbourhood...and more.

The day Becky & Roland left, Kristen and Rodel arrived, with their heavy luggage in tow (yeah, it would be if you were carrying your rollerblades all the way from Canada - good thing they got to use them -not!) Apart from visiting the Notre Dame cathedral (3 times!!), the Sacré Coeur cathedral and Montmartre, glimpsing the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, hanging out with their friend Mei, who came in all the way from Brussels, they also checked out the nitelife of the Bastille area and stumbled upon a très cool venue called "Velvet", a hip clubbing experience where transvestites, hard-core party-goers, gays and lesbians grooved and shook their bonbons till the wee hours. As for food, who wants traditional French cuisine when there's croque MacDo?!

In June, Thuy's brother John came to stay for 2 weeks. Since he was going to be around for so long, "Tourguide Thuy" set an easy-going itinerary for her brother and managed to show him all the sites that the previous visitors had seen...and more! One weekend, the family set out to discover Brittany and its beautiful coastal towns in the western part of France. On Saturday Julien (official driver) drove everyone to Rennes, the capital of Brittany and a central point from which to go to other more interesting and beautiful places. Sunday, they visited the northern coastal towns of St. Malo (famous walled city), Mont St. Michel, Perros Guirec, ....Monday they saw the south-western coastal towns of Quimper, Concarneau, Locronan, Cancale, Quiberon....
Some stats: for each day, total no. hours spent in car vs. total no. hours seeing the sites 7:2; washroom stops: 10 (for Thuy, who has a pea-sized bladder); sunscreen tubes used: 3 (for Julien, who burns like a lobster); AA sized batteries used: 500 (for John, whose headphones are practically implanted in his ears so he can listen to Hip-Hop music 24/7).

More stories of friends' visits...