My Trip to Paris - January 14-19, 2004

PAGE FIVE

January 18, 2004
9:00am, Paris France - ETAP Hotel, Porte de Pantin
At 9:00am I headed downstairs to see who was around. Ron, Angéelique, Laura, Starski and AS Monaco were there all just hanging out eating breakfast. Everyone but Dusty came down so Mark, Ron and Me and headed in to Paris to sight see.

Our first stop was the FNAC in Bastille but it was closed! So we went to Champs Elysées and found a bigger FNAC so Ron could do some shopping for CDs and such. We took some pictures of the Arc de Triomphe and then got some lunch at a really nice Cafe right on the Champs. The Café was really nice and the view of the Champs was great. We even spotted a Camaro and a Jeep. Not something I expected to see in Paris.

We then headed over to the Eiffel Tower so Ron could get some pics. About that time a VERY HUNG OVER Dusty managed to make it over. From there we went shopping at a Virgin Record store for more CDs then we decided we should head over to the Louvre before it closed. When we got there, Ron said he was hungry again so we decided that we should hit some of the restaurants in the Louvre.

Ok, this part of the story was so funny it was worth the trip alone!

We knew Dusty was hung over but he managed to keep up with us throughout the day. From the Metro to the stores to everywhere. He managed to mention he was hung over but little did we know, he was REALLY hurting. Credit Dusty for hiding it so well.

As we perused the eateries there in the Louvre, we all settled for Mexican food (of all things!) and sat down to eat. We mostly talked about the concert the night before and all the cool people we met and things we had done since we had been in Paris. About 10 minutes into the meal, Dusty gets up and walks away. We didn't think anything of it at the time.

About 2 minutes later he walks back to the table, his face as white as a ghost! He says to us "Guys....I just puked..." I looked at him and I said WHERE DID YOU PUKE?! He thought I said "What did you puke?!" and replied "My food." I said "No Dusty, WHERE did you puke?" Dusty mumbles out and points "Right there, in the trash can".

Well, what Dusty was pointing at was a trash can about 25 feet away. It was very McDonalds like with a wide and thin stainless steel opening (still swinging by the way!!!). Right next to the can were two girls from the UK who were LAUGHING THEIR ASSES OFF!!! Obviously they had witnessed Dusty ralph into the can and just could not contain themselves!

Well as soon as we saw the can, the girls, and took a look at Dusty, our whole table table exploded in laughter!!!! Between us, the girls and Dusty, the entire place was full of everyone in tears laughing. We could not believe that he could have the conscious mind to twist his head in there sideways and barf his brains out. And the thought of just his head stuck in the trash can while his body was convulsing outside of it was enough to send us into a rage of laughter.

Dusty sat down and we laughed a while about it. A few minutes later Ron gets up a disappears for just a moment. He comes back seconds later and says "Guys, I looked. It's yellow!" referring to Dusty's "upchucking" in the trash can. Well that started the laughter again. I swear our sides were hurting from laughing so hard.

Dusty, thank you for the laugh man. That alone was comedy money just could not buy! We make fun of your plight but know that we weren't laughing AT you, we were laughing WITH you. You're a good sport.

After that hilarious moment, we went down to the Louvre and got to see some really nice pieces of Artwork including the Mona Lisa! The Louvre's collection of Egyptian art is outstanding and I ended up taking most of my pictures there. It's so big that it really requires a full day to truly appreciate it. Some of the world's most famous artpieces are housed there. I highly recommend you visit the Louvre if you go to Paris.

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