My first time...

Well it has officially all begun. I am a tour guide. Unfortunately, we had to ship a few back to the states that couldn’t handle the new guide hazing that went down. Lucky for Graham and I, we had a strong frat foundation that we could fall back on.

My first tour, which was on Friday, was a private Segway tour for a family of 5 from New York. They were an hour and a half late and didn’t want to stop to eat which turned a 4 hour tour into about a 2 and a half hours. The Dad spent the whole time yelling at his kids so that they didn’t break one of the $5,000 Segways while the mom was riding in the back about 50 yards behind everyone stressing about her husband yelling at her kids.

My best tour so far came on Sunday. We had terrible weather the whole time but the people were awesome. There were a few brothers and their families from Chicago as well as a family of 3 from Dripping Springs, Texas, the Rogers, that were great. They had a daughter that was in her first semester at Texas and mom who really liked tour guides that just recently graduated from Texas named Ross…. We had a conversation over lunch about what I missed the most so far in my time here in Paris. Besides the college football season that is about to pass me by, I was quick to acknowledge the amount of bread and cheese, and therefore lack of protein, that I had been snacking on so far and the damage I could do to a nice Chicken Fried Steak or Cheeseburger. Oddly enough, the Rogers own a ranch back home in Texas and Casey, the mom, would just love to send me some good ol’ home grown beef to Paris. So I have to look forward to.

After our lunch stop we were off to the Louvre, which unfortunately for me is the farthest point from the shop on the tour. Before I can even begin to start my rap about the Louvre I hear that one of the girls in the back has a flat tire. No big deal, it comes with the territory of tour guiding. Although this was my first real flat in the fields I was calm. Then I hear grandma from Germany in the back quietly speak up for the first time all day. It was a mumbling shriek for help while pointing at her tire. She had a flat as well. So its pouring down rain in front of the Louvre and I am scurrying back and forth to fix these tires while my “team” patiently sits and watches. After about 15-20 minutes of fumbling through my repair and a few feeble attempts to humor the crowd, we were ready to rock. This is where I began to question the luck I would have over the next couple of months. Somehow, Mike, one of the dads managed to pop his tire while we were standing still, seriously. I didn’t want to make this crowd wait in the rain for another 15 minutes so I traded bikes with him and ran the rest of the tour and pushed the bike. Although I am still clearly in no shape to be running with or without, especially with, a bike, I made it back and really earned my stripes with this particular crowd. Pictures all around with the families and good times had by all.

Week 2 in the Real World house has been great as well. I have worked out a deal with Eliza. She agrees to cook and I clean the dishes. We have all gotten into our routines as well so we have been able to go out more. Its unreal how much they can charge for beer here. A pint can be 6-8 euro and a pitcher was 22 euro at one of the bars, roughly 30 bucks. On the other hand though, you can get a decent bottle of wine for about 5 euro, so we have been taking full advantage of that.


A list of a few firsts for me so far here in Paris.
(Besides the whole living with 4 girls thing)

1. Bought and used a bike past the age of 11.
2. Used the bike lane
3. Been pissed off at people for misuse of the bike lane
4. Driven a bike to a bar.
5. Driven a bike HOME from a bar.
6. Had a picnic
7. Gotten a buzz at a picnic
8. Blogged
9. Gotten out of a traffic ticket because I couldn’t speak the language
10. Paid more for a Dr. Pepper than a bottle of wine.

That’s it for now but I’m sure there are many more firsts to come. Until next time, Go Falcons!

-Le Boss