-- From earliest infancy it had been a

cherished ambition of mine to be

shaved someday in a palatial barbershop

in Paris --

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

I think my trip is mimicking Mark Twain's novel sentence by sentence. No joke, Mark Twain wrote this in his book, about getting a haircut and a shave in Paris. I did the same, and to my surprise, it may have been the most enjoyable experience I've had in a barber's chair. Except for maybe that one time at Supercuts...just kidding. Supercuts might as well use a meat cleaver to cut hair compared to the place I went to last week. I walked in with my uncharacteristically long and curly hair and the frenchman took one look at me, before a said anything, "Don't talk...I know what you want." So with that, I entrusted mes cheveux with him. Thirty minutes later, the old clean cut Mike appeared out of nowhere. I could go on...but I'll spare you.

So my parents were in town the last ten days and we had a great time together. The highlights include the sweet apartment they rented in Saint-Germain-des-Près, the top of the Eiffel Tower at night, a boat ride down the Seine, Luxembourg Gardens, food, walks around Paris, seeing Sainte Chappelle, dinner with Scottie my roomie and Christine my host lady. The beauty of it all was that both of my parents have previously done most of the touristy stuff, so it was a very relaxing week. There was no reason to feel like we needed to cram as much in as possible. It was truly a vacation, except I did still have class during the week. I think Mom and Dad enjoyed themselves and Dad's French even improved. Check out my pictures!

It is hard to believe that when we said goodbye last night, that I would see them again in only a month (and 4 days). This trip has flown by at warp speed it feels like. And it can only speed up. I will be traveling the next 4 consecutive weekends, so there will be a lot more blogging to come. The agenda is: skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland this weekend (CANNOT wait), drinking Guinness in Dublin, eating chocolate in Brussels, Belgium, admiring Van Gogh's works in Amsterdam, and my last weekend in Europe is still up for grabs. I will be able to do only a day drip to somewhere in France...it is down to Lac D'Annecy, Avignon, or Toulouse to visit the Airbus factory. The pilot in me wants to go to Airbus. However, if you've got a place that I just cannot miss, please tell me. Seriously.

Thanks again for reading, bon courage.

Paix.