A Hopeless Romantic In Paris

Since I first decided to go to Paris the first few months have been more saving to see if it's a possible reality.  After saving all my lunch money (so to speak) I think there's a pretty good shot at this working.  I was having lunch with some friends on Sunday.  One of them is going to Paris for a few months (hi Maggie!), so there's a good chance I can meet up with her at one point during the trip.  Her mother then asked me a strange question: "Have you considered asking your brother to join you?"  At first this seemed like a silly question since I liked to take trips alone.  But I sat on that thought a bit.  See, my bother and I have been getting closer throughout this year.

It wouldn't be right to explain why right now, but needless to say we are.  The idea made more sense the more I thought about it.  So I decided that, yes, I would ask my brother if he wanted to join me for my trip to Paris.  I called him up a couple days later with one of those awkward conversations that only brothers can have:

Me: Hey Victor.

Victor:  Hey Kev, what's up?

Me: Well, I was thinking - and keep in mind I haven't decided on anything yet - but I was thinking of going to Paris for about a week this winter.  Near the last week of November and the first week of December.

*slight pause*

Victor: Yeah, that sounds like fun.  Let me just see if I can travel by then and get off work.

And that, ladies, is how easy it is to plan a trip to a foreign country.  We chatted a bit about plane fare, hotel costs (Hotels.com is going to help with that), and we hung up.  I then decided to run the cost of a round trip plane ticket at Travelocity.  Turns out the round trip ticket for France would be less than $1,000 per person.  Book on a certain day, and it might even be less than $700.  Pinpointing when the plane ticket is going to be that cheap is like playing a game of Craps though, so we're aiming for $1,000.  Funny enough, there was another thought that accorded to me after Victor said yes: With us now splitting the cost of a hotel room, the trip will be a couple hundred cheaper for both of us, which makes the trip very doable now!

See, little bothers DO come in handy once in awhile!