AN: The Italian trip I mentioned in my Worth Something story…I upped it to a Italian/French trip, so that I could model it after the trip I took in the summer of 2004 (I went to France (Paris and Nice), and Italy (Asisi, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Vatican) and Monaco (where the palace is)…They might go to Monaco…there's not much to it.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy because I had to search through my house for journals, and photos, ect so I could remember the places I went . Got me thinking about all the blasted people I had to deal with. I'm gonna try to get some of my photos downloaded on my computer…maybe post them in my journal…anyways, I spent all night looking up the names of these places because my memory never goes when it's foreign names of old churches.
So…please enjoy!
Oh! And if you haven't read 'Children of Dune' then you might want to close your eyes, I have an end of the book spoiler.
Thank You,
Seekergirl17, controversy-queen, frida, anonymous reader, Smile 1 (You rock hard), Jemma (thanks for all the emails, I'm really getting into Eliza's mind, oh and the CSI thing that was happening by my house, it's going to be an unsolved case…no one's even a suspect right now…) , aimie, anonymous reader 2, and muse-of-the-fairies (William is at Rory's because he is visiting his older sister)
. 1 .
"Buy me nice gifts." Lorelai instructed the Mariano's as they headed towards their gate. Jess shook his head at his daughter's grandmother's command. He had no doubt that Lorelai would be eagerly awaiting their return, just for the gifts that he and Eliza would bring her back from their trip to Italy and France. Lorelai noticed Jess's look are stared at him hard. "I'm serious, Jess. No scarves that I could pick up in Mrs. Patty's closet. I'm talking something really expensive." She continued.
"Why don't I just buy you a tiny section of the country?" Jess teased. Lorelai looked pleased with the answer.
"That'll do." She said, patting him on the head, before moving onto Eliza. "Give your dad a hard time." She commanded.
Eliza giggled, "Don't worry, Lorelai, I plan on many hours of 'Are we there yet'." She snickered. Glancing at her father, she noticed he looked perplexed, almost regretful.
"Good girl." Lorelai grinned, pulling her into a tight hug.
"You two come home in one piece, alright?" Lorelai's eyes passed back and forth between the two of them.
"Promise, and if we can't help it, it'll be her jaw after she spends hours asking me if we're there yet." Jess grinned.
"Lukey, remind me to never take a road trip with Jess." Lorelai cuddled up to Luke who stood off to the side, William standing beside him.
"Huh." Luke let out, causing Lorelai to giggle.
"He'd probably throw you in the trunk, too." Jess said, walking past her to give Luke a brotherly hug. "Well, we better get going. Don't wanna miss the flight or anything." He stated, lifting his carry on bag higher up on his shoulder.
"That would definitely suck." Eliza spoke up.
"Have fun, you two." Luke waved as the Mariano's headed towards the growing line of travelers.
. 2 .
"I'm bored." Eliza muttered, slouching back in her seat. Jess peeked at his daughter out of the corner of his eye, smirking. He reached into his bag, eyes never leaving the pages of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', and pulled out a book, handing it to her. "Children of Dune?" She asked, looking at him.
"It's your name sake." He stated nonchalantly.
"Why did you name me Ghanima again. I mean, she's sort of incestuous at the end of the book." She pointed out with a small smile.
"And there's the reason you don't have a twin brother named Leto." He chuckled lightly.
"Imagine the possibilities." She giggled.
"Change of conversation." Jess spoke quickly.
"Change of reading material." She handed the book back to him. Jess rolled his eyes, shoving his book mark between the pages, marking his spot and pushed the book down on the uncomfortable airline seat and leaned down to get eye level with his bag full of books.
"What about David Copperfield?" He asked. She shook her head. "What? I thought it was your favorite." He opened his mouth, slightly shocked.
"It is my favorite. But I just finished reading it last night." She informed.
"Oh. Um, how about the Bourne Identity?" He pulled another book out.
"Nope. Not too in the mood for a spy novel while I'm flying." She sighed. "It's kind fo like watching 'Final Destination', you know. That is definitely not a movie I would choose to watch on this flight." She smiled.
"You're picky today." He stated, shoving the Ludlum novel back into bag. "Here's a good one. 'Goodbye Atlantis… found it in a used book store about a month ago." He handed it to her. She studied the cover, then slowly opened the flap, skimming over the summary before grinning.
"This will do."
. 3 .
"This is the dumbest movie I have ever seen." Jess stated blandly as he looked at the tiny screen in the back of the seat in front of him.
"Better then what's on the other channel." Eliza replied.
"True. You aren't aloud to watch that, by the way." He said after a beat.
"Dad! I'm thirteen!" She whined quietly.
"Yes, you're thirteen. There's no need for you to be watching movies with those kind of scenes." He rolled his eyes. Eliza glared at her father, pulling a portable cd player out of her bag and pushing play, Metallica's 'Greatest Hits 3' playing loudly out of the headphones. Without asking permission, she grabbed her father's book from the seat where he had discarded it an hour ago and opened up to where he left off.
Jess silently thanked whoever was out there that she had ended up a Hemingway fan. He wasn't sure he would have been able to handle it if she'd been too much like her mom and enjoyed reading the long monologue's of Ayn Rand. Smiling slightly, he closed his eyes, letting his body ease into sleep.
. 4 .
He was awoken by a flight attendant gently shaking his shoulder. "Excuse me, we're preparing for landing, you and your daughter need to sit up and put your seat belts on." She announced. He nodded a thanks and turned to his daughter, who had, he guessed, dosed off not long after he had, resting her head comfortably on his shoulder, her free hand wrapping itself gently around left arm.
He shrugged her gently off her shoulder. She sat up, blinking her eyes several times in confusion before realizing where she was. "We there yet?" She asked sleepily. He shook his head.
"Preparing to land. Need to put your safety belt on." He informed. She nodded, her hands fumbling for the two ends of the belt. Jess, fully aware and awake did the same, then leaned his head against the seat, sighing.
Eliza was no awake, 'The Sun Also Rises' resting on her lap, one hand holding onto it tightly. "Have you been to Paris?" She asked quietly.
"Nope." He shook his head.
"Will it be fun?" She asked again.
"It should be. I mean, after all the money this trip cost, we better have the times of our young lives." He teased.
"Young?" She kidded. He rolled his eyes.
"I'm not that old." He returned.
"Old enough." She grinned before leaning her head on his shoulder once more.
. 5 .
Finding their baggage hadn't been hard. Eliza had made sure both of them had extremely noticeable suit cases, hers being a neon green, his a neon blue. Jess had thought the idea had been stupid when she had chosen their baggage, but after the long customs process he'd gone through, he was glad for the easiness that came with their bright colors.
"Do we get to ride in a cab?" She asked. He nodded. "I read they drive really fast here. Don't use signals, cut in front of each other without warning…" Eliza slowed her speech when she noticed the perplexed look her father was giving her. "But then again, it was only in a book. Doesn't mean it's true." She saved quickly.
"Let's go." He grinned, grabbing the handle of his suitcase and pulling it behind him as they headed towards the exit doors.
. 6 .
"It's small." Jess stated, looking around their hotel room.
"It's perfect." Eliza corrected.
Sometimes, Jess couldn't believe she was thirteen. She had the maturity of a high school graduate…something she, no doubt, inherited from her mother, and despite the fact that he had raised her all thirteen years, he felt himself sometimes fooled.
"You gonna crash?" He asked. She nodded.
"I'm off to never never land." She replied falling on one of the beds. Eliza grinned feeling the soft mattress and fluffy pillow catch her fall. Despite the bed's hard looking exterior, it was almost more comfortable then the one she had at home.
. 7 .
"Huh. It looked bigger in the travelers guide." Jess commented as they stood side by side in the center of a crowd of avid tourists.
"It said underneath the picture that it was actually smaller then what normal people thought it was." Eliza rolled her eyes.
"Yes, but, I mean…it's the Mona Lisa. Didn't you ever picture it to be like…the entire wall in size?" Jess teased.
"Only in movies, daddy, only in movies." She grinned before walking away from him and into the next room.
Walking. It was something they'd been doing all day. Eliza had insisted that it was the only way to tour Paris. That, or riding on the Parisian subway. Eliza had also insisted that it was just like it was in New York, except the directions were in a foreign language. Waking up at seven in the morning, they'd come downstairs eaten the petty breakfast L'hotel du Voltaire provided and set out on their way. They had two days in Paris and Eliza was determined to see it all.
They'd started in the first district, visiting the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame, then moving across the city to take a long walk down the Champs-Elysées. They shortly ooed and ahhd at the Arc de Triomphe before finding themselves at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, wondering the isles of the classic section. Neither sat down and read but admired the first editions of some of the great works.
It'd been then that Eliza had said that she desperately wanted to see the Mulan Rouge. It was in the third district, which warrented several blocks of walking and a short train ride across town. They walked by, too a few photos of the famous French landmark before deciding it would be fun to walk the hundreds of steps up to the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. After a few photos taken from the top of the steps, they'd opted to take a break before meandering down the steps. A quick lunch break in a café had been lunch before their wondering began again, visiting a few more famous landmarks before heading towards the Tour Eiffel.
The walking had continued, with them, for once, taking the elevators, and wondering around the platforms at each stop.
"I like it here." Eliza smiled. Jess looked over at her.
"Paris?" He asked.
"No, here. Where you can see the entire city." She said, gripping the railing and peering down. "I bet Lorelai would love this."
"She'd complain about the walking before she enjoyed it. Besides, I think she came her with Rory after she'd graduated." He'd said Rory's name quietly. Eliza nodded.
"Thinking of her makes me want coffee." Eliza giggled.
"Almost anything makes you want coffee. You've been hanging around Lorelai too much."
After climbing down, they'd found themselves at Musée du Louvre where Eliza had insisted they walk through room after room, looking for the Mona Lisa.
"Anyways," Jess spoke, following her out of the small room that housed the Mona Lisa and no other painting, "what do you want to do now?" He asked. She shrugged, looking at her watch.
"How about we head back to the hotel, eat, then go shopping?" She asked. He nodded.
By the time they'd found their way back to Voltaire it was nearing six o' clock and they'd found a nice spot to eat only a few feet from the front door of their hotel. McDonald's.
. 8 .
"Do you think Lorelai would like this?" Eliza asked holding up a bag of French Café coffee bean bag.
"She'll worship you forever." He smirked. "Hey, maybe I should get her some of that too." He laughed.
"Get her a cute mug." She advised and Jess nodded.
" Maybe we can find some French flannel for Luke." Jess snickered, picking up a coffee mug with the Tour Eiffel embossed on one side, the Mona Lisa on the other.
. 9 .
The two spent the next few days finding their way to the French/Italian border, spending a day in the relaxing city of Nice before hopping a bus that went from city to city in Italy, the last stop being Rome.
"I can't believe we've only got one day in this city." Eliza said as they walked side by side down the busy sidewalk.
"It's too big. We'll have to come back one day." He smiled.
"An entire week, just for Rome." She nodded.
"Promise." He agreed.
"I still can't believe you found a flannel shirt in France." She cracked after a moment.
"I still can't believe you're going on about that." He cracked back.
. 10 .
"Ugh. Home." Jess groaned tiredly as they stepped off the airplane, swinging his carry on over his shoulder.
"You think they'll notice if we stow away on the plane?" She asked.
"Probably." He said leading her towards customs.
. 10 .
Eliza giggled as Luke analyzed the gift Jess had found for him in France. "You got me a flannel shirt?" He asked, looking up at Jess.
"Oh, honey, it's not just flannel. It's French flannel." Lorelai smiled, causing Eliza to giggle more. Jess smiled at this. It was rare Eliza let herself be a kid. Sure she'd grown up a lot more sheltered then he had, but New York was a hard city to grow up in. Sometimes she was just too mature for her own good. Around Lorelai. She was definitely more her age.
"Ugh. Thanks."
"I'm glad you two had fun." Lorelai smiled, thanking them both with a hug for the gifts she had been given, and also glad to have them back safely.
AN 2: Well that was it. After several months of no update, I decided to go all out. My original plan had been to take them throughout the places I went, but then, after a night of sleeping on it four pages in, I decided that it would take three chapters to give a good story about that, so I chose my two favorite cities, Rome and Paris.
Most of the landmarks are in French…only because my French teacher demanded we respect these places by calling them what the French call them.
Please Review! I worked so hard on this…and I'm planning on writing more, so…
I just need a fresh no idea. I'm thinking something involving Rory, and Jess, and maybe Tristan Dugray and his son, who just happens to be good friends with Eliza…drop me a line and tell me what you think.
-Hadlee