Bonjour Paris!

Bonjour! What a great day it's been! We left London yesterday full of excitement and a little anxious. My true love was really excited and I, having never travelled to such a culturally exotic place before, was a little unsure of what to expect. I am happy to report that everything has been amazing since we touched down at 8:05am Paris time.


We arrived at T3, picked up our bags and made our way to the RER Train Station by foot. It was during our first exchange at the train station that I realized how completely foreign I am and how thankful I am that my true love speaks the language. From what I gather so far, she is blending right in. Me? A bit of a sore thumb right now. I tried to order a regular cup of coffee and messed that right up.


We took Train 24 to Chatelet and then switched over to the Metro 1 to get to the Bastille district where we will be staying. At the train station, we rode an escalator down to the platform where we saw some half naked girls dancing to the distant sound of Abba. On the Metro there was a violinist and an accordion player, but we didn't have any change to give yet, so that was a little awkward cause I was impressed.


We arrived a couple hours before check-in, so we dropped our bags at the Hotel Royal Bastille and were told to go check out the outdoor market around the corner. Around the corner was a market that lined both sides of at least 3 city blocks and offered everything from produce, bread and cheese to hats, shirts and little metal Eiffel Towers. We didn't get anything, but it was fun to see really old people playing the same repetitive notes on a really old guitar trying to entice a small donation to their "art" and the vendors competing for business by yelling "banana!" and "cheeses!". We retreated to a quiet street where we followed a little old woman carrying a bag of baguettes to what I would imagine was a small Paris apartment with a balcony lined with flowers and hanging laundry.


After we could check in, we went to sleep. We had been up since yesterday morning cause every time I fell asleep on the plane, an announcement would come over the speaker. To make matters worse, the announcement was in French so I never understood it anyway.

When we woke a few hours later we were hungry, so my true love picked out a restaurant from her guide book and we set to the streets! We made our way to Place des Vouge where Victor Hugo lived.


I don't know who Victor Hugo is, but I might by tomorrow afternoon when we go back and see his place. We had lunch at Nectarine. Me, a Croquet Monsieur and my true love, a Salade Nicoise. We washed it down with a half liter of house red, which was pretty decent.





After lunch we walked. We walked the streets, taking in as much as we could, telling each other that it hasn't quite sunk in that we are actually here. The city seems rich with history and well established. The people are kind and there is a lot of diversity. On our way back toward the hotel from our walk I couldn't help but wonder if the people that live here know how truly magical it is here. As I write this from our hotel room, sitting at the desk beside an open window with the sounds of the cars, scooters and people at the cafe below, I feel very far from home.


I bet that feeling's going to change by the end of the week.