Paris- Reflecting on the City of Lights

Paris Day 1

Traveling has always been my passion. I'm curious by nature and I thrive on the challenge of finding a new path. I get lost along the way, but that only feeds into the adventurer in my heart. Laura and I had a late night flight, that way when we woke up we'd be in Paris. At least that was the plan. Of course we had some babies on the flight, in fact there was one right behind Laura who cried for about four hours straight! Naturally I did the honorable thing and I fell asleep. Granted I was getting over a cold, and that statement does not make me sound any more manly.

I did let her have the window seat and I did occasionally exchange annoyed looks with her. That's some contemporary chivalry right there.

When we final got to Paris and Charles Du Galle Airport we were privy to that stellar French security. There was a guy who gave stamps. And a sign pointing towards the exit. That is all.

Once we got past the Great Wall of....signs in French....we made our way to the real security of Paris, the subway system. I had always had an easy time using the subway system before, but there is this one station called "Chalet Les-Halles", and every time throughout the trip when we got off there we got lost. Every. Fricking. Time. "Sortie" means "Exit" in French. Or maybe mission in military terms. Either way we took it as a way to get out and go up to the street level. Too bad we never made it there.

Imagine a scenario if you will. Pretend you didn't get any sleep on the plane. Pretend there was an irritable baby behind you that the mother was ignoring. Then imagine lugging two suitcases around on no sleep. Also picture a multi level subway that doesn't have any type of escalator system for irritable Americans and you get 35 minutes of happy time success. Then you finally get out and find your way to the hotel and you remember that your room is on the Fourth (Read Fifth) floor. And the stairs are narrow. And there isn't an elevator. And you're stupid enough to try and carry both at the same time. Not my shiniest moment. Then, nap time.

After a couple of hours of glorious sleep we finally got the chance to roam the city. Laura and I walked the river and took in the sights of the City of Light. Dinner was simple Tartines, which is just an open face sandwich with cheese on it. And man was that DE-licious! Holy crap do the French know how to bake bread. It never ceases to amaze me. We also had a cheese plate which meant our dinner was really just bread with some meat on it and a whole lot of cheese. Friday ended up being an early night for us due to tiredness and so we headed back to our hotel room to sleep...

Since I didn't do this as it came I'll have to write up some blogs over the next few days. I'll be posting them as the week progresses!