Paris!

It has been an insanely busy two days in Paris, but so wonderful. I arrived sleepy and cramped after sitting in a middle chair for 9+ hours on the flight over. The situation could have been worse, of course- my seat-mates were perfectly nice- but my legs were not happy. I’m 5’3- I can’t even imagine being taller than that and sitting in a middle chair that long. 

I took the RER B from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Gare du Nord trim station, which is huge and essentially a mall with trains going through it. Stu met me outside and walked me back to our Airbnb! What a gentleman. We checked in to our 4th floor walk up studio, which just barely could fit all 3 of us: 

That plus the teeny bathroom was the sum total of the apartment, but we made it work. We weren’t there very much. 

After settling in we got some food (I got a hot dog, which felt odd in France) and then walked to Montmartre to see the Moulin Rouge, the Cafe de 2 Moulin (from Amelie), and the Montmartre Cemetery, which was huge and beautiful. You know you have good friends when they will indulge your love for cemeteries. 

After the cemetery I was starting to give in to the jet lag, so we went to a grocery store and a patisserie for bread and cheese and salami. We ate clumped around the tiny counter in our apartment and then set up my cot, and I passed out almost immediately. I remember hearing snippets of Kate and Stu watching The Best Exotix Marigold Hotel, but for the most part I slept like a baby for 10 hours. It was lovely. 

Monday morning we got up at 8 and were out the door at 9 to head to the Louvre. Here is something dumb about Paris: The patisseries, which have all the yummy things you want for breakfast, don’t open until 10am. How do they justify this? Don’t French people have to go to work in the morning? We looked for an open one all the way the Louvre but found nothing. We ended up eating at a small cafe across from the museum, which was perfectly fine. Coffees here are so small. My American coffee addiction requires larger portions. 

Picking up our Louvre tickets was nearly a disaster. I booked them through a company called Musement, which after booking told me to meet their representative between 10 and 11am that day to collect our tickets. Sounded sketchy, but we went with it. Then at 10 this morning there was no representative. Nor at 10:15. Finally one showed up around 10:20 and a group of relieved Americans got their tickets from him.