First Day in Paris

Sunday March 15, 2009
Well, I arrived in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday evening at 8. After a quick and lonesome meal at McDonalds (which by the way has a menu that sounds uber exotic in French) I realized that although everyone told me the plugs were the same in France and Italy they are not. So I couldn’t use my computer and my iPhone was dying. With this knowledge and the knowledge that I was spending the next 13 hours in the airport with nothing to do I was overwhelmed so I decided to go exploring. Everything was closed of course so I had nothing to do but sit and read my book. I curled up on the floor in a corner near the central water fountain. Let me tell you though, I could not have been more prepared for sleeping in an airport; unfortunately there is only so much you can do to make a concrete floor comfortable short of having a pillow-top mattress. Oh well. I curled up with my fleece blanket and sleeping bag. On and off throughout the night I woke up and read my book. The cleaners of the airport had the audacity to use their vacuums when I was sleeping! So that woke me up again. At 5:30 am I decided I was sick of trying to sleep and so I packed up my belongings onto my cart like a hobo. I found that McDonalds and the other cafes were opening up so I had a pain au chocolat and read my book. I headed to arrivals around 7:15 to meet my mom and was very confused to see that her flight wasn’t on the board. After a mini panic attack thinking she was coming into another airport I found out that I was only in one of the three terminals- my bad. So I hopped on the little metro that took me to Terminal 2- the farthest away. Oh and I should probably mention that with me I was carrying 40 kilos of luggage. My hiking backpack has NEVER been so full, in fact its about a foot and a half above my head when I put it on. It was awful. As soon as I got into the next terminal I unloaded back onto a cart. Then I had to find terminal 2A which again was the farthest away. Her flight was delayed an hour but eventually she arrived. I was so happy to see a familiar face! So we made our way to the train station- luggage back on my back (plus a rollie suitcase and a little backpack). I now know why the French women are so thin- apparently they haven’t heard of elevators or escalators. Honestly I thought I would fall over by the time we got to the hotel.
They told us to leave our bags and come back at three so we had a few hours to wander around our neighborhood- Montmartre. We walked to Sacre Couer from the main street near our hotel- Rue des Abbesses. It was beautiful and of course- more stairs. We looked out over all of Paris- epic. Note to Kim and Emily- nobody tried to put bracelets on me!! Weird eh? Anywho it was great. Oh and everywhere in Paris there are buskers and live music, some of which is quite good. Today there was a Capoeira troop (Brazilian dance/ martial arts), I always love watching them… partially because they are super fit Brazilian men with no shirts but also because it really is an impressive art. The whole church is a strange mixture of Gothic, Baroque and Byzantine but I think they are melded together harmoniously enough. The exterior is certainly like nothing I have ever seen before.
We left there to wander and came across an square full of artists painting and selling their wares- very cool and very Montmartre. There was also an Irish bar that I think we will go to for St Patty’s on Tuesday. We headed back down the hill and ended up on the seedy Blvd de Clichy- full of strip clubs and XXX shops. We went back up to Rue des Abbesses for a nice warm café au lait. We sat until 2:30 when we decided it was okay to go back to the hotel. Of course the nice room we requested with a balcony was on the top floor. Remember how much stuff I had? Yeah add five flights of stairs… not cool. We had a much needed nap before heading out for some classic French food- Kebabs!! Haha mom has never had them and was thoroughly impressed. We were full but I was determined above all else to find a starbucks (I haven’t had one in 2 months if you can believe it!!) So we follow the map to one of the busy train stations and also in the direction of the Champs Elysees. Sure enough, like a beacon of light from the heavens, there was Starbucks outside the train station. One epic lineup and five euros later I had an Iced Caramel Macchiato- due to my lack of French I couldn’t order with all my usual modifications but it still tasted amazing. I couldn’t have been happier walking down Rue de Madeleine with a Starbucks and one of my favorite people in the world. We came across a church that was built with the same proportions and style as the Parthenon on the Athenian acropolis… random? I think so. Nonetheless it was wonderful; one can never see too many ancient style buildings. We headed on and came to the Jardin du Tuileries which leads up to the Louvre but we are saving that for another day. We were in Place du Concorde. This is where we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe its because we weren’t close enough or didn’t wait for the light show but I didn’t think it was that amazing. We walked halfway down the Champs Elysees before we decided we were tired from the long walk and got on the metro back to our hotel. We pretty much read our books and fell asleep.

EMBLEM OF THE DAY
Just being in Paris with one of my favorite people in the world whom I haven’t seen in two months.