First day in Paris

Day 1

Well we made it!!!!  N0 problems, no issues.  It was funny because the trip from Phillie to Paris was only 6.5 hours, very quick.  In fact we had time for only one movie and a hour or so sleep before we were ready to land.  Weather horrible today....drizzle all day.  But it certainly did not dampen our enthusiasm.  We met our friends soon after landing and got our luggage.  We arrived in perfect timing to go to the apartment we rented to meet our landlord and get all the needed info to live there our week.  We dumped our luggage (they still had to have the place cleaned from the previous renters) and took off exploring our neighborhood and beyond.  We found many more tourists than we ever expected for this time of year. 

We visited Notre Dame and around that area, we stopped and had a wonderful lunch at a tiny restaurant where the waiter was also the chef!!!  We walked all over and saw down on the river a small food fair.  So we went there and found some incredible samples of meat, foi gras (sp), cheeses, wine and chocolate.  So of course we had to buy some for our quick dinner this evening. We all decided that we would bring  home some cheese, bagettes, and some meat and wine for dinner so we could all go to bed early.  Remember we all got about 2 hours total sleep.  We finally, around 4:00 got to see and move in our place.  It was fabulous, just out of the story book of what a Paris city walk up would look like. Very small but very efficient.  It was like an old "shotgun" house from New Orleans, with one long hallway and rooms off to one side.  It had 2 bedrooms and 2 baths with showers.  But the bad thing was it was 4 flights up......a very narrow, windy, circular staircase.  And the street it was on (Rue de Chapon) was again out of a Paris story book.  We unpacked, and sat around eating our wonderful bagettes and cheese and meat with some excellent wine and now at good old 6:00 PM we are all ready for bed.  So by 7 will should all be out of it until morning. 

Tomorrow the weather is perfect...sunny and mid 60s, perfect for touring.  Tomorrow we plan on the Picasso museum and just walking around that area.....eating and drinking our way along.  So  far Paris has been absolutely wonderful......and for those who are always skeptics, we had 2 people who volunteered to help us when we were lost and when Diana got her bag caught in the metro gate.  That is another story....nothing awful but we did need help.  So Parisians are not as bad as many say they are.  Also, we must get used to it......it is an expensive city.   Oh oh.....we stopped for ice cream at a stand and it was INCREDIBLE.  We got a caramel cone and it was so tasty we plan to visit the same place every day if possible.  They have about 20 flavors!!!  hehehehehehehhehhhahhahah

So good night all!!!