Our Second Day In Paris: Part One

Much to my delight, Alex got up early and went out in search of baguette to eat with our breakfast. While he was gone I showered and dressed while watching Frasier on my computer. Interestingly enough, France has Netflix and other streaming services but the selection is much more limited...and doesn't include Frasier. It took me a little time, but I was able to modify my DNS settings as a workaround. I don't plan to stream media much on this trip, but honestly I just wanted to see if I could do it. It's the American way. 

After a delicious breakfast (thank you Alex), we set out with the intention to do some geocaching. I love using geoacaches to explore new cities because it takes you places you may not otherwise go. 

Our first Geocache was near the St. Michael fountain. The description warned us that there would be a lot of muggles (people) around and that it might be impossible to locate discreetly during the day. Impossible was right. As we walked around attempting to look for it, several people asked us to take pictures for them. And let me tell you, in France when you take someone's picture they will critique it, provide feedback and expect you to keep trying until you get it right. Honestly, it was really annoying.  

Our second geocache was in a tiny street (the narrowest in Paris) called Chat qui Peche. We had read about this one online and wanted to check it out. Unfortunately it was also in a super touristy part of town, which it makes it insanely difficult to geocache. Because it was an ally, we had a little bit of privacy to root around for the hidden treasure, but eventually we were interrupted by a passing family and had to leave (the ally was too narrow to fit all of us). When we circled back around we found, much to our dismay, a dude standing there and peeing!! The ally didn't provide THAT much privacy. Our resolve was certainly shaken, but we circled back around for one more attempt. Unfortunately, the combination of people and the peeing guy had rattled us too much and we were unable to find it. According to Alex, some of the french comments on the post for this cache indicated that it might not have been accessible anyways. 

Our first day in Paris

Our first day in Paris began as soon as we arrived at the flat around 14:00. After dropping off our stuff and getting settled we went for a quick jog around the neighborhood. This certainly helped delay the jetlag. We got a little lost, but were able to get back on track without too much trouble. [As I write this, I am sitting on a train in Italy and I honestly have no idea what I would do without google maps and GPS.] 

After our run, we went for a walk in search of a snack/late lunch. In Paris, it's common to find these little squares or plazas in amongst the many tall, old buildings. For the holiday season, they were usually lit up with beautiful lights. It was in one of these plazas that we found a cute little restaurant. 

As would be the norm for the remainder of our time in France, Alex attempted to communicate with our server in French only. The server was delighted. Alex communicated that I didn't speak French, so the waiter was very kind to speak to me in a combination of both English and some French (usually French first followed by English). Comically enough, after Alex ordered a bottle of wine the waiter asked him, in French, if he wanted one glass or two. This seem to confuse Alex, but randomly I understood completely AND responded in french. This thrilled him even more...and shocked both me and Alex. Honestly, I think it was my desperation for something to drink. I was parched. 

This was my first time watching Alex interact with someone in french and I was thoroughly impressed. He gave himself a hard time, but anytime he asked a question or made a request people seemed to understand him. The interesting thing about people in France is that they will take the time to help you pronounce something and/or if you don't know a word, they will teach it to you. It can be kind of intimidating, but truthfully it's really great if you are trying to learn the language. I'll say more about my overall impression of France and French people in a later post.

By the time our 'lunch' concluded it was starting to get dark. Not being familiar with Parisian neighborhoods I was a little on edge walking around after dark. It seemed like you would be in the midst of the hustle and bustle only to turn a corner and find the street completely deserted. 

On our walk we saw many interesting monuments and a small festival in front of the City Hall (Hotel d'Ville). The festival had some sort of a wildlife preservation/nature theme as there were life size statues set up all over the square. There were also people selling what I think were roasted chestnuts, but they may have been something else. They had these wok like things with burners set up on the front of bikes where the chestnuts, or whatever they were, were roasting. 

We made our way further west and then south toward the Seine to see the Isle de Paris and the Notre Dame. Our timing was perfect because the bells had just started to ring. It was nice to be there on an evening in winter as it was not the least bit crowded. 

We continued a little further along  the Seine toward the Eifel Tower, but the day started to catch up with me. After sitting on a bench for a while, we decided to head back toward our flat to grab dinner. 

The restaurant we had intended to try was closed, so we tried another place nearby. The food was ok, but not great. I had a Fois Gras salad and Alex had Escargot. The Fois Gras was not fantastic. As with the previous restaurant, our waiter LOVED Alex. We could tell that he was flattered at our (mostly Alex) attempt to communicate in french. And, as before, he was very nice to correct mistakes and helped with new words. At one point, he very kindly suggested that we start to speak English. This deflated Alex a bit as he was already feeling self conscious about his French, but it wasn't long before they were back to speaking French again. 

After our meal, we got into a conversation about our names and where we were from. This was great for because it helped me learn basic french phrases. Looking back, I now feel a little guilty for not having put more effort into learning some french ahead of the trip. Alex was great though. He and I would practice conversations with each other and then I would go and communicate with servers, baristas or whomever. At any rate, our server's name was Ali and, though he considers himself to be Parisian, his parents immigrated from Croatia and Algeria (I'm not sure if these countries are correct...I thought he had said one of his parents were from Pakistan. At this point in the trip Alex and I hadn't been taking notes with enough detail).  

Before leaving, Ali surprised us with complementary Lemoncello to accompany this sinfully delicious chocolate dessert Alex had ordered. It was the most amazing Lemoncello I have ever tasted...but that isn't saying much as Lemoncello isn't really something I drink to often. 

After returning to the flat, Alex ran to a nearby grocery store to pick up some eggs, potatoes and onions for breakfast. Having had few good experience with European breakfast, we decided to take advantage of the kitchen to cook our own. 

Our Parisian Flat

Our previous post left off with us departing the Charles De Galle airport. Once we found the train, getting to our final destination was pretty straightforward, even with next to no experience with the Parisian metro system, the RATP. Our host, Hughes, had provided us with very detailed directions which was quite helpful.  Our flat was in the Southern section of the 10th Arrondismont (Paris is split up into boroughs called arrondismont) right off the Plaza De Republique on Rue Mesley. It was on the small side, but very charming. The first thing I noticed was a very distinct smell that we believe was the cheese they were keeping in the refrigerator. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was strong. Thankfully, after twenty minutes or so we stopped noticing it.

A picture is worth a thousand words as they say, so I'll rely on the pictures below to provide you with a sufficient description. The best (or perhaps worst) thing about it was the 92 steps we had to climb to reach it. Like most things I noticed in Paris, it was not the least bit handicapped accessible. Those steps provided for a much needed workout every time we headed back for the evening, or to rest during the day.

Another interesting feature of this flat, and the one that motivated us to select it, was the sleeping area. It was tucked away in an elevated, loft-like space accessible via a ladder. Once at the top, we had to crawl on our hands and knees to get to the bed as the ceiling was only about three feet above the floor at the tallest point. It was both neat and cozy, but I find it difficult to imagine living in such a small area for any more than a few days. Needless to say, our time spent on boats prepared us well for this experience.

Travel from Washington D.C. to Paris, France

The beginning of our trip was indicative, I think, of how this entire trip is going to go. Our flight didn't depart until 19:45 on December 26 so we had the entire day to pack and tie up lose ends before our departure. Despite that fact, we still found ourselves rushing out the door when the time came to leave. We arrived at Dulles a little less than two hours before our scheduled departure. Some had suggested we get there  even earlier, but we desided to be brave and chance it. When we arrived at the customs checkpoint we discovered that IcelandAir does not participate in whatever systems allows passengers to pass through with an electronic ticket, which got me extremely disgruntled. We had to trudge all the way  back to the main entrance, to the Iceland Air desk to obtain physical copies of our boarding pass. Upon doing so, we were informed that Iceland Air intentionally does this so that employees can check everyone's passports. That's all well and good, but we should have been notified when we checked-in online earlier in the day. Even with this delay and me getting so thoroughly groped by TSA that I demanded she buy me dinner, we were at our gate with nearly an hour and a half to spare.

We were pretty hungry and wanted to be full and sleepy for our overnight flight to Iceland, so we walked through the terminal until we found a cafe. Alex has been a strong opponent of tapas (he is philosophically opposed to small portions), but a Tapas restaurant was one of the only places around and they had wine, so he reluctantly agreed. I was thrilled. I never get to eat tapas! What can I say? The food was quite good. Alex had two glass of red wine. I had a champagne flight and a red wine flight (equivalent to two glasses of wine for me). To eat, we had pork tacos, some smoked salmon dish, a meat/cheese plate and some sort  of salad dish with a fresh mozzarella type cheese and tomatoes (Burata...we will try and update with a better description of the last item). The thing that stood out most (apart from the fact that food was incredible and we were still at Dulles) was the large caper berries. They were basically giant delicious capers. Neither of us had seen these before.

As we were finishing our drinks, we realized that we only had a few minutes before the plane was scheduled to begin boarding. Because the terminals are long and sparse, we were about a seven minute walk from our gate and I wanted to pick up some Benedryl (which I was hoping to combine with the wine so that I would pass out on the plane). So again, we had gone from having plenty of time to suddenly rushing. We arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare. As is often the case, the plane was late to begin boarding. Usually I like to get on the plane last so that I can stand for as long as possible before long stretches of sitting, but we wanted to board early to ensure overhead space for our bags. We were successful in this mission, though there was plenty of luggage space for all, and before we knew it we were underway.

The flight was uneventful. My Benedryl/wine cocktail worked pretty well as I was able to rest as well as could be expected on the flight. Alex also seemed to get a decent amount of sleep, though he shifted around quite a lot. I'm sure I did as well. No matter what you do, sleeping on a plane is not comfortable.

In what seemed like only moments, the plane was landing on time in Iceland. Unfortuantely, we had less than an hour before our connection to Paris. Alex was starving and I had to go to the bathroom, so we decided to divide and conquer. After several tries, I found a bathroom tucked away in a corner with no line. I met up with Alex to find a smoked salmon omelet and cappuccino. With about five minutes before boarding time, Alex and I devoured our breakfast and head off  for the gate. Alex insisted that we take our time, but I demaned we be on time. After all the ticket said "Plane will board no later than 7:10 AM" and it was  7:10 AM. Of course the plane was delayed half an hour which was just enough time for Alex to say "I told you so"....a lot....

I would say I've learned my lesson, but I really haven't...more on that in a later post...

Standing in line, we met two other couples traveling to Europe from the U.S. One older couple, both teachers, were from Colorado. They planned to spend the  week exploring Paris. The other couple was about our age and were taking a two week trek around Europe. their itinerary was similar to ours except they were visiting different countries (France, Switzerland and Germany). It is also worth noting that they are from Williamsburg, Virginia and are planning to move to the D.C. area. We didn't exchange information, but as I write this I realize that we probably should have. We were all incredibly groggy both from the overnight flight and our various strategies for trying to sleep.

The connection flight from Iceland to Paris was uneventful. Both Alex and I got about an hour and a half of sleep, which was much needed. We arrived in Paris with more energy than I was expecting. This was a good thing because Charles D'Galle airport is gross, smelly and a labyrinth. We needed to get cash, a ticket for the RER train to Paris, find a bathroom and, most importantly, find the train platform. All of these tasks proved challenging. When we finally found a bathroom it cost .70 euro to use it and I could smell from 200 feet away. I have used holes in the ground on camping trips that smelled better and were cleaner. I decided to hold it until we got to the flat.

I'll post some pictures now and follow up on our adventures after we arrived in Paris in another post. This one has already gotten too long!

Ciao!

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Heading to Europe

Yet another attempt at blogging. I've never been patient/diligent enough to maintain a blog, but I'm going to keep trying because it's something worth doing. The motivation this time, is to keep a record of our trip to Europe. I would also like a place to post my photography (new hobby and feeble attempt at some form of creative expression).

Disclaimer: The next several posts will be about our travels in France/Italy. Most of the posts will be written in the evening, on planes and on trains. Please forgive grammar mistakes, poor sentences structure and the lag between blog posts and pictures. I am finding it more challenging that I had originally thought to keep up with all the photographs, get them edited and posted. Internet has been great at our accommodations, but poor during transit. I plan to elaborate and add pictures once the trip is complete. In the mean time, I'll do the best I can with this blog and post phone pictures on facebook/instagram periodically.

Merci!

Jess (and Alex)

Figure 1. Random Ornament on Tree. 

Figure 2. Random Decoration in Coffee Shop.