Paris, Day 1:

Hello from Paris, France!!! We arrived at 5:30 pm (8:30 am your time) and had to take a bus into Paris (1 hour ride).  Next, we walked a few minutes to the nearest metro station and took that for about 1/2 hour to our stop. Then, we walked about 5 minutes or so down the street and found our hotel.  Piece of cake! :P

Our hotel is very nice.  We are staying here for 5 nights which will be a nice change from changing places every night like we did in Ireland.  We are staying in the right bank of Paris (which means North of the Seine River).  It is close to attractions such as the Bastille and L’Opera Garnier, and is not terribly far from the Louvre or Arc de Triomphe via la metro.

Once we checked into our hotel, we unpacked a bit. Again, it felt nice to be able to spread our our stuff in anticipation of a longer stay, rather than trying to keep it ready to move on the next night.  We are in desperate need of doing some laundry, although we did resort to some sink washing of necessities in Ireland to get us by.  It’s a nice room, although pretty tiny….but hey, who needs a big room? Just a comfortable bed and bathroom.

I was personally starving so we set out in search of some food in the local area.  I had the inspiration of just getting some bread, cheese and wine for dinner.  Each item had to be acquired from a different shop (which I was aware of and, I thought, part of the fun!).  We first went to une boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop) just across the street for some fresh baked baguettes.  Next, around the corner we found a little shop selling assorted beverages. I’m not sure what you call that.  But we bought a bottle of beaujolais (a light burgundy) and a bottle of water for extremely cheap and the wine is VERY tasty.  No wonder they drink so much of it here!  Finally, we found a supermarche (supermarket) where I bought some fromage (cheese), salami and macaroons (also very cheap).  We came back to hotel, asked the front deks to open our wine and tucked in.  Tear off a hunk of baguette, slap on a slice of salami, and tear off a piece of cheese to put on it and voila! an instant sandwich!  Add a sip of wine from our hotel-room-cup (ghetto!!) and yum!!!!!! An authentic French meal, in our eyes, anyway!  Here is a pic of our first meal in Paris:

Tomorrow we start the sight-seeing. We haven’t decided yet what we are going to do first.  We have 4 full days to cram as much in as possible, so we shall see! Some things from our “must see” list include the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, L’Opera Garnier, and a trip up/down the Seine River.  Well, it’s 10:12 here and I’ve got 1/4 bottle of wine left to finish before I pass out…errr, I mean fall asleep :P

By Jenny Cain

Spunky musician, artist, seamstress and horticulturalist. More about Jenny...