Bonjour from the City of Lights

I'm heeeeeere!!! It's about 2:00 pm on Saturday Paris time, which makes it almost 8:00 am Toronto time. That means that I have been awake for the better part of 24 hours. I was wondering why I was tired. So I decided a chocolate croissant was in order....so excuse the crumbs while you read this.

The flight over was uneventful. Which, in my opinion, is what you want on a trans-atlantic flight. Well, except for the part where we were late taking off and the pilot came over the speaker to do his spiel...when he informed us that 'we may have noticed that one of the engines wasn't firing'. NO...I DIDN'T. And you really didn't need to point it out to me. But...obviously we made it here all in one piece.

My strategy for sleeping did not pan out. First, the flight attendant was somewhat alarmed that I didn't want dinner. (For those of you who don't know...the strategy was to eat at the airport, then just try and sleep on the plane.) She reminded me that there was NO meal between then (which was probably around 9:30 pm) and the small breakfast we would get before we landed. I am surprised she didn't have me sign some sort of waiver. Tried to sleep with no success...except for about an hour before we landed. Sheesh.

So my adventure at the airport was that after going through customs, I got in the wrong lane and basically exited the airport. Which would have been fine, except I didn't pick up my luggage yet. So after asking how I get back to the luggage claim, and dealing with the disdainful look of the security guard that said 'stupid tourist...I finally got my luggage and hailed a taxi.

Apparently my request was perplexing to the taxi driver...so he was frantically searching his GPS and then an actual map to find where I needed to go.....WHILE DRIVING!!!! So note to self, add the French phrase 'Are you trying to freaking kill me?' to my repertoire.

Made it to the hotel (thank goodness). Checked in, and luckily a room was ready. Dropped my stuff off, and then headed out to grab some lunch and check out the neighborhood (I decided I was more hungry than tired).

I am about a 1 minute walk from a cool street...Rue Cler. It has a bunch of little shops: bakeries, cheese shops, cafes, wine stores....so sat down to have some lunch. A croque monseiur of course. Now, not that I am an expert, but this was the lamest one I have ever had. So I didn't bother taking a picture. But, it was quite a lovely day...sun shining and it was warm. So sitting in the sun in a cafe in Paris, made up for the lack of Croque Monseiur quality.

After lunch, I headed out for a bit of a walk to get my bearings. And the good news is, I didn't get lost and I even found the Eiffel Tower without a map. Walked home, had a bit of a nap. Then went for dinner.

So all in all, not a particularly eventful day. But it is nice to be here in Paris. The sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom...what more can a girl ask for.

Paris 2010 Day 1