Well, we’re finally off!
These first two days have been a whirlwind, and with one of the days
only really being 2/3 of a day due to the time change, we’ll just merge these
first two days together. Also, we spent
most of our time in an airport or on an airplane, so not a whole lot has
happened yet.
Our journey over to France went very smoothly. We hit a small bump checking-in our luggage
when my suitcase weighed in at a svelte 53 lbs – 3 lbs over the limit. So I hurriedly moved 3.5 lbs of stuff from my
stuffed suitcase to my already overstuffed carry-on and we were off. We were the only people in line at security
in, so we went through it very quickly – in my case both times. I managed to drop my jacket on the other side
of the security line so I had to go out, find it, and then come back through
again.
The flight out of Milwaukee was delayed by almost 25
minutes, but the pilot still managed to get us into Atlanta on time. Not that it really mattered as we had an
almost 6 hour layover there. We killed
the time reading, playing cribbage, and going through the pictures from our
last trip – but waiting is by far the worst part of the trip. Finally at a bit after 11 Eastern time we
boarded the plane and at 11:59 we were on our way to France.
It’s been a while since I have been on a flight this long –
clocking in at almost 8 hours – and either I was better at getting comfortable
when I was younger or planes have gotten more uncomfortable. It’s been over 10 years since I returned from
the Peace Corps, but on those flights I remember being able to sleep some. But on this flight, not so much. I watched one mediocre move (Run All Night), one and a half classic
movies (Dazed and Confused and the
first half of Godfather I up to
Michael’s wedding in Sicily), ate two meals (a surprisingly good manicotti and
a predictably edible-at-best egg mcmuffin), and dozed in and out for a few
minutes here and there. Amy was a bit
less ambitious on the movie watching – she just finished Maze Runner which we had started on our way from Milwaukee to
Atlanta – but a bit more successful on the sleeping front, although not as well
as she would have liked.
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| The intersection in Montmartre where our hotel is located: Boulevard Barbes (left) and Rue des Poissonniers (right). |
We landed in Paris over a half hour ahead of schedule and
breezed through customs. We were able to
get our bags quickly and, with the help of a very nice lady from Delta, found
our way to the taxi stand. We were first
in line there as well so we got a cab immediately and we were on our way into
town. Paris is divided into 18
neighborhoods, or arrondissements, of
which we are staying in the 18th arrondissement
called Montmartre. This area, which is on the Right Bank in the
northern section of the city, gets its name from the hill it sits on. It is known for its views overlooking the
city (especially from the Sacre Couer Basilica)
and its bohemian lifestyle (think Moulin
Rouge, the impressionist painters, etc).
Within Montmartre, we are staying in the African and North African
section called Goutte D’Or. Walking around the streets in our
neighborhood actually reminds me of walking around Maputo (the capital of
Mozambique, where I was in the Peace Corps) - a bunch of different languages
are being spoken; really bright, beautiful dress; a hodge-podge urban
landscape; and you can buy anything you want at the shops that line the street,
at the market on the sidewalk, or from the roving vendors in the street. It is certainly not the best neighborhood in
Paris, but it also does not seem to be a bad neighborhood either. It seems like a very vibrant, working class
neighborhood and an interesting place to be.
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| The view from our hotel room. |
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| First meal in Paris - a nice little cafe/pizzeria in Montmartre. |
We arrived at our hotel – Hotel Pax – and checked into our
room. It certainly is not luxurious, but
it seems clean and comfortable and our room has an incredible view of the Sacre
Couer Basilica. Even though neither of
us had slept much on the plane, we wanted to get onto French time as much as
possible so we decided to get ourselves out and go for a walk. We found out very quickly that Paris is a
very tricky city to navigate on foot if you are not familiar with the
area. Streets are not laid out in a grid formation; instead the meander this way and that, sometimes just stopping. I’m not sure about the rest of the city, but
at least where we are up in Montmartre, it is impossible to just go straight
for any extended period of time. So that’s
a long way of saying that it took us a while to make the short walk from our
hotel to the Basilica, and when we got there, we had no idea how we did it or
how to get back in a semi-direct fashion.
But that was ok. It was a
beautiful day and we were just enjoying walking around and taking in all the sights
and sounds. After a nice long stroll, we
stopped in at a little restaurant around the corner from the Basilica for the
most Parisian of dinners – pizza. By the
time we finished dinner and found our way back to our hotel (I’d love to see a
map showing the path we took on our walk), we were beyond exhausted so we
decided to call it a night. So far it
has been a great start to the trip.
Tomorrow, it’s a full day of exploring Paris!
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