Courtesy of Iceland Air, and with a very quick stop in Keflavik airport we arrived in Paris on Sunday wondering if we would make it out of the airport due to the barricades and protests. We have now been here for a day and a half and the only signs of trouble that we have seen were some long lines at the petrol station on the motorway coming into Paris from Charles De Gaulle.
The weather is quite like the Pacific Northwest that we left, mid 50's in the day, high 30's at night. Quite the shock for Carl & Barbara, our traveling companions from Atlanta.
We had a fabulous day yesterday,eating our way across Paris. We started with breakfast at a quintessential cafe on the corner of a grand boulevard just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower. Our fabulously crusty baguette and creamy butter topped off with fresh apricot jam. Freshly squeezed OJ always tastes so much better in a wine glass, plus we had our coffee with milk (espresso that was shown the milk jug--not much more). Our eggs and bacon came with the sunny side up eggs cooked in butter (yep that's the way) and canadian bacon.
A couple of hours later after we'd negotiated the metro out to the Bastille and sang "Do you hear the people sing" while marching down the street (well only Barbara and I did that, the men pretended not to know us). We ended up in the Jewish section where we had lunch at the "best Fallafel place in town". This told to us by our new best friend--the native Parisian standing next to us in the 25 minute line to get inside. You know it had to be good. He informed us that we had to have the Schwarma, which we did. He said that it was beef--actually that beef was lamb, but it was excellent. Fritz and I had it in a pita oozing with eggplant, tomatoes and sauce, Carl & Barbara had the plat du jour which was the same thing, but on a much tidier plate.
From there we walked to Notre Dame, paid our respects, and the men used the time inside to synchronize their cameras--heathens!
While strolling across to the left bank to get the metro we purchased a black peaked cap for Fritz as a replacement for his "I am an American Tourist" Cal Poly baseball hat. We're still working on Carl! Barbara and I have our eyes on some tres chic cloche hats that we just need to have a couple of glasses of wine before we actually purchase.
Dinner was crepes--the men had dark chocolate and bananas, I had sugar and lemon and Barbara had Nutella. Yes it was a light meal, but it did come only a few hours after Schwarma.
We wandered over to the Eiffel Tower just for a post dinner walk and decided to go up as the lines were light. It was spectacular. The moon was full and the air was crystal clear (and chilly), and the views went for miles. We saw the Arch de Triomphe, the Seine winding by with the Bateau Mouche brightly lit up and many of the historic buildings were lit up as well--including the Tower which offered up a light show on the hour--while we were at the top---incredible.
Today, we're off to wander more neighborhoods, using that mad-man Rick Steves as a guide. Talk soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment