Wednesday, December 4, 2013

PARIS-Day 1

It's exciting to be here, it is only kinda sorta sinking in that perhaps this may be more than just a long vacation.  I think it will help when we get to Italy on Saturday and set up housekeeping. Okay, let's talk Paris.

Let's start with customs....the months of preparation and paperwork to make sure that the fuzzy one wasn't put into quarantine or denied admittance wasn't even looked at...in a way it was a little like a lost opportunity to "proudly show" the attention to detail to insure her acceptance into the European Union.  Well, they checked our passports and said "bienvenue". 

 We leased a car and my adventurous husband drove like a maniac just like the other Parisiennes. Lanes are kinda suggested, motorcylcles pretty much drive wherever they want at high speeds, there are lots of roundabouts (what else would you expect from a city laid out like a huge wheel) and GPS says make a right turn on the 4th turn in the roundabout...but there may be 8 main turns and 4 minor turns....it may take you a couple of passes on the very large roundabouts.  We were in such a great mood that it simply didn't matter, we laughed and said okay let's try that again.  Although hubby had already read a book on international driving, we had gotten our international drivers licenses, nothing prepares you for a highly mobile city of over 9M people with signs in a language that you only studied for two years in high school.  

We were very tired, no sleeping on the plane, so we got to the hotel (sweet little boutique hotel wtihin two blocks of the Eiffel Tower and truly pet friendly we love you Hotel Motte Picquet) and got us and the fuzzy one settled in snugly.  So far so good, everyone had treated us very well and at least acted like our lack of French was endearing.  We somehow were able to stay up until 5 o'clock Paris time after flying all night, trying hard to slam shut any jet lag.  I forgot to tell the little fuzzy one the plan, she woke me up about 3 a.m. Paris time and wanted to eat, go potty and get a drink.  Really, it was very sweet and reminded me of when my babies seemed to not know what time it was and only I could tend to their needs.  Of course walking a busy avenue in Paris at 4 o'clock in the morning is a lonely place to be, but for a brief moment we had Paris all to ourselves, she always makes me smile.

So much more to say and of course fashionistas and foodies there are some really great pictures coming tomorrow.
















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