Paris...September 20th

PARIS....



Well, I could have left the post at that and allowed you your dreams of this iconic city, but then it wouldn't be much of a Travel blog.  But before we make it to Paris, let's catch up on the events preceding.

The flights to Seattle and Paris were uneventful save for the 8, count them 8, plain clothed gentlemen with badges shining on the breezeway to the plane for Paris. We weren't sure if they were Homeland Security or FBI or..., but they were definitely pulling people over of various ethnic origin...most often of middle eastern descent.  We had heard about the Mohammed cartoon in the French paper and the unrest that had stirred.  So, in some ways, we were glad to see such increased security.  But it was pretty exciting to say the least.

Arrival in Paris was on time even though they had us fiddling around on the tarmac for about 45 minutes.  The big change was locating the passport control location.  Charles DeGaulle airport is always under construction it seems and this trip was certainly no exception. We were quite glad we had no connecting flights or trains as it took us 45 minutes to find the passport check and then another few to find our bags.

We arrived handily at out hotel after taking Les Cars de Air France to the Gare de Lyon and the walk to our hotel from there past the Bastille.  It was great to get out and walk after 10 hours in a plane.  The room wasn't ready, so we dropped our bags and headed out and about. Lunch at Paul Bakery down the street:

• camenberg & lettuce bagette
• sausage & pickle bagette
• 2 water (one for each of us)
• chocolate tarte
• blueberry tarte

A perfect lunch after a long walk. Back to the hotel and a nap (not my brightest idea by-the-by, but more about that later).  Up and tidied up and off to dinner at Leon of Brussels - a mussels house that's all over the place. It was a perfect light meal:

• Leon mussels (celery, onion, creme fraiche, white wine)
• Dijonaise mussels (mustard seed, onion, cream, white wine)
• Pomme frites (french fries)
• 2 Ambergiff Belgian beers (one for each of us)
• Water

We headed back to the hotel and attempted to connect to the internet, with no luck on either the iPad or the laptop. Frustrated, I headed to the room and a nights' sleep...

Well, let's say tried to sleep. Made it from 9:30P to 2:30A, but then wide awake and remained so for at least a couple of hours. During the awake time, I heard and then felt a pounding which increased with intensity as time went on.  Finally, things quieted down and we found out the next morning that a person in the hotel couldn't make his key work so he started beating on the door and yelling. Yes, he was drunk...sigh.

So ends the first day...