First week in France - September 17, 2008

Hey everyone, I never wrote a blog before but I figured if anyone was interested in what I have been doing in France, they could just read here instead of me telling the same story a hundred times. SO here goes, I boarded the plane early Friday morning at 1 a.m. , September 11th, 2008. Raquel dropped me off. The flight was long but it was fine. Me and all of my luggage arrived safely in Paris, the same day at 2 p.m. ! Time Warp! Anyway, the airport in France is not like getting off here where people are meeting you right at the gate, instead you have to walk to the baggage claim, collect your bags, and then go through customs, get a stamp in your passport (YES!) and then you meet your party who has come to pick you up. I knew none of this ahead of time, so I was a little worried until I saw Steph, if we would find eachother in this huge airport! Plus I had to wrestle my luggage all by myself, however, they provide FREE carts for your use (hello America!) so I made it okay with my 150 pounds of luggage. So I met Stephane and we rode the Metro into Paris. At first, coming from the airport was not very pretty. Railyards and tunnels....but soon I could start to see Paris in the distance. I remember asking if we would be able to see the Eiffel Tower from our hotel....and he kind of snickered at me and said, "I don't think so, Paris is a huge city." My first stupid American question of the trip, but certainly not my last. LOL Anyway, you could NOT see it even remotely from our hotel. SO we stayed in a small section of Paris which is like art galleries, boulangeries (bakeries) and small shops. It is called Butte aux Cailles (Quail Hill) and it was very cute. See my Paris photos for a couple of pics from our Fenetre (window). So the first night I basically just slept. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant that night that he had been to before. Pho 14 was it's name and they serve one thing....Pho. LOL Which for any of you that don't know, it is a noodle soup with your choice of toppings and hot sauce (Raquel and Lori...you would have loved this). So in a sleepy daze we walked the streets of Paris into the night. I had a craving for something sweet so we bought some confections as a Greek shop was closing for the night. Macaroons and fig cakes. YUMMY! Then we went back to the hotel and slept.


Next morning I awoke to my first morning in Paris and my first introduction to the European bathtub/shower. OMG talk about feeling like a fat ass! LOL It's like half a bathtub with a half of a door and no curtain. You fill up the bathtub...or stand. Then use this sprayer which is attached to the bottom part of the bath faucet. WTF! No steaming hot shower here with water cascading over your body! More like taking a bird bath with a hose! Now it's clear why people here may only shower once every couple days. LOL

So we decided to go to the Rodin sculpture garden http://www.musee-rodin.fr as we had planned. However the Metro was not stopping at the two stops we wanted to get off that day so we decided to get off at Champs- Elysees. I thought it was annoying that we were so far from where we were going but as it turned out, I was in for a surprise. Knowing virtually nothing of the city, I did not know that this was the popular "main drag" in Paris. We realized there were a ton of Police and asked someone why. The Pope Benoit XVI was also in Paris that day. LOL Me and the friggin' Pope visiting Paris on the same day! No fucking way... I thought. So this was the reason the two stops on the Metro were closed off. Anyway, on Champs Elysees street there are numerous things, The Palais de la Decouverte , the Jardin de Tuileries, that famous egyptian obelisk thingy and the famous arch everyone sees when they look at pictures of Paris. Also the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We walked past fountains (see pics) and gardens. Past the Louvre (for another time) and the Seine river. As we were walking a woman in front of us bent down to pick something up on the ground, a huge gold ring. We were both just walking past her and then she stopped us, was rapidly speaking in French and trying to give the ring to Stephane because it wouldn't fit her. At one point she even kissed our hands! I was like WTF and started walking away from her. Then she stopped us again and asked Stephane for some change. At that point I think we both realized it was a fancy trick designed to get us to hand over some loney. Hmmmmm gold ring...for some pocket change. Not too much to ask. So it cost Stephane 2 euros to learn that lesson. LOL and so he just set the ring down on a sidewalk a little down the way. It seems it was quite the trick because as we were walking on a bridge over the Seine a half hour later some guy tried to do it AGAIN to us! Well we basically just told him to fuck off in French. We weren't going to fall for that one again. From there we walked by the river for quite a while and then went to the Rodin sculpture garden. For those of you who don't know who Rodin is, well, famous French sculptor whose most famous sculpture is " The Thinker" or "Le Penseur" (see pics) but also studied human moods in his sculptures. Pretty awesome and surrounded by beautiful rose gardens. After that we travelled by Metro to Pigalle. Unfortunately we did not get to see the famous "Moulin Rouge" because it was during the day, and well, we looked for it but realized later we had walked completely in the wrong direction. But we were headed for the "Sacre Coeur3 church ( Sacred Heart) which is at the top of, how do I say this lightly, a FUCKLOAD of stairs! WOO HOO! And stupid me decided to wear new shoes that day. Anyway, it is in a section of the city called Montmartre (Mountain of the Martyr). And, even though the stairs sucked to climb, the view was phenominal from up there. (see pics) So we spent some time on the steps listening to a Korean guy playing guitar in France and singing John Lennon songs in English....hmmmmm! Interesting atmosphere. So we then met Stephanes brother Jean-Philippe and girlfriend Marie and their two kids Arthur and Lucie. They were very nice and we spent a long time with them. When we had finished our meal, we walked back to their flat which was right in the middle of Montmartre. Really a beautiful part of the city. They were very nice but only his brother spoke english. His girlfriend Marie could understand a few and speak a few but she was very friendly and open to having me in their home. I have to say all of the French people are very NICE. I have heard this stereotype that all French people hate americans and that they are rude. I have noticed when I'm not with Stephane that they are a little more wary of me, but I am butchering their language when I speak to them and it seems maybe that is why they look at you funny and possibly dismiss you. But this is like anyone. Regardless, we spent a nice evening eating sushi and other Japanese food with his family. His brother was very good about translating for his girlfriend and really his english was very good. It was nice that he spent the time and energy to speak my language for me. After the evening was over we returned by Metro to the hotel and went to sleep.

In the morning, since we had so much of my heavy luggage, we tried to take an earlier train back to Lyon but our tickets were not changeable. We had a lot of time to kill outside the train station, So we did what many Frenchies do on a Sunday, sat at a cafe for four hours. LOL If you ever did this in America surely the waiter would hate you. But it was totally normal. We had a drink, then i ate a salad, then he ate some mussels, then we had dessert. We walked around a little bit but mostly, we just sat there. Our train departed at 4. The countryside was beautiful to look at on the way to Lyon. Vineyards, and cows (lots of cows) , sheep, hares, and neat water towers. It was all vary French. We arrived in Lyon two hours later on the fast train. Lyon is now the second largest city (population-wise) in France. The train station was so busy, so we quickly caught a cab to the flat. I think I will write the rest of my adventures in Lyon at another time because my hands hurt. Ok.....see you next time.