Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Day 1 in Paris

After flying 4,295 miles from Chicago O'Hare, what with sleeping upright and less than delectable air meals, we finally arrived in the first stop on our adventure: Paris. 
Upon starting this trip, mum and I discovered something quite unexpected, we thought I would be the wild, running-through-the-streets type and mum to be the slightly overly responsible adult, but we had a role reversal! Mum would be speeding off down the street with me trailing behind saying, "Are you sure this is the right way? That's not how you pronounce that! That is not a cross walk!!" Blame it on the jet lag, maybe..
When we came into Paris, I was so exhausted that I was thinking it seemed like America with less smiling and significantly more culture, but I got over it when I took a nap later. 
We immediately embarked on an adventure known as, "Finding the Right Metro". Which was surprisingly hard, but with a bit of help we finally got out of the airport, 
And onto this moderately colorful mode of transport here.
It was later we discovered that the lines used on the maps for certain Metro numbers change from map to map, and are not city wide. 
"Oooh!" Says mum. 
Promptly, we moved onto the next journey, "Finding the Apartment", which could also be referred to as, "Going Absolutely Anywhere in Paris". 
The streets here are not easy to navigate on any level. The rue (road) that we are staying on is small, and so it's not on the maps. It's quite easy really to get completely lost, which mother and I got right to doing. It took us an extra hour but we finally, FINALLY found our apartment. Our host is lovely and speaks fabulous English. Our flat is tiny, and I mean minuscule. I will post pictures when there is light again to take them. Here is a picture of some of the winding stairs up to it though, it is on the fourth floor. 
After the general flat orientation, we took off to pick up some necessary tickets and such, and jumped into the navigating Paris challenge again. This time with a whole new, equally confusing setting! We managed to find all that too though, and felt quite proud. To understand a bit of how confusing the maps are, here is one for you to see. 
In addition, there are "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs on the crosswalks, which is helpful. Except the French people don't bother with then when walking, and you neither do some of the motorcycle riders. Keeps you on your toes!
We had dinner at a restaurant on a nearby street corner. 
It wasn't a great meal, by any standards. But the pain (bread) and thè parfume  (flavored iced tea) was incredible. 
 This was our meal. Filet Mignon de Porc. Sliced pork with (mustard?) sauce, pasta, and salad. 
Then we spent some time walking around the shops and general Paris area.
We saw the Notré Dame. Before we came I wasn't all that thrilled with it, I was looking more forward to it's crypt than anything else, but then I saw it... 

I immediately fell in love with it. I took about 35 pictures and could spend hours just looking at it. 
We walked over the Love Locked Bridge. The LL Bridge is where people in love come and put a padlock with their names or initials on the links in the bridge. It's pretty cute, except for the fact that the City of Paris cuts hundreds of locks off it every year to make room for more.. Sorry to shatter that romantic gesture, lovebirds. 


It's still a great place to see, over the Seine River. 
I chatted with a few pigeons..
 Mum found an alleyway she really liked. 
Continually ran into scenes like this around the corner.
The Fountain of Saint Michael 
This incredible gate and matching clock!

And the Justice Center, adorned with the nation's flag. 

At this point we decided to call our walk to and end so we could go back to the flat and get a few groceries. However mum wanted to walk, so as to get better aquatinted with the city....
Let me just show you how that went.


I'll have you know that we did pretty well, for some time (we being mum). Until finally it got very cold and started raining and we had just made a circle so she decided to take the Metro back, am that was much better. 
We burned way more calories looking for a dessert place than what we ended up eating. But the desserts were well worth it and amazing at that. See? 
Yum:) 
We had a brief moment of terror because we couldn't operate our door to exit the apartment, but we figured it out. 

You can probably tell, but we have had a pretty wonderful first day in Paris. 
Valuable lesson of the day: don't follow streets, follow monuments! 
Thank you for reading~
Roaming Rapunzel