Paris - Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The red disc of the sun was just setting on the horizon as our plane took off. In fact, the sun actually started to come back up again as we gained altitude, but that didn't last long. We soon headed east, leaving the sun behind us and we zipped across the Atlantic to meet it again on the other side. It was a very short night. The sun itself appeared on the port side of the plane when our watches read about 1:30 AM (Buffalo time), when there was still at least three hours left to the flight. When we did land, our clocks said we were landing 13 hours after take off, but it was a 7 hour flight and a 6 hour time change. None of us slept well anyway. Emma got the most sleep of all of us, but she needs a lot anyway.

Charles de Gaulle Airport is pretty basic and old-school. It reminded us more of the Russian airports we saw than any others we've been to. But it got the job done. We worked our way through customs, which was about a twenty minute wait, but took nothing more than a stamp on our passports when we got to the window. We waited for our backpacks to come on the luggage return. Anna was pulling them off the carousel, but was frustrated to find something sticky on her backpack. There was even more of the stuff on Dad's, but we didn't notice it until later. We don't know what it is, but know somebody else has an even larger mess to clean up from their luggage. We took a taxi to our hotel. 

That's when are first real problem arose. When you book a room online, you usually start by entering the number of people in your party, including the number (and usually ages) of kids. Well, it turns out that on Priceline, you don't do that step. When you're checking a lot of sites to comparison shop, it's easy to miss that fact. The rooms in our hotel are expensive because of their location, but small-- the size of a Microtel room, and they have a maximum of three people allowed to stay in them-- no exceptions. Well, we've got four people and only had one room, that we paid for in advance, plus we didn't really have a way or the energy to find another hotel. The woman at the front desk took some time to find a solution, but was able to get a second room for us "at half price", so that we could stay. She was also able to finagle things so that the rooms are next to each other. Thus Anna and Emma have their own room for tonight, next door to ours. However, the good news is that we are just is just a block or two from the Eiffel Tower, and we have a view of the top half of it out the window of our room. That alone is what you need to feel like you're in Paris. (Or Las Vegas, maybe, but let's go with this one).

We plopped our things in the rooms, freshened up and went out for some... we guess it would be called lunch, since it was a little after noon, Paris time. We went out to the streets around us, and selected a cafe. We all had some much needed food, though it did cost us quite a bit. The cafe itself was very crowded too, but at least we can say we did it. The people behind us got escargot, but we kept to more predictable food. We'll look for cheaper fast food now, most likely.

By then we were so tired that we went back to the hotel and we all took naps. We didn't want to use our first afternoon this way, but it was certainly a necessity. 

 After the nap, we were a bit more ready to face Paris. We walked a block to the Eiffel Tower, passed under it, and followed the Seine for a while. We were looking to find Rue Clare, only because Rick Steves stays there and recommends it as a neighborhood shopping experience. We missed it somehow, but found a little hole-in-the-wall convenience store off the beaten path in the 7th arrondissement to buy some sandwiches and picnic things for dinner. Perhaps we settled too soon, because when we did find Rue Clare, it was a charming pedestrian street, with many shops open. We had our picnic on the Champ de Mars, the green space by the Eiffel Tower, but on the far end of it, by the École Militaire and the relatively new Monument to Peace with "Peace" written in many different languages on it. We had fresh strawberries and raspberries as part of the meal. 

 After dinner, we walked down the mall of the Champ de Mars. Anna was taking many pictures of the Eiffel Tower with her iPod. After passing under the tower again, we bought tickets for a cruise on the Seine. The cruise took us from the Eiffel Tower, past the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre, under many bridges, and well past the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It was nice, but Scott was a little disapponted that we had to sit at the stern of the boat because we couldn't get a seat on the top deck.  Plus Anna was charged an adult fare even though she's still 12 years old.  She's too tall for her own good.  The cruise took about an hour. To no one's surprise, Emma slept through most of it. During the cruise, we saw many people sitting on the stone walls that make the banks of the Seine, enjoying the cool evening weather. We did the same. The three girls bought sorbet to enjoy as we watched the sun start to go down. The last time we saw that was 18 hours ago. (!?!) 

By the way, we also learned that Scott's Aunt Phyllis passed away on Monday. We're very saddened to hear that. The family was being called together for the worst just as we were making final preparations to leave. She was one of Scott's father's older sisters. Julie's first reaction to the news was to note that Aunt Phyllis was a very kind lady and had always been very nice to us. Scott agreed wholeheartedly. We're sorry that we couldn't be there for Grandpa and Grandma Frank and the rest of the family at this time.