Day One in Paris

Greetings from (cold) Paris!  There is a frisky breeze stirring up our hair.  Tomorrow we are admonished to refrain from standing next to streams or trees due to the risk of high waves and lightning.  No, I am not making this up, the weather tomorrow is predicted to be just horrible!

Here is Jim on the Air France leg of the trip yesterday.  See how happy he looks?  It was a good flight.  The food was actually enjoyable.  We enjoyed their house white wine to the point that our lovely and personable cabin attendant gave us a bottle of it to take to Paris.  She wished us good weather and romance during our trip.

This is looking out the window descending in to Paris.  There is much agriculture just outside of the city.

Interestingly enough, we observed no extra security at the airport.  There were no army guys with guns or dogs.  Passport control was perfunctory, and customs was non-existent.

It's our first evening in our teeny tiny hotel room.  Currently the lift is in-op and we're having to walk up three flights of steps.  Normally this would not be a problem, but it's a spiral staircase and the treads are so shallow we're afraid our feet will slip off and re-rupture Jim's Achilles.  Both hands are being deployed on the staircase railing.

We've had our first shower and a thorough tooth brushing, so we're feeling much better about things.  We wussed out and ordered room service, it's just easier to have people bring food to the exhausted.

While at Monoprix today (a high zoot Target) we witnessed two quintessentially French events.  The check out lines were backing up, so a new checker came and motioned me to come over to her.  Just as I picked up our FOUR items, this cliche of a Frenchman came barreling down the aisle, barked "excuse-moi" and got in front of me with a full cart.  In the time it took him to unload, we could have paid and been on our way.  Then, upstairs, there was a woman at the head of the queue who could not find her wallet in her voluminous bag.  The man two people behind her in the line started yelling at her to "quit being an idiot and move aside."  Then he called her a name, and then she yelled back.
We also observed approximately 100 people standing in line waiting for a chocolatier to open this afternoon.  We're guessing it's because tomorrow is Easter, but who knows.

Both times we left the hotel today I forgot my camera, so I have no photos.  Sorry about that!