Minigan's Travels -Summer 2015
Bonjour to Paris and Geneva!
Day 1 - Our first day
Day 1
Our first day in Paris.
We landed in Paris around 7:00 a.m. Very smooth, uneventful flight.
The mother and daughter (we found out their names are Ellen and Ann) we behind us in the line for Customs. Of course. :-)
Customs was uneventful. We proceeded down to get our luggage which included going through “the tube”. I’m not really sure what the escalator type things they have are called but they are a combination of an escalator and a people mover.
We wait for our luggage. And wait. Ellen and Ann are also at the luggage carousel. Their luggage comes. We wish them safe travels as they head out. We continue to wait. FINALLY our luggage comes. One of the last few pieces off the plane.
Off we go to find our driver to get us to the hotel. His name is Matthew. Very nice guy. We were impressed by his driving skills. We were in a van and he maneuvered the van in places we did not think the van should fit. He got us to the hotel with no problem though.
The hotel is on one of the main streets near the Seine River. It's a lovely hotel! Unfortunately, we found out our room was not ready and would likely not be ready until 2:00. (It was around 8:00 am when we arrived.) They were very kind though and let us use the restroom to freshen up and change clothes and told us we could drop our luggage off and go explore Paris if we would like until the room was ready. Off we go!
First, we need coffee. And pastries. We had coffee, cappuccino (Jaimey), mini beignets and at Café Paul. Great place to begin practicing our French.
Our vocabulary at this point is basically:
- Merci (thank you)
- Deux – (two)
- Bon Jour (Good morning or Good Day)
The streets in Paris are exactly what I had hoped. Full of character, people, smells, noises and photo ops!
We walk around Paris waiting for our room to be ready. This first few hours in Paris we saw the Seine, Notre Dame and a variety of shops, restaurants and interesting cars. We were also able to do a lot of people watching. I'm secretly glad our room wasn't ready!
We were hitting exhaustion though. We stopped at a little café to have a bite to eat right across from Notre Dame.
The line was insane and the people watching was fantastic! We tried to guess where everyone was from and what type of people they were. The sad part was the amount of homeless people. Well, not just homeless “people” but homeless “families”. Throughout the day we say women with children multiple times. The other constant sight was a homeless man with a dog (or dogs).
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| Notre Dame - Stunning! |
After we had our nap we were ready to go again. At least for a little while. We walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg. Stunning. Huge park area that is extremely well maintained. We saw beautiful gardens, children playing in the children’s area, adults playing chess in the area for chess players (I did not know there was anything such as “speed” chess . Very interesting.) There was a model of the Statue of Liberty (surprising but makes sense since the US received the Statue of Liberty from the French) in the park as well as many additional art sculptures.
We toured a small art showing in the park that was an exhibit of a man’s photography he had done in Malaysia. As we were walking and taking photos a little boy was chasing after his soccer ball. I stopped it for him. He was probably 4 or 5. He looked up at me with his big eyes and said, “Merci”. I was speechless. I did not know how to say "You're Welcome" and wasn’t sure what to do. I smiled at him and he ran off smiling with his ball. Left the park knowing we had experienced something monumental.
Dinner was a wonderful experience. L’Enfance De Lard. Awesome place! Great Food! Great wine! Jaimey and I had chicken. Jim had steak tartare. And for dessert………… Crème Brule! OH MY GOSH!
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| Street View (restaurant on left) |
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| Inside the restaurant |
As we continue our walk, we are still looking for jackets for Jaimey and I. The weather is not supposed to cooperate a lot and we need warmth. We stop at a small boutique and talked to the owner. He has nothing in his shop that will work but he was very friendly and discussed the language with us. New word learned: Bon Soir. Used to say Good Evening.
From there we came back to the hotel to get clothing that was a little warmer. . There was a new registration person that we really enjoyed. Jean Lupe. Very helpful man! Jim struck up a conversation with him and we learned a lot. I told him my story of the little boy and the fact that I didn’t know what to say. We have now added to our vocabulary again.
- De Rien (De – Re-in) - You're welcome
- Bonne Nuit (Bon Nweet) -Good night – When you are actually retiring for the evening
We left the hotel and went to find a boat that would give us a night time ride on the Seine. We went to the wrong place so decided to come back and get online to find the dates/times/location.
Tomorrow we will find the right place. The boats we saw travelling up and down the river looked awesome and we can’t wait to do it.
Stopped and got wine so we could have a night cap before we go to bed.
Tomorrow’s plan:
- Notre Dame (climb to the top and see the view)
- Eifell Tower (oh my gosh – Can’t Wait!)
- Nightime cruise on the boat for a tour of Paris
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| The Louvre from the other side of the Siene River |
We are all exhausted.
Bonne Nuit to all!
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