We left Toronto at about 5:45 p.m. and "enjoyed" an almost 7 hour flight to Paris. The quotes are because there was a lovely 2 year old girl across the aisle from us who communicated largely by screaming. Luckily, we had headphones and were able to crank up the volume. The flight was made easier by the fairly constant flow of alcohol at the start. We had signed up for a package that included, among other things, 2 little bottles of sparkling wine to start followed by 2 little bottles of South African wine with dinner.
Our arrival was at 7 a.m. local time which was 1 a.m. at home. We didn't really sleep at all because it was noisy and there wasn't that much time. It seemed like by the time they finished serving one meal to the whole plane, it was almost time for the next. We arrived at our hotel in about 45 minutes thanks to a great driver who picked us up. It was the first time we'd been picked up by someone with our name on a little sign. We were the only ones in the van because we were so early. Check in was a breeze and we met the Uniworld Tours hostess who helped us get into our room early.
The room is nice other than the fact that there are 2 beds pushed together. I've already fallen into the gap once! After dropping everything off in our room, we headed back out with the hostess for a quick walk around the area to get oriented. For this part of our stay, we're in the Opera district. It's got a lot of high end stores as well as historic buildings. Here are a couple of shots of the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera originated.
Then we walked down Rue de la Paix to Place Vendome. There is a peace monument made of melted down cannons and other weapons. The streets in the area are full of hyper expensive stores. We happened upon a photo shoot for one of them. And, I felt compelled to record the scene...
Even though it was the hottest day of summer in Paris so far, 31 C, we continued on the to Jardin Des Tuileries. It's a popular park and they have a carnival type thing going on with rides for the kids. We wandered about and saw the fountains and lawns and gardens. Oddly, as in many parks here, you can't walk on the grass. But, they have lots of chairs scattered around so that you can sit where you like.
I liked this one because of the relative positions of the girl on the phone and the stature. Could have done without the bags of garbage however...
By this time, we thought it must be getting close to lunch even though it was 6 a.m. by our body clocks. We walked back to a big department store called Galleries Lafeyette. They have a lot of high end stuff like shoes and purses. I was amazed at the lineups to spend hundreds of dollars on a purse!! Same with the shoes. There was a cafe on the roof but it was too touristy so we just looked around and searched for something better. Here are a couple of views from the roof and inside of the Galleries.
We did quite a bit more today like meeting with the other people on the cruise. To say the least, we are on the young end of the spectrum. Some people could be our parents!!! However, we did meet a few fellow Canadians who will join us at Juno Beach when the others visit the American D-Day beaches. We did eventually end up at a sidewalk cafe attached to our hotel for lunch. Despite the 11 Euro beers, we had a good time and ate well. We start tomorrow with a bus tour of the city then we'll be walking around some more.
Our 11 Euro French drafts!!
Marilyn's tartine provencal was really good. We'll be making this with our tomatoes when we get home!
My croque monsieur. I'm trying to eat a number of "classic" French dishes while here. This was really good although simple. Basically a ham sandwich with broiled cheese on top. It went perfectly with the beer. No dinner pictures because we were too tired and just had a nice Viognier and some brie and crackers while I was doing this!
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