The entire time at SFO we were waiting to board the plane, I kept waiting for them to call me over the loud speaker and tell me I couldn't go and could I please follow the nice man in the dark suit? BUT, that didn't happen, and before we knew it, we were being whisked towards Paris on the hellish odyssey that is unique to cheap international flights.
I am tall, but not overly so. I am five feet, seven inches tall. I pity my husband, who flies more often than I do and is six feet two inches tall. To say there is no leg room on an international flight is a gross understatement. If I had to describe that flight in two words, they would be loooooong and cramped =) I do realize how fortunate I am to have been able to take such a trip, however, and am not complaining, just pointing out the curiosities that occurred to a first time international traveler...
We arrived in Paris at around noon the day after we had left San Francisco. Let me just posit here that for 20 people that have not slept in about a day and a half, the driving tour of Paris might not have been the best choice for the first activity off the plane =) I got to wear some of my red wine that was imbibed on the plane, as my seat mate was skooching by me to go the bathroom and didn't see my wine there in the drink holder. Nothing a little spot remover won't cure =) The bottom line, however, was that by the time we GOT to Paris, we were TIRED! This is where the "I can sleep when I'm dead" credo starts to kick in, knowing we have less than ten days in France...
However, many of us were falling asleep during our driving tour of France, which I believe was merely the long way to the hotel down many side streets. However, given that our hotel was in the center of Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, this seems a very logical hypothesis. Seeing things you have only seen in pictures and movies until now is really, really awesome! Being in a city with the amount of History that exists in Paris is divine. Seeing buildings probably older than most anything you've seen in your lifetime is surreal. These are thoughts that went through my head as we were driving through Paris. My near-constant mantra was "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M HERE!!"
We stopped near the Air France building to stretch our legs a bit, and the sense of history struck me again. Just, WOW!
Finally, we got to the hotel. I left the bus feeling guilty because our very nice French tour guide kept saying "You all are so quiet. Do you not have any questions about France of Paris?" No, dear, really, we were just a tad catatonic from a very long flight and still experiencing ass-numbness. She was great, though...what I remember of her =)
We got to the hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very quaint! We were very close to the Metro, and centrally located to many other things, including the Eiffel Tower, which ended up being perhaps a ten minute walk from the hotel. Hotel rooms, and dwellings in general in Paris seem to run along two different styles. Oppressively small if it's affordable, of ridiculously huge palace that had no choice in modern times but to become a museum or public building. That's one of the first things that struck me. When I saw my bed, I wasn't sure it was possible to push two single beds that close. It's a good thing my roomy and I have a relatively close sense of personal space, or we would have been sleeping on top of each other. The bathroom in the room was so tiny there's no way more than one person could fit in it at a time and I wonder what the rooms looked like before the invention of flat/LCD type televisions, because if our TV had not been hung on the wall, it would have taken half the room if it were an old style tellie.
Once we got checked in, there was a little time to relax. We were to meet in the lobby before walking to the restaurant for dinner, then heading to the Eiffel Tower.
Pictures are worth so much more than a thousand words, here are some of mine of day one:
Dinner, was amazing. We walked to this little restaurant about a block and a half away from the hotel. On the way, we found these amazing little kiosks, where you can do currency exchange, like, right there, on the street. They are like these little walk up or smallish booth things where you go in, tell folks how much you want in Euro's, give them your money, and you are situated.
I think someone told French people that all Americans eat is steak. I think in our first few meals, all we had was steak. Now, that first night, it was good, but steak it was. For desert we got Creme Brulee'. YUM! The place is quaint, there are long tables where everyone sits family style. Vegetarians apparently present a problem for folks in France =) We had a few with us, and if you don't eat steak, you should be disdained, but they did accommodate.
We walk back to the hotel and have just enough time to gather our senses before we have to meet back down in the lobby to walk to the Eiffel Tower. What can one say about such an iconic thing? Being there was amazing. The detail in the scroll work was unreal. We were talking about it like the worlds largest erector set =) That thought is amusing, until you actually get ON the tower, hehe.
Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about being at the Eiffel Tower are the people that come up to you and try to sell you things. These folks walk around with these large metal circles with all manner of Eiffel Tower representations on them and they want you to buy them. Badly. They try to get your attention by shoving their wares in your face..."LADY! Pretty lady, Eiffel Tower? One Euro, one euro, only one euro for theese." It was disconcerting...
It could be ignorance, but I am sort of glad I didn't do a bunch of research on Paris before I went. Somehow, I think that might have made my reactions different. The child-like wonder with which I was able to experience everything is not something I would have traded for the world. I had no idea there was a nightly light show that happens at dusk on the Tower, lighting it up in a cascade of firefly-looking glitter that sparkles up and down the tower, showcasing it's magnificence. It was very cool, I will add a video of this when I can.
I have to say that this was truly one of the longest days I've ever had. Truly. OMG. It seems like it went on and on and on. This entry might seem like that, too =)
By the time we collapsed that night, I thought I would sleep forever...knowing I would have less than six hours. My basic philosophy? I can sleep when I'm dead, as I may never be in Paris again....
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