Nous Arrivons a Paris

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We took the 10:12am Eurostar from London to Paris this morning. The Eurostar went as fast as 300km/hr but can go upwards of 500km/hr. They never go that fast b/c it'd be like bad turbulance on the plane and all our coffee and croissants would go flying throughout the coaches!

Our cab driver to the hotel forced us to use our first bit of French. Not sure if he cldn't speak English or cldn't be bothered but it was easy enough so no worries.

En route (see, I'm bilingual already!) I fell in love with Paris. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Not sure how to describe it and by Friday we may loathe it but it's love at first sight for today. It oozes romance.

Our hotel overlooks the Tuilieries Gardens AND we have a small balcony that looks directly at the Eiffel Tower. I must admit that as we stood on the balcony taking in the view I got a little teary-eyed. It's so overwhelming to see and experience first-hand what you have only read and seen from afar.

Our room is lovely and had a decent shower AND toilet (both of which were lacking in London). The toilet is typically french, giving you the option of using one of two buttons to flush, depending on the digestion of the cheese or foie gras from the night before!

We're now off to tour around the city so we can get oriented for the rest of our stay.

7pm:

We're back and I have to say that sitting here writing about the past few hours is very surreal. I'm sitting on our balcony with the Louvre directly to my left and the Eiffel Tower directly to my right. Absolutely beautiful but incredibly surreal.

We've now got our bearings and realize that our hotel is incredibly central and we can pretty much walk anywhere - Champs Elysees, Louvre, Rue St. Honore to window shop with the wealthy Parisians - brasseries and patisseries everywhere which is, surprisingly, surprising.

While out and about we saw the Eiffel Tower up close and both of us were in awe. It's such a stunning monument in person. Napoleon's tomb is incredibly large for such a small guy and Notre Dame Cathedral is delicately ornate. The Louvre up close is just plain palatial. It's all very indescribably breathtaking.

Dinner happens quite late here so we just had some wine and cheese at a brasserie beside our hotel.

There are a million Smart Cars here and reams of barricades as they get ready for the finale of the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong will peddle into Paris 3 days after we leave so unfortunately we'll miss the festivities. We missed Bastille Day by 3 days too so bad planning on our (my) part.

At this early juncture I'm describing Paris as a french New York but the comparison is used very loosely. They are both very different and fantastic for their own merits but they both exude a confidence and sophistication second to none. John and I are both quite taken by Paris and it's only been a few hours. We'll keep you posted of any change of heart.

Miss you all!

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