|
We arranged for a taxi
to pick us up at our house on Christmas morning to take
us and the myriad of bags to the airport. Long
story short, the taxi service didn't have a cab
available and never bothered to relay this information
to us. So, after an unpleasant phone call with the
taxi service, a frantic search through the yellow pages
brought us to a towncar service that was willing to take
us to the airport. The best part? He lives
one block away from us! He was at our house in 5
minutes and we arrived safely at LAX on time.
The flights from LAX
to New York and Paris were wonderful. Nothing like
flying business class! We left Los Angeles at noon
Dec. 25, and arrived in Paris at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 26.
With the 9-hour time difference, we only spent 13.5
hours from wheels up in LA to bags rolling out the door
in Paris. I took that opportunity to practice some
French. I have now mastered the ability to say, in
French: "I am very sorry, I don't speak French. Do
you speak English?" Hey, you have to start
somewhere, right?
The ground travel woes
resumed in Paris, after the nice pair of flights.
The shuttle picked us up promptly at the gate, but then
we sat in the shuttle for the next 1 1/2 hours as the
driver was forced to wait for a delayed flight and
missing fellow shuttle passenger. We commandeered
a taxi with our fellow shuttle captives, bags on laps
and crammed together, and arrived at our apartment a lot
later than planned.
The apartment is
lovely. I will talk a bit more about this in our
next posting, but you can map to it on Google if you
follow this
link. Three 45-pound and three 35-pound bags
later up three flights of narrow, twisting steps we
arrived in our one bedroom apartment complete with loft
and a lovely view on a small quiet street that is
simultaneously in the middle of everything.
Just as I set the last
bag down, the guys from the concierge service arrived to
help us plan out some activities for our trip.
Lauren had taken care of most of the details already, so
they were just trying to sell us on touristy stuff...
ugh. We did take some of their advice and have
some fun activities planned, and they helped with dinner
reservations that would have been difficult to otherwise
arrange.
After a very quick
unpacking session and 15 minutes of coma-like sleep, we
prepped for our first Paris activity!
O Chateau Paris
Wine Tasting! We bundled up and headed down the
road to the nearly impossible to find apartment,
arriving a few minutes late but were warmly welcomed
nonetheless. We enjoyed a fun tasting with two
couples that had also just arrived within the last 24
hours; one couple was from New Jersey, the other from
Connecticut. Two hours of a light French wine
education sprinkled with fun banter, some political
soapboxing, and lots of laughter, we left with 4 bottles
of a lovely, delicate Syrah from the Rhone region, and 2
bottles of perfectly decent 2000 Bordeaux - some for
here, some for home.
A quick scurry down
the road took us to
Ma Bourgogne
Restaurant in Place de Vosges. This was my first
experience with a truly hole-in-the-ground restroom
(umm... interesting) and my first try at ordering food
in French. I stumbled through it; Lauren was much
more comfortable. The waiter was patient with us,
and allowed us to practice our French a bit with mild
corrections when we messed up. He spoke perfect
English, but recognized that we wanted to try out our
French so he only used it when necessary. We
realized that we hadn't eaten anything since our flight
that morning, so the food was greeted with enthusiasm.
Lauren: a great salad, lentil stew topped with a smoked
ham, and capped with pear glace. Jeff: a simple
salad, andouille sausage and fries (no, you don't want
to know what was in the sausage), and creme brulee.
No wine since we were already exhausted.
Back to the apartment
to try and figure out how to dry the towels that were
left in the washer/dryer, and SLEEP!
No pictures or video
clips this posting - Day 3 should have much more rich content.
FYI - our cellular
phones and e-mail are all functioning perfectly, so we
are still quite accessible. |