Paris Day 1-

Saturday, April 05, 2008 2140

We finished the day’s worth of activities. We safely took Iceland air to Reykjavik. It was a spectacular once in a lifetime flight because we were able to get the exit row AND there was no one in the third seat next to us. We had ample knee room and ample sleep room. I had an easy time falling asleep. The food wasn’t as great as past. A rolled lasagna type noodle with coarse chicken and what tasted like salsa, then a krab salad and a bun. Not to excited. The alcoholic drinks were not included. Luke and I did not know that. We ordered and the lady said 12€. I said no thank you. Thank goodness she didn’t crack the top. She took it back but left the mixer. It was great. We didn’t get a snack or breakfast. No movie. Mom didn’t get her fish free meal. She got weird vegetarian.

We arrived in Reykjavik and went through security. Got our passport stamped. Dinked around for an hour and walked. We boarded our next plane to Paris. This flight was 2.5 hours. We were served an omelet type thing, with breakfast potatoes and a lamb sausage with juice. I was REALLY hungry and thirsty. I asked for extra water. We arrived in terminal, collected our luggage and toileted. We tried to phone our apartment lady and we did not have any luck we did loose about 4 € in the process. We slowly proceeded to our apartment via the RER B cost €8.20. We bought our tickets at a machine, a book of 10 (€11.00). We boarded the RER B and took us to Gare du Nord, then took line 8, and then line 6 to our apartment.

We found the apartment right away, typed in the security code and then did not know what to do when we couldn’t find Isabelle. Well she came down and found us. I felt bad that we didn’t call. She showed us around way too much and for way too long. We paid the balance 1200 and €1000 security deposit. She offered to help dad find a bank where he could exchange his vast 40 kilo of Euro coin. The bank she took him to was closed. Luke and I went to the grocery store to get some food. We bought wine, cheese, some fruit, yogurt, a six pack of UHT milk, some crummy bread, and preservative loaded shelf stable croissants, generic nutella etc.

We ate a quick meal of pretzels bread chocolate, croissant, chocolate covered raisins and coffee. Then we decided to go for a cruise on the Seine €11 each. The metro was a rig a ma roll to get through and it felt like we could have walked it faster. Now we know. The boat tour was an hour long; we went up and down the Seine. It was very cold. We all had our hoods up and hands in pockets. The tour was a little bit too long. Luke even closed his eyes for a moment when we finally went indoors after we were so cold.

The boat ride dropped us off back at the Eiffel tower. We walked around a bit, Luke at a baguette hotdog. The baguette is pierced and mustard, mayo and ketchup squirted in the hole and then stuffed in the wiener. Luke and I gazed at the now lit Eiffel tower. We tried to take some good pictures;

we’ll see how they turned out. Luke and I walked home on our own and took a wrong turn. We both agreed in our minds that we had to take a right at the Invalides museum and we were wrong. We walked quite a ways out of our way before we checked the map and had to back track. It was a long brisk walk. Mom and Dad got lost on the way home too and they got home just moments before we did- 2030.

Luke quick fixed spaghetti and jar sauce that was VERY good. Luke just added herbs de province to it. Yummy! We ate big on that, ate some white cheese called comte’. Dad drank too much wine for his sleep deprivation. We ate some bread and butter and orange and apple for late dinner. Now Luke is lounging on the couch, dad is rambling and I am cramming to get this written. I think we are done for the night. Free day at the louvre is tomorrow. ljf