Paris!

OK, so before I begin, the keyboard Im using has a few quirks that Im having trouble with, and I may well run out of ti,me before I get a good edit in. The q and a are switched, as are the w and z, so consider them interchangeable, as are the cmma and the m. Weirtd how much thats hampering my efforts. No apostrophes, either.

OK: Paris!

We got in just fine after mostly uneventful flights and got our room in the Hotel Marignon in the Latin Quarter with no troubles. Its great for what were paying, the breakfast is free and simple, and the staff speak English and are very helpful.

This city is fantastic. Weve spent loads of time just walking and walking, seeing everything we can and jut taking it in. Its easy to see why this is the top tourist spot in the world--its easy and its beautiful and its not nearly as expensive as I expected it to be.

Our first day here we spent wandering the streets for a while, past the ginormous Cathedral de Notre Dame, along the Seine, through some lovely parks, and then back to the room for a nap. For our first dinner (yes that will be a BIG part of this blog, for obvious reasons) we made our way to Montmarte to try to find Refuge de Fondue, a place where C and her mom ate when they visited here. She found it right off, ands we descended the stairs into the din and bustle of a long narrow room with lines of tables in either side filled to bursting with people. But they did make room for us, and the waiter helped Cathy walk up onto and over the table to squeeze into a seat along the wall. I sat opposite her and we ordered the meat fondue and vin rouge for me and blanc for the lady. It was served in baby bottles, nipples and all. Everyone was drinking from them. Ridiculous and hilarious. We ended up chatting with a trio fo Italians sitting next to us (almost on top of us, or in our laps,or us in theirs; it was often tough to tell) as we ate our steak and potatoes. Ferdinando, Monica, and Franco are design journo types in twn for an exposition, and they were great fun and eager to talk and drink wine and swap some of their cheese for some of our meat.

Conversation ran through life in our respecitve homes, our work (briefly), Lance Armsrong (a true champion and victim of gossip press, to Ferd.), and many many other subjects. It was great, and we werent the only ones whothhought so. Ferd. suggested we go some other place to end the night with a bottle of Bordeaux. We accepted. However, time for us to catch the past metro (underground train) home was running short, so we settled for a middle eastern place just down the street from the restaurant. There we had a big pot of delicious mint tea and shared a big fancy genie-in-a-bottle-looking hookah pipe packed full of apple flavored tobacco. This stuff was so smooth and tasty that even Cathy liked it.

We ended the night hoping to get together again on the weekend, and I hope we do, because they were as pleasant as could be.

And indeed we ran for THE last train, and we made it, just. A great opening night.