Day One: Paris

Cafe Jacques; Paris, France; 10:02 am (4:02 am EST)

Paris!  We saw the Eiffel Tower!  OMG!  Here's a pic:

As you can tell by the picture, it wasn't the most romantic initial outing in the city's illustrious history. We flew in yesterday morning on a red-eye.  Don't get me wrong: Lufthansa is by far and away the nicest airline I've ever flown.  But those British Airway commercials had given me pretty unrealistic expectations about overnight, overseas travel.  As it turns out, you don't actually just get into a bed in the middle of Boston Common and wake up in the same bed underneath the Eiffel tower.  Instead, you're stuck in an upright seat in the middle of a row of eight other sleep-deprived people, who will stare daggers at you if you even try to get up for the bathroom in the middle of the night.  While they do serve free beer and a great dinner on the flight, it comes at 1:00 am, and you eat it as quickly as possible so they'll take it away and you can fall back asleep.  Even so, the flight really was wonderful in comparison to previous airline experiences.  And now, having used a $35 Brookstone face mask and equally pricey ear plugs sleep twelve hours in the hostel (I leave it to Ellie to describe why these items were so essential), I'm pleased as punch to be sitting in a French cafe in the city of lights.  

Overall, Paris really doesn't seem that much different from major cities in the US considering that it's a millennium older, on a separate continent, and all the signs are in French.  You have a subway, a couple of rivers, lots of people, and some monuments, but for me, the subtle differences have proven more  interesting than the broader similarities.  Just a few examples: the airport and subways have moving ramps, not escalators; the locks rest in a horizontal rather than vertical position (we spent five minutes fighting with the key yesterday before figuring this out); all the cars are hatchbacks, and public buses carry the "prestigious" Mercedes logo; the first floor comes above the ground floor (thus, our room 531 is six steep flights of stairs from the entrance); a .5 liter (18 oz) of coke costs 3.30 euros ($4.85).  Yes, I bought one.

I've rambled on for quite a while now.  Ellie just sighed audibly as she looks longingly at the Louvre up the street.  I doubt my other posts will last nearly this long, but I am so excited to be here!  Paris!  OMG!  Here's another pic!

Max