Nous Sommes Arrivee! (we have arrived!)

Well, we made it! The flight was not bad - 7.5 hours direct from Cincinnati to Paris. Poor Guy had to fold himself in half to fit in our coach seats. But the flight was uneventful and neither of us got more that 2 hours sleep.

We were pretty drained from being up all night, but we found our train easily and made the 1.5 hour train trek through some pretty rough neighborhoods. (mental note - take taxi to airport when flying to London, trains are not always on time).

Our hotel....it is a place to sleep! Hotels.com ranked our hotel really well, plus it was a good price, PLUS it had a view of le Tour Eiffel.... So we walk a few blocks from the train station to the hotel and here she is:






We like to think of it as the 70's version of what futuristic architecture should be. Our room is small, but comfortable:



We set out to see the sights.... First stop - Eiffel Tower. Now, before we left we checked the weather forecast. It said 60% chance for rain all week. Boo! But as we set out, map in one hand camera in the other (how's that for screaming "TOURIST!!!"), the sun was shining and the weather was perfect. So we got in line, and we were going all the way to the top!. As we approach the front of the line, we notice the winds starting to pick up. We see that they closed the highest stop (top of the tower) due to high winds. Rats! So we make the executive decision to cut out and come back tomorrow. But we got some really good pics. It really is surreal to see the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes.....



Undaunted, we pushed on. There was still lots to see. As we cross the Seine (big river cutting through Paris), we see two interesting things: one is a high speed train on a barge and the other is a giant storm cloud. Apparently, Paris is getting a new high speed train and today was a big celebration. Here is the confetti celebration (please notice large black cloud behind it):








Torrential downpour ensures. People scatter like ants and we have no idea where to go. Fortunately, Guy noticed we could get below the bridge we were just standing on....







We wait out the storm under this bridge and chat with a friendly Australian who lives in Paris. He gives us some good tips and once the rain stopped, we were off again.

The sun came back out, but the wind never stopped. So we walked on, next stop was the L'arc de Triumph.




I have much more on today's adventures, but my computer battery in low and my adapter only take 2 prongs and my computer have 3 prongs. Anyway, I have to buy an adapter for the adapter, so I will recharge and post again. But, I will leave you with a few things to look forward to:
1) How to spot a Parisian from non-Parisian
2) What surprised me most about this city
3) My "run-in" with an illegal street merchant (he literally ran into me fleeing from the police)
4)Are the French as rude as you hear??

Till next time, au revior!