My oh my I've been a bad blogger. I don't know, life has just been so.... life-y lately. To summarize: the holidays were beautiful and cozy and LAZY with many days spent in our pajamas until well after noon.
Anyway, this is just a short update to announce: I'm in Paris! Got in last night after a long day of travel. Flew to London, took the tube to Knightsbridge to meet my mom, went to Harrod's and got bumped about my throngs of shoppers - goddamn that place is insane. Food Court? You haven't seen a food court until you've been there. Oyster bar, sushi bar, prepared foods, truffle bar, fresh meat, fresh fish, dim sum, krispy kremes, the largest selection of English pies and pastries imaginable, candy heaven, and on and on. We got ham and brie sandwiches and huddled under an awning (yes, raining!) to eat them. Then it was off to grab our bags and get our butts to the train station. As we lugged our bags up and down multiple staircases in the underground, I patted myself on the back for the lightest packing job I've ever achieved. Made it to St. Pancras (how can you not think "pancreas" every time you see that?) and boarded our train to Paris. It takes about 2 1/2 hours and goes through the chunnel - I'm not a huge fan of traveling under large bodies of water, but you can't even tell it's happening. What's really fun is trying to pee on one of those trains while you bounce side to side and the garbage compartment door swings out and smacks your knees repeatedly. But I digress... and this post is getting WAY longer than I intended. Suffice it to say: we made it to Paris. The train station at Paris Nord was frickin' packed with people and I became instantly paranoid that someone was about to steal my purse. We argued with a guy who was trying to sell us tickets and said we were insulting him by using the machine instead (yeah right, scammer!) The sight of 10 armed gendarmes with attack dogs was quite soothing - I got the impression that this part of town gets crazy on Saturday nights. At any rate, just a short metro ride followed by a 25 minute wrong-direction walking detour, we found the entrance to our apartment building: huge double doors off an absolutely lovely street. We stumbled over the threshhold into a dark courtyard and made our way uncertainly toward the building. Suddenly a light went on and a voice greeted us - our guardian angel was an adorable old man with a long white beard, woolen plad shirt, and colorful scarf. He looked like an ancient gnome and spoke with the most lovely French accent ever. He got us into the building and stuffed into an elevator built for two (and only two). One more struggle as we tried to get the keys to work and finally we were in. Our apartment is, in a word, rad. Big kitchen, sofa bed, loft bed, toilet, bath AND shower (hot even!), wifi, TV (The Simpsons in French!) and free phone calls to the US.
After freshening up and resting our sore, bag-carrying arms, we did venture out for an 11pm dinner at the bistro across the street. Salad w/ goat cheese toasts for me and fish soup for my mom. She tried to ask whether the soup was brothy or thick or what and the annoyed waiter's slow and patronizing response was "Fish... Soup!"
Whew. So... after a good sleep, some coffee, and unbelievably delicious croissants from down the street, it's noon and therefore time to venture out into the wide, wide world. Kind of rainy today, so we'll probably visit the Louvre or the Centre Pompidou. Awesome!
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