Olympians, Taxis, and Death Naps....Dia una

Like most trips my family plans, this one started out with its ups and downs. It was a definite up having Roxanne, Phoebe, and Courtney all come over for a farewell breakfast. Another one was running into swimming Olympians Matt Grievers and Ian Cocker in the SFO airport!!! Though I didn’t run after them and ask them, like my dad suggested, I think they were on their way back from Beijing. I had seen Grievers at a swim meet my freshman year, but had forgotten how HUGE he is. It was easy to spot him because he towered over everyone else in the airport, I wondered if it was easy for him to fit through the metal detectors….It was very exciting and had to call Roxanne and Phoebe immediately.

After two very smooth, but sleepless flights we arrived at the airport in Paris. It's not the easiest for an exhausted traveler to navigate because there are escalators going every way, and you have to go in circles to find the baggage claim. However too our pleasant surprise there were no customs and none of our bags were lost. We took a taxi through town and got a chance to use our translating device….my dads iphone (even though he can’t make calls he still has internet so he can continue to update his facebook profile). Though we have the iphone as we got off the plane we came to the realization that we know absolutely no French. And when we do attempt to speak it, always seems to come out in Spanish….always useful in taquerias, but not so much in a bistro.

One observation I have had is that none of the taxi drivers seem to know where anything is. They seem to expect you to know how to get to your desired destination. As this is often not the case, we have run into some bumpy, but always amusing situations.

We are staying at the Hotel de Lutece on the Ile Saint-Louis, which is an island very close to the Notre-Dame. As we arrived, we were hailed from above by Granny welcoming us from her room (which is right next to ours) on the fourth floor. Since she and Papa stayed here many times before, everyone seems to know her. She enjoyed telling us about seeing the night man who upon seeing her, gave her a welcoming hug and kisses. Our rooms are not extravagant, but they have a great view, are nicely decorated, and are just the right size for me, my dad, and all of my luggage.

Since it was only 9:30, once we changed out of our travel clothes we started to take in Paris. The street we are on is adorable. Like most of the places I have seen so far, it is filled with tiny small shops intermixed with delicious bistros where you can sit an watch people on the street go by. The first thing we did was walk down to the river to take the “boat bus” up to the Eiffel Tour and back. Though kind of touristy, it provided a very different way to see the city. I was surprised at how the river is still used for so many different purposes. Not only do tourist flock to it, but it we saw steamers carrying among other things old cars and large amounts of sand. After the boat ride we sat outside at a small restaurant looking out on a sand and gravel square where normally (not during august) people lawn bowl during the day. After a lunch of wine, cheese, and fantastic tartines (which are French open faced sandwiches) we stumbled back to the hotel for what Granny called a “death nap.” It was sooo painful to wake up and If she hadn’t woken us up for dinner, I certainly would have slept till breakfast.

After struggling to wake-up, showering, and continuing to struggle to wake up we headed to the Ritz for a cocktail before dinner. What a place. I had been there before, but it was much more fun this time. We went to the Bar Vendome for a glass of white wine and (as it turned out to be delicious and complimentary) canapés. Afterwards we caught at cab to the restaurant Granny selected for dinner heavy on meat. We had a green salad and some snails for starters and for the main course I ordered lamb chops, Granny ordered flank steak, and Daddy ordered a veal stew. By far, the veal stew was the best and nothing else really stuck out. Though we only had adequate food the atmosphere made up for it.

An exaugsting day, but it is very exciting to finally be here.