Before Barcelona, there was Paris

May 7 2005
Day One

I know I should not put down on paper my first impressions of Paris. But just between you and me, here’s exactly how I felt when I got my first good look at the city of lights: “Whaddever!” (Roll the ‘r’, and repeat to fade)

It was probably because the hotel we had booked on price-line was in a god-forsaken end of the city, and we traveled a whole hour on the metro getting there. Mind you, this does not include the 20 minute trudge, heavy back pack and all, to the hotel from the metro station. Whatever the reason, I am probably one of the few who can not claim to have fallen in love with the city at first sight. Love didn’t happen until much later… on Day 3.

Having thus quickly redeemed myself in your eyes, I’ll continue with the uneventful sequence of activities on day one.

6pm or some time thereabouts: Check into L’Hotel Sofitel. Flung into the outer reaches of Paris with nothing other than McDonalds in its vicinity. This McDonalds is to figure heavily in our meal plans in the next 3 days, but we didn’t know it yet.
6:05pm or some time thereabouts: Disappointed with hotel room. Small room with no personality. No iron or ironing board. We will find out later that this handicap pans Europe. You realize at this juncture that this blog will be filled with sweeping generalizations and opinions masquerading as facts.
8:00pm: Leave hotel to visit La Tour Eiffel. Very kicked that we have already figured out the metro.
9:00pm: Done seeing La Tour Eiffel, flickering lights and all. We are too late to take any of the boat rides on the Seine. Highlight of the evening is the egg and cheese crepes we ate in a roadside stall. Thank you, Kanna! We start walking to Champs Elysees. From the map, Ganyamanya figures it’s not very far.
9:45pm or so: Turns out it IS far!
11:00pm: Arc de Triomphe. Check.
Walking on Champs Elysees. Check.
Coffee on Champs Elysees. Expensive Check.
There was a show on Champs Elysees about seating, particularly car seats. Fascinating, except for the fact that all the documentation was in French.
Talking about seating, there was something extremely interesting about Paris, and at the time I thought it was unique to the Champs Elysees. A healthy number of coffee shops pepper the streetscapes in Paris. And in all of these coffee shops, all of the seating… I mean ALL… face the street. (Did we already have a chat about my propensity for sweeping generalizations?) So there’d be a table, and you’d have three or four chairs around it, but they would ALL be facing the street. It feels funny walking down the road and having a family of four all sitting in a straight line staring at you. All the world’s a stage, I say!
12:00am: On the metro, Sofitel bound.