We left for CDG Airport at a reasonable hour, but as I had to stay up late doing last minute edits to Chapter 2 of my dissertation before I left, I was exhausted by the time I got to the airport. I figured I'd sleep on the plane. Not so....Normally the feeling of planes and trains lull me to sleep, but this trip (all 9.5 hours of it) I couldn't sleep due to a particularly bratty 2 year old sitting behind me. Normally I'm really good with kids crying - I know their ears might hurt and it might scare them to get on a plane, but this kid was crying because she wanted the attention of her mother. With four kids, the mother was at her wits end, and this child (the second youngest) wasn't having it. I figured she'd tucker herself out after an hour or two - but it was pretty much constant screaming for the whole trip, heard through the noise cancelling headphones. Oh well, so no sleep on the plane.
There was also a British dude who nearly was escorted off the plane due to his flight anxiety. I offered him a sleeping pill, but he said he already had pills and when he spoke to me he was very calm - I started to wonder if it was all a ploy to get a better seat (if it was, it worked).
Anyway, on the plane I watched two silly movies (Admission, Identity Thief) and read the last book in The Tawny Man series by Robin Hobb (part of the Farseer series - wonderful stuff).
We arrived at CDG the next day, not well rested but decently fed (they also served me two 10 oz. glasses of wine, which I thought mnight help with the sleeping, oh well). We were able to navigate the Paris Metro system quite well and arrived at the Rome stop in Paris. There were Romani on the metro, singing and playing accordian - which was actually quite lovely and seemed very Parisian.
We were able to easily navigate our way from the Metro to the apartment we are staying at with Justin and Tina - met up with them and then headed out to a cafe around the corner. There I had a Cidre (which tasted something between a beer and a cider) and had a nice salad with grilled goat cheese. From there we too the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe where we then walked down the Champes Elysses. The only store of note was the 5 floor Louis Vuitton store - which I did not go in - almost too intimidating to do so (even if the menfolk would have "allowed" it). We also saw some really nice motorcycle shops, Triumphs and H-D - no Nortons though (too British I suppose). We walked down to the Louvre and walked around the outside of the building and then on to Notre Dame with a pit stop at a cafe for beer/espresso/chips/ (I had sangria and guacamole - not very French, I know - but it was a snack). We walked and walked - but it was a beautiful sunny day and it was nice to be out. Also, I knew if I had stopped for too long I would crash, as I recognized that I had about 6 hours of sleep within the last 48 hours.
We took the Metro back to the apartment, where I am writing this entry right now. A nice hot shower and now I feel human again. I hope to sleep tonight and am trying to stay up till 10:30 as to not go to bed too early. Ill reach my goal, as it is 10:12 right now.
Jared is working beside me. His work doesn't know he is on vacation (yikes!). Tina is working on her french in the next room, and I believe Justin might have already fallen asleep. No late night partiers in this group tonight! We'll have pleanty of time for that when we hit the beach.
Things of note:
1. Many of the buildings have a foundation stone where the name of the architect and the date of the building are noted. The street I am staying on has many buildings dating to the 1880 - not the oldest, but not too shabby. Our apartment complex has a lovely spiral staircase up (no lift). The wooden steps are slick and small, but very beautiful. The handrail has two inlaid pieces of wood - a nice little detail. All the buildings are so beautiful.
2. Justin noted that no men in Paris wear shorts! Too casual! And he was, for the most part, right! Other than that, the ladies by in large do not seem overly fashionable. But perhaps we haven't hit the right districts yet.
3. I noted to Jared that it was "Magic hour." He responded that the light hit the buildings beautifully - which it did. The mixture of the pale stone and sunset made pinkish hues.
4. American movies are hitting here the same time the are playing at home. There seems to be almost no lag time anymore.
That's it for now. More tomorrow.
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Jared's reflections:
We flew from Seattle to Amsterdam, but did not have a layover significant enough to see any of the city, which was disappointing. There is a museum there that Elizabeth wanted to see, and a few coffee shops that I might have liked to visit. We took a smaller plane from Amsterdam to Paris. I was pleasantly surprised that my "pilot's treatment" for early boarding and customs was respected in Europe. I was up until 4 am for the three days before our flight trying to get all my work assignments finished so I could quietly be out of the office for 2.5 weeks. I succeeded (unfortunately, our London arbitration hearing begins on 30 September and work has continued to find its way to me). I can't underscore Elizabeth's mention of the crying baby enough. The crying was more like screaming. Because she was a 2 year old, her lungs were well enough developed as to fill the entire A320 cabin with her shrill displeasure. My noise cancelling Bose were no match. At the end of the 8 hour flight, I just broke out laughing, it was comical how loud and constant her wail was. Through the screams, I watched "42" (a "dick" flick, according to some), "Hyde Park on the Hudson" (Bill Murray was pretty great in it), and "Identity Theft" and "Admission" with Elizabeth. I enjoyed watching movies with her on the plane, and the last two had some pretty funny moments. Nothing compared to that baby though. I think it was a sign to NOT procreate. Also worthy of mention was the Delta food. Not bad at all. Pretty good actually. And the midnight turkey and cheese sandwich rolls were great. I got Ms. I-Don't-Eat-Birds Elizabeth's sandy in trade for my cookie desserts. Score. Double score because enough of the passengers were out of it that I was emboldened to ask for (and receive) a third sandwich. Mmmm.
But all those movies and sandies meant no sleep for me. I didn't even try. I was pretty punch drunk when we got to Paris. But the Metro was exciting. Lots of tagging on the railway walls and apartment buildings. Some of it was pretty artistic. I thought the accordion playing panhandlers were loud and annoying, but it's never been a secret that Elizabeth and I have different tastes in music. Also worthy of mention, the rude and exhausted Frenchman who had enough of our fiddling with the Metro ticket machine at CDG.
The apartment Tina's friend hooked her up with was awesome. Centrally located, right near a Metro stop, and with a great view from the balcony. It was on the top floor of the 4 story building. The place had wifi, which turned out to be quite useful when more work started to roll in, which it did (it was a Wednesday after all). Our walk started at a small coffee shop where I had the first espresso of my trip. As expected, it gave me my third wind, which propelled me on our walking tour of the famous landmarks. The Louvre was extremely impressive, and we didn't even go in! I liked the many French philosophers which adorned the eaving, the thousands of feet of eaving that surrounded the building, Descartes, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and hundreds of others I didn't know. I had my second espresso (a double) in between the Louvre and Notre Dame. Fourth wind? Yes, please. What I liked best about Notre Dame was the statutes on the apostles at al near the top of the entrance. John the Baptist was carved so as to be headless, with his head resting comfortably in his hands. His facial expression showed peacefulness and calm. God *is* great! Also worthy of mention, Justin and Tina's delight at having mastered the Metro and it's many routes and the many discussions it occasioned -- think: SNL's "The Californians"
I worked from 11 pm to 4 am, but got done what I needed to get done. The secret of my staying power: espresso. I had two of them, and the second one at 8 pm at night. Boom! I couldn't have slept if I wanted to.
And lest I forget, I need to memorialize my pleasant surprise with Elizabeth *not* preemptively complaining the entire way to SeaTac about how we need to be there 2 hours in advance and that we're going to miss our flight. It was an issue with our last trip. I have a powerful pet peeve against preemptive complaining.
