Hello from Paris

So I arrived here without incident or accident, which is fortunate and good. I love the train service here. I don't know why anyone would need first class - second was comfortable and relaxing enough. I found Laura without any problems, and before I was really worried that our hotel would be some fleabag hole in the wall somewhere, but au contraire! It resembles a Best Western or Holiday Inn, kind of. It's really far, but besides that it's great. There's a nice clean bathroom with a shower (which was important), and two comfy beds that feel clean. And a TV! We caught the end of Elf yesterday morning.

The weather leaves a little something to be desired; but I wasn't really expecting too much in the way of meteorological blessings. It was pretty cold the last few days and to my dismay, it was raining steadily when we looked out the window this morning. So we changed up the plans a bit. I think we're going to see the Louvre today (with all the benefits of being inside for three miles worth of museum) and perhaps the Arc de Triomph, but if we don't fit that in we can do that later.

We stumbled upon the Notre Dame cathedral on Thursday night by accident, which was nice. Also, there was a very expensive pastry shop with extraordinary-looking cakes that probably required the sale of a first-born child to buy.


We went to the Eiffel Tower last night because we were close and hey, why not? The lines were staggeringly long, and we accidentally picked the one without elevator access which was kind of a bummer due to Laura's knee. However, we made it up all the way to the second level, which is 700 stairs. Then we smashed into a tiny elevator and ascended all the way to the top, which had both enclosed and open areas. I'm really going to have to add a million pictures later, but I don't have that kind of luxurious time at the moment.


This guy was Joe, who we met randomly in the tourism office line at the Gard du Nord. He was in Paris for two days, spoke no French, and didn't know what to see. We hung out with him all day and have plans to meet him at the Louvre in about an hour. He was very funny and waited with us the entire four hours at the Eiffel Tower (four hours! Indeed!). There are definitely more things to post, but I have to run!