Day one--Flight and arrival

We have officially survived the first leg of our journey!  The plane ride was unexpectedly easy--I planned to take my Dramamine to knock me out, but Mother Nature did the job herself.  I got all my gadgets and books all set up around me and promptly nodded off into my tiny pillow.  Not, mind you, that it was the very best night of sleep in my life; I would arrange myself all comfily against the window (score! Got the window seat!)  only to wake up scrunched down into a tiny English teacher ball.  But, anyhoo, my record of no jetlagging still stands!  We landed at about 2:30 Paris time, and hit the ground running.

First stop--the hotel, a trip made more interesting by the taxi cab strike being held today for a while.  It wouldn't be Paris if somebody wasn't striking for at least a piece of the day....  :-)  C'est la vie!  A little more traffic than usual, but we were not thwarted!  Hotel is small but clean--smells a little weird, but whatevs.  We're in Paris!!  Also, it's close to an ATM and a grocery store that kindly sells my favorite candy--Daim--a delightful toffee crunchy treat coated in chocolate.  Don't look for any leftovers....  A girl needs her walking energy....  :-)

We hiked the kiddies down to the Paris Opera House--the site of the Phantom of the Opera's unrequited love and deeds!!  We couldn't go in--they were having An Event, but we peered inside and then sat on the steps to enjoy some free entertainment. A brave fella was singing and playing his guitar near the steps--lots of Beatles' covers with mostly the right words--and then THEN he asked for volunteers from the crowd to take his guitar and sing a bit.  Never accused of being shrinking violets, our girls stepped up and sang a little Adele--and earned him more in tips than he was getting for himself!!  :-)

For dinner tonight:  a lovely egg and ham quiche, followed by some kind of chicken kabobs (curry??) with fries, and then a dessert of frozen custard.  The typical way to eat fries in France is with mayonaise, but tonight, no condiments of any sort.  !!!!  How are our American kids supposed to even eat these fries??  Seeing their consternation, our waitress produced a bottle of ketchup with a dimply and patient smile.  Sadly, in her effort to help us out, she only brought one bottle for a group of 45 hungry kiddoes... the kids were good to use it sparingly--mostly because "it tastes weird--like the dipping sauce at Mackie's Pizza."  :-)

On the agenda next:  shower!  Sleep!  Get ready to run our legs off tomorrow!  Au revoir, mes amis!