Steps today: 16 210. We didn’t get the 20K in that I wanted, but considering the fact that it’s day one, I suppose it’s not so bad. I’ll try and aim for 24K tomorrow to make up for it.
In preparation for this trip, I have been nagging my mother to make sure she packed light and I think all my harassment paid off! Her bag was lighter than mine; I was very impressed. She came in at 11.1 Kg while mine was 11.6… I bet I come back lighter though!
Sad “improvement” to Air France’s check in service at the airport in Montreal: humans have been completely phased out of the process. You print your own boarding pass and luggage tags like all airlines do now-a-days, but now instead of dropping your bag off at a counter with a PERSON, they have all been replaced by screens. You scan your own bag and put it on the conveyor belt and send it of to the bowls of the airport without “interference” from any other person.
The flight was OK, but I barely slept. There were no brats crying or turbulence or anything like that, I just couldn't fall asleep. I think I got about an hour in, maybe two. My mom got more which is good since she is usually the one who says she can never sleep in planes.
Customs was an absolute nightmare: about 90 minutes to get through! Thankfully the rest of the morning when smoothly with no lost bags or any trouble. By the time we bought our museum pass and train ticket into town, we were on the road to Paris by about 11AM (we landed at 8:30AM!)
Lucky for us, our room was ready when we arrived at the hotel so we could unpack and change – we love the hotel and our room! We had about ten minutes of blue skies today so we were able to get this sunny picture of the place.
The rest of the day weather-wise was kinda gloomy so I didn’t take that many pictures. We kept saying: “Oh this is nice! We’ll have to make sure to get a shot with blue skies!”. Still, despite the cloudy cold day we had fun and covered a lot of ground.
Eiffel Tower:
And guess what!!! You can no longer just walk around under the tower or the area right around it. It’s now behind a security perimeter, and you have to go through a baggage search and metal detectors to get in. Safer this way I guess, but sad.
We had lunch a nearby café:
My foie gras looks like slices of bologna! But trust me, it was awesome…
Then drinks across the street, we sat outside under the heat lamps – it was really cozy:
Then to Les Invalides (façade covered up for renovation, but the Dome is still beautiful):
Pont Alexandre III:
Grand & Petit Palais:
A tiny walk along the Champs Elysées to Place de la Concorde:
Jardins des Tuileries:
She looked like a Disney Princess from our point of view! ha!
And finally the Louvres before calling it a day and heading back to the hotel by around 6PM:
The area around our hotel is full of cafes and restos so we went for a pizza just around the corner and it blew me away! It was incredible, exactly like the pizzas we had in Naples. Outstanding. Breaking the No-Resto-Repeat Rule is going to be REALLY CHALLENGING!
It’s 8:30PM now, I’m logging off to shower and then sleep! Good night!
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