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1 October 2017

Paris 2017 – Day 1

Steps today: 23 747. Not bad at all for Day 1, but my goal is 25 000 per day on vacation so I will have to do some laps around the hotel room to reach that goal. It’s not much more to do; less than 15 minutes.

The flight from Montreal was ok. Lots of crying babies and the guy sitting next to me was 11 feet tall so it was all elbows and knees… and man spreading, and twitching, and invading my personal space, and thigh touching. UGH. I felt bad for him because it could not have been easy but it made it hard to sleep. I think counting naps at the airport before leaving, and in the train after arriving, I got a grand total of 3 hours.

As I predicted, I got to the hotel by noon and the room was not ready. The guy told me that if I could come back after 6PM that would be appreciated because they had LOTS of check outs planned for the afternoon. OK fine.

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My first task was to check out the line-up at the Catacombs to see if a re-visit would be worth it (I went in 2004 but would not mind going back) but it was snaking around the block and I don’t have that kind of time to waste!!!

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I had lunch nearby but it was disappointing, not because it was bad or anything but because I was just not hungry enough to appreciate it – I didn’t even bother to finish drinking the wine.

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Next was seeing what the line-ups were like at the Eiffel Tower because I wanted to climb the steps.  They were non existent! ok, I had ONE couple in front of me… I suppose that counts as a wait Winking smile

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Even the lines for the elevator to the top were practically non-existent (20ish people max) thanks to the drizzly weather.

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I understand why most people would not want to go all the way to the summit on a foggy day like this since the sweeping views are part of the reason going up in the first place, but walking up to Level 1 and 2 are great in this case! It’s cold and windy so you are not sweating your ass off on the way up, it’s not busy at all, and despite the fog you can still get decent views of Paris! I thought it was great.

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After this, I went to buy my Museum Pass at the Army Museum (Invalides) and admired the newly cleaned facade.

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I am ready to start checking off my list tomorrow!

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I wandered around in the general direction of “home” until about 5:30, then decided to take the metro the rest of the way so I could unpack and then go out for supper near the hotel.

This is the 3rd time I am staying in this area, in hotels around Place D’Italie, so I am familiar with the restaurants nearby. My idea was to eat at the resto across the street from the hotel; it’s so close I was able to capture the distance in a panorama… an admitedly bad one!

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Sadly, people are still allowed to smoke on the terraces in France so I could not get a table far away enough from the stink. I went to look at what it was like inside (smoke-free), but it was melting hot so I went to another place altogether: Café de France which I have been to a few times already so I knew it would be nice inside. Had some wine and foie gras and called it a day.

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It was a great Day 1, it’s after 10:30PM and I am not that tired. I’m all settled into my room – it’s comfortable despite being WAY simpler than I anticipated and I have to admit that it feels SUPER weird to be all by myself!!!

That’s it for today! I need to finish my steps now and then time for bed.

Good night!

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