Day 1: Notre Dame & the Seine River

After a 7 hour plane trip, we arrived in Orly airport and somehow managed to figure out what transfers to take on the metro to get to our hotel at the St. Paul stop in the Marias.

Figuring out which streets to take to get to our hotel once we arrived at the St. Paul metro stop wasn't as easy, but we eventually found it. The streets were great, though--full of people and small shops including fruit and vegetable stands, cheese shops, butchers, and, of course, bakeries. Although food is expensive, I did get a few (huge!!) persimmons and some dried figs from the fruit & veggie shop--they were delicious!

The hotel was small but clean. We had to go up 4 flights of winding, uneven stairs to get to our room, which was small but warm despite the fact that our window didn't fully close. We had only a sink...the bathroom was down half a flight of stairs and the shower all the way down.

We walked over to Notre Dame and had to cross the Seine in the process. We walked around Notre Dame admiring the architecture and went inside. It's a huge structure, and the stained glass windows are more beatiful than all the pictures you see. Then we walked along the Seine and admired the back of Notre Dame from several different locations along the Seine.

Along the way, we saw more than a few dogs. Paris is famous for its dog population, and their owners take them everywhere. Several were walking along the Seine. All the dogs in Paris are very well behaved, though. they follow only their owners, even when not on leashes, and they aren't the interested in sniffing anyone who passes by. But, i guess that's a necessity when dogs are allowed on the metro, in restuarants, in stores and supermarkets, in the airport, and on trains. of course, there's no "pooper scooper" law in paris; so, watch your step!

Around 8pm we met up with Margaret and a friend she met at her hostel. We stopped at a restaurant to get a drink (coke is 20FF or $4!! that's the same as a glass of beer.) and wait for Kellie. When she arrived, we headed off to a Cuban restaurant for dinner. The French are fond of good food, and this was good food. I had fish with a coconut cream sauce--it was wonderful.

We got back to our hotel for some sleep. Having slept only about 4 hours on the plane, we were pretty tired out.