Swimming in Paris: From hailstorms to streetwater, we had to pull out our snorkels for the City of Lights

London was amazing... more than we could ask for. And Paris? Well, it has been more than we can ask for as well...

Before moving onto Paris, we think it is important that you understand a little about our journey here. As you may have read in our last post, yesterday was a day full of running, literally, to make our train. The first half of our day was spent in the lovely Portobello Road market and Covent Gardens. These two neighborhoods provided us with a great experience of London through a pcinic feast and bartering with Australians for scarves. It was fantastic. Plus, Covent Gardens was bustling with street performers. Finally we moved on to dinner. Several times throughout the evening, we were pretty sure we were toast and would have to be begging for new tickets. It all started with a sincerely great idea by Matthew and Phil Purves (our flatmates in London) to visit Damaat, a Bangladesh restaurant that served curry. We HAD to go there. So, we did. We had all the timing planned out perfectly, or so we thought. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up having to rush our meal (a definite cultural no-no) and request a quick check. After doing so (and after spending our very last pound, literally... we cut it close, probably too close--what's new?), we ran out, having around an hour to board a train.

Within that next hour, we got to the underground, took the tube to the train station, picked up our bags (which are really heavy) from the luggage storage, find the train check-in, go through check-in (which had a line), go through passport control (which also had a line), go through security (yes, another line) and board our train car as the last two on board. All of this was done in a sprint and rush of adrenaline, trying to figure out how to speed up each process. I suppose that we never have had a day shy of adventure and this proved to be nothing less.

So, back to our life as Parisians:

Well, we aren't very good at it. You see, in London we could easily adapt because they spoke ENGLISH. Upon disembarking our train, we were immediately aware of being in a truly foreign country. No one speaks English... except us. We've gotten by with a mixture of sign language, charades and French out of guidebooks. Today has been a mixture of being lost and recovering from being lost. Ha! Not really, but there was some of that... here is a peek into the happenings of the day:

* Eating baguettes for breakfast... of course
* Using 4 different maps (mostly in French) to find the tourist office... to find a better map
* Walking around the Banque de France (good exchange rate) to find the door... we never found it
* Getting stuck in a 5-minute hailstorm in downtown Paris... no kidding
* Walking back and forth between four change places to get the best euro rate for our dollar... we got it
* Sitting on a statue around noon... to recover from the above
* Hopping in a couple fountains... the one thing we know how to do right around here :)
* Hitting up the Musee d'Orsay... art, art, art
* Hunting down lunch from a real French chef...quiche and chocolate tartte
* Climbing the 400 steps of Notre Dame to truly REMARKABLE views of the city
* Touring the Louvre Museum for free... it was free museum night in Paris and we covered all the highlights in just under an hour and a half
* Munching down Chinese food in a place with Chenese workers, a French menu, and English descriptions of the items... we were just thankful for words we could read.

Tomorrow is another day and we are feeling like we are beginning to conquer this city.

Love you all. Au revoir!

Laura and Tripp

P.S. Want to see our pictures so far? Visit

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037448&id=28301433
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