Paris

I woke up many times through the night for fear of oversleeping thus missing the driver at 5 a.m.  Got downstairs in time at 5 a.m. but the driver didn't show up until 5:45am (15 min late) which gave me a scare.  Once  he came and we got settled in the van, we met 6 others in our group (people all from the US).  There were 2 additional families (the family from Connecticut (2 children (adopted from Guatemala) with parents and a very nice grandma with her granddaughter from Indiana.  We made it to the train station in no time and were greeted wit the tour company's guide.  Got coffee since I hadn't had any yet (thank you) and went through the terminal (it was very similar to the airport) except you don't have to take off of your shoes.  Loaded the train with our group which made travel because it was more group oriented vs. being alone and our group was nice.

Loaded the Euro Star and made our way to Paris and with the exception of traveling backwards (which made me a little nervous) the experience was awesome.  I found the train movement to be more like a gliding feeling which surprised me (not really knowing what I was suppose to experience) but it made the travel smooth.

The inside of the train was very roomy.  I sat near the window and mostly worked on my blog, ate my food, and talked with my neighbor. I find that part of my experience with travel is meeting people.  On the train I sat across from a gentleman who expressed he had purchased the seat next to me so I wouldn't have to worry if someone would take the all because his friend "was unable to make it".   That ultimately developed into a very interesting story of which gave us something to talk about on the way to Paris.

Once we arrived in Paris at the Gare du Nord Station we noticed as we were walking to the platform that it was raining.  We were assigned groups based on our tour of which I was one of the few who choose to do the hop on hop off tour of which I wanted my own control of my day.  I was scheduled lunch with April (a friend in Paris) around noon.  I officially had about 2 hours to find April and get started on my tour.  When I got on the bus I patiently waited and started my tour but noticed very quickly that when we made stops there were no announcements of the stops of any kind.  The driver would stop for a minute open the door and then take off.  The main problem was that I was in Paris and nothing is in English so stopping off at a building with no information made the tour difficult to know where and how to engage for the day using this method.  Remembering that my initial goal was to get to April, I hopped off  went underground and attempted to get a subway ticket to Madeline Blvd.  OMG this was very difficult simply because again no one spoke any English.

The subway was largely different from London in a few ways.  Besides only having French descriptions, it was decorated with lights and had more accommodating seating.  I got lost a few times even as the man in the information booth explained specific directions in French with a little broken English.  At one point I came back to him with my head down and explained I must have failed at something because I couldn't find the exit he stated was so obviously in front of me.  3x must be charm because that is how many times it took me to find the exit I was suppose to take.  Got to my destination Madeline Blvd opened up my computer to get the address of April and realized I only had the street info.  No name or street address (hah) so needless to say even after walking up and down the street looking for a person named April who possibly works for a company by the name of Simmons but since I never found her or a company by the name of Simmons I ended up wasting 3 hours being frustrated.  I embrace this part of my trip as well since it was when I was lost that I noticed more, engaged more, and listened to myself more.  I ended up eating pizza for fear I would order a meal and there would be a egg sitting in the middle of it (as is the norm in London and in Paris).  Looking at a menu that you cant read (since its entirely in French) made my decision easy to order Pizza.  I can say that I was confidant that the food was much better than London simply by the presentation of the food being delivered on the tables around me.

Once lunch was over I got back to a tour bus and just rode and rode for at least an hour without the slightest desire to get off to see anything.  Eventually I had to get off to start seeing stuff so I made my first stop at The Opera House.  After witnessing the building in all of its grand splendor I was distracted by the store across the street with two charming bitten apples across the street.  Yes something familiar ~ I found the Apple Store!

I went inside and was so happy to finally have Internet.  Who can live without Internet even for a day?  I have to say that in Paris the computer keyboard is different than ours in the states.  Even London has the same keyboard that we do but the A and M are moved which made it difficult to type emails and check FB properly.

After browsing The Apple Store I got back on the tour bus and finished my tour.  The major sites I visited in Paris was:

• Eiffel Tower
• Louvre Museum
• Notre Dame
• The Opera House
• Grand Palais
• A few other sites