j'adore Paris!

Blogging is new to me, and 22 minutes into this internet session i have deciphered not only a French based keyboard but also, quite a bit of French on the screen. It's hilarious that it took me so long to sign into my own blog and figure out how to add to it! What an incredible day! We are here, safely , and for that i am grateful. We seem to have a lot of luck finding the school groups as on our flight we were accompanied by oh, maybe seventy five high school students (who stood up to change seats as we were taking off, which made the pilot in me want to tackle them to the floor for their own safety- luckily the flight attendant -who only spoke English to these poor unsuspecting French lovebirds did the dirtywork for me). I didn't sleep on the plane. I am not sure why as I am usually a champion of sleep just about anywhere. Because I anticipated my ability to sleep, in a cavalier moment of stupidity, I refused to offer 5 euro for a headset. Six hours later after 166minutes of Australia- the silent movie, and and hour and a half into the Secret Life of Bees, surrounded by teenagers making out and Daur sleeping in every possible contortion, I found my decision to be quite funny. In short- the first twenty four hours of the trip went something like this: plane, customs, metro, walking, hotel with a really nice lady who made up for our lack of ability to speak her language with many caring gestures, a long walk via the jardin du plantes to Notre Dame, with a walk through the Louvre- that's right- some folks spend days, Daur was done in a mere fifteen minute walk through- down along the river to the Eiffel Tower. We walked all the way home from the Eiffel Tower to where we are staying near the Gare de Lyon. I think we probably walked at least 15 miles. Walking seems to be a theme this trip. My favorite person on public transportation yesterday is the man who was doing pull ups using the bar on the metro. I think the runner up is the man who carried his own Karaoke machine on the metro and sang along. He was amazing. He should be on American Idol, or maybe he should just have his own show- a real justin timberlake if you will. I don't know if i can do a paragraph without posting this- i'll try it now.

Hooray! We both slept for a solid 12 hours, and I feel much, much better- not quite so hung over! Today, I conquered the Paris metro- it was pretty exciting to actually get on the train we wanted each time. Daur is so trusting it makes me double check myself. The metro really sped up our travel time from walking pace, and we did a huge triangle of Paris. Sacre Coeur as breathtaking as ever, three hundred steps to the top. Oh, Anna B how I almost expexted to see Dominique! The calm of the interior juxtaposed with the boisterous street performers- and my next favorite public person- the man singing a mix of Let It Be- a Beatles classic merged without pause into "a kiss from a rose" the Batman classic. It was huge. We wound through montmartre and jumped the metro to Champs-elysees. As we sat in the park with the incredible tulips and ate a refreshing brownie based ice cream, a woman, who really represents all of Paris in a way, rode by on her bicyle. She was wearing a black miniskirt of say 5 inches in length, and stillettos of equal hight. Needless to say, to pull it off with grace was a thing of beauty and nothing short of a circus act. A few moments later, Daur was almost pummeled to death by a charge of speeding mo-ped-ists. This brings us to our first learning opportunity: cross the street against the little red man at your own risk. Accompanied by several school groups we walked back towards the Louvre. To add to the list of things I've learned in the last couple days- don't stand directly over a grate in the sidewalk, and inhale through your nose on the metro at rush hour at your own risk. Also, Paris is a great place to make out with people- I haven't done it myself, but there are people kissing and groping everywhere- perhaps because of my hightened awareness of singledom, or perhaps just because such a large ratio of the population here is so attractive, and therefore I can totally understand why so many folks have decided to kiss the days away, I am reminded of a song... I'm throwing my arms around, around Paris because, only steal and stone accept my love.

We are off to southern France tomorrow with climbing the Pyrenes on the radar for an all day Saturday excursion. I can only imagine the public transportation stars along the way.