Day 4: Paris

4:15 in the morning is the stupidest time of day, but the fact that we’re Paris-bound made it a little more bearable. We packed up our luggage and got a cab ride to King’s Cross to catch the 7:30 train to Paris. The train ride was uneventful and upon our arrival in Paris, we met our driver who took us to the hotel.

  

Driving through the streets of Paris, we were overwhelmed by how tall and beautiful and fast and French everything is. We were deposited on the front step of the gorgeous Hôtel Astor Saint-Honoré. We checked our bags and set off for a little café, as per the recommendation of the concierge. Unfortunately, we took a couple of wrong turns and ended up in front of a different café on the wrong street. We decided to cut our losses and just go to the one we'd found, rather than try to retrace our steps. That decision set us up for a bit of adventure.

First of all, this was not your touristy, used-to-American-customers kind of café. Still flustered from our arrival in a new city, getting yelled at in French for almost sitting at a reserved table, and finding ourselves surrounded by loud and enthusiastic locals, it was all we could do to keep composure. Matt set to work providing a rough translation of the special board, but he had barely made it through the first three items when a waitress appeared, asking for our drink order. We muddled through the standard customer-waiter script, thanks to Matt's language ability, and eventually communicated to the waitress that we would each try a different one of the specials. When our lunch arrived, however, it became apparent that there had been a misunderstanding. Today, as our first meal in Paris, the each of us sat down to a large plate of beef tongue.

Surprisingly, it was not bad, although I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the idea of eating tongue. All in all, the meal was well-prepared and quite tasty and had it not been for my limited exposure to tongue as a dish, I would have enjoyed it very much.

After lunch, we took a bus tour similar to the one in London, as it actually proved really useful in getting an idea of how the city is laid out. We saw some incredibly beautiful monuments and buildings under the first sunny skies we’ve seen since we got to Europe. There were a ton of sites on the tour route that we all agreed we wanted to see up close, so the plan (as of right now, anyway) is to follow the same route tomorrow, visiting all the major sites and some of the quieter but no less impressive spots we saw along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least:

And:

After our bus tour ended, we walked the half mile or so back to the hotel, where we checked in and were shown to our rooms. The place is stunning. We have two rooms between the four of us, and they’re decorated in classic Parisian style with windows that open onto a charming courtyard below. Although it’s still early, we’re all pretty drained, so we’ve split up for showers and rest (and blogging!) for now.

More of Paris and definitely lots of pictures tomorrow!!