............Paris

Got into Paris about 2:00 before the rush hour traffic on a Friday.  It wasn't too far off the freeway to get here.  I was very anxious about driving in Paris.  Wonder why I am like that.....I heard lack of vitamin B makes a person nervous, nail biters type of people.  Gary looks at these situations as challenging and fun, I on the other hand ....well panic, my hands were clammy for miles ahead of our cutoff.  Annie had given me good directions and of course Gertie was, well....Gertie and got us within a hundred yards and basically said you've reached your destination......so I hop out of the car when Gary can find a place to park and start asking.  No good English anywhere to be found so we just start wandering and finally Gertie speaks up and rescues us. 

We are in a little area south of town.  Seems to be a fairly good area.  The people are all hustling and bustling to go somewhere in their cute little french outfits...leggings, wool coats, scarves, boots and hats.  The weather when we arrived was nice, a little overcast but nice.  I convinced Gary that just a quick 15 minute nap and then we must go while the weather is good out.  The hotel is the Citea the metro stop is Malakoff, almost at the end of the metro but still only 1/2 hour at the most from hotel to the Elysees.

First to tackle the Metro, it was only about 200 yards down the street and easy to find then how to buy billets, I had forgotten that one and the information guy was gone so we relied on a nice couple...no English but kind and and we made it on board.  I had remembered a little about the metro from last year and decided on going to the Champs Elysees first off.  This is the main road of Paris.  It goes from the Arc to the Louve.  We got off about 1/2 way between and decided to go all the way by walking to the Louvre.  Many people out and so exciting.  The Louvre was wonderful, so HUGE.  Spent about an hour there maybe longer and then across to the Rue de Rivoli to walk down along the very expensive hotels and tourist shopping.

Along the Rivoli is where  my favorite restaurant Angelina's is.....it is a tea house that was established in 1903.  Found it from the Rick Steve's guides, he even named his cat after her.  Well they are famous for their chocolate (hence my favorite place) and so when I told the waitress we would have some of that right off she said "now?" yep right off the bat.  Gary had a Salmon Salad and I had Quiche Lorraine for dinner.  Their famous dessert the "Mont Blanc" we took back to the hotel.  But I have to tell more about the hot chocolate  it was brought in a pitcher and then you could pour it into your own cups and add this really thick yummy whip cream to it all during dinner.  Very rich and thick....I couldn't even eat all my Quiche because of how filling that chocolate was.  That's OK it will be breakfast.

It was still light out at 6:30 when we left and as we headed back to our metro station there was a young girl walking behind us that got her purse stolen from a very tall black man, there was all this commotion, glasses breaking and across the street he went  running with another man chasing him right into 3 lanes of traffic, it was crazy, poor girl was getting up off the ground in stunned disbelief of what had just happened.  I couldn't believe he couldn't be noticed and caught as he was so very tall you could see him for a long way down the road.....well that made Gary realize that what I had been telling him was true about not putting his wallet in his back pocket.  This happened on the most expensive street in Paris in broad daylight...right BEHIND us........he put his wallet in the front pocket right then.

Other than that it was a glorious first day in Paris with my hubby.  He is impressed.  Tomorrow a chance of rain, good day for museums....and I will wear a hat!