Day 1 - Paris

Amber, Amy and me, heading for Paris

I left Pittsburgh for Philly at 8:30 am on Tuesday, then sat for most of the day in that terminal awaiting Amy and Amber who were flying in from Seattle.  We got on the plane at 6:30 pm and flew all night, landing in Paris at 6:15 am!  We had made a reservation at a hostel for the first two nights, so we headed there to drop off our luggage, and then out the door we went.

Ivan, our cheery guide

We wanted to go see the Arc de Triomphe so we got a map and headed for the Metro.  As we were reading signs and trying to get tickets, we met a man named Ivan who offered to help.  He is a Hungarian from Russia who has been working here in Paris for 17 years.  He spoke English fairly well, though he had a mix of French/Russian overtones!  He was very nice, and went along with us as we took the #4 line to the #2 line.  We came up out of the depths, and there it was! The Arc de Triomphe!  What a sight!
The Arc is situated on a piece of land completely surrounded by swirling cars, buses, motorbikes and bicycles.  There don't seem to be any lanes, but everyone is just flying around evidently knowing exactly where they want to be - and no accidents!  We looked all around for a crosswalk and couldn't find one. There were people over there by the Arc, but we couldn't figure out how they got there. Then Amy noticed that there was almost no traffic, and we decided to make a run for it.  Off we dashed, and about half-way across, the traffic resumed, and suddenly we found ourselves in the midst of swerving cars.  Most of them at least slowed down, but no one honked - must be an American thing!

Arc de Triomphe

We finally made it to the other side, turned around, and found that Amber was not with us!  We tried to wave her across, and then noticed there were stairs!  Wonder of wonders there was a walk way that went under the traffic!!  Amazing invention!  We saw Amber head in that direction, so we waited by the stairs on our side for her to pop up. And waited.  And waited!  We began to imagine all kinds of things that I won't go into here.  But it was like she had just disappeared!  Amy walked around the Arc to the other side while I stayed by the stairs.  No Amber.  Then I decided to go down and see if I could find her.  Maybe there was a labyrinth of tunnels down there and she had taken a wrong turn.  I could imagine telling her mom we had lost her only daughter on our first day in Paris!
So down into the labyrinth I went (it was actually pretty straight forward from the side of the road to the Arc).  She wasn't there.  I climbed the stairs on the other side, and as I came up, I saw the bright blue of her coat.  "Amber" I screamed, and she turned around.  Boy was I relieved!
We headed back into the tunnel and crossed over to take pictures of the Arc, and laugh about how scared Amy and I were that we had lost her.  And how scared Amber was that Amy and I were going to be squished by a multitude of tiny French cars!
From there, we headed down to the Avenue Des Champs Elysees, strolling along admiring all the expensive stores and fancy people.  So much to see!  At one point we wondered how someone knew we were American.  But we looked at ourselves, and those around us and decided we looked pretty frumpy in comparison - certainly not French!
We walked down to the Seine, crossed over and headed toward the Eiffel Tower.  There were people walking up stairs or taking a car to the observation deck.  We just sat and admired, and took multiple pictures.  It was hard to believe we were seeing it in person.
The day was so nice; it was a great walk, but by this time we were beginning to fade from lack of sleep, so we headed back, winding through side streets trying to find the restaurant we had seen on the way down earlier in the day.  We finally found it - George V - and had a wonderful French lunch/dinner.  Amy had a goat cheese salad, Amber had a mushroom and cheese crepe,and I had a ham and cheese quiche.
Now we're back at the hostel, fading, but trying to stay up until 8 or so to get adjusted to the time change.
And so the end of Day 1 - Stay tuned, my journey continues . . . .