Bercy Village

Our hotel is in the 12th arrondisement, in an area called Bercy Village.  Trip Advisor says it's mainly a business hotel, which is fine with me.  It has a restaurant and free wifi.  The area nearby has cafes and shops, and more hotels.  Overall, it has a nice feel.  The main part is getting used to the schedule.  Restaurants don't open until noon, and generally stay open later at night.  If you want a Coke (with sugar! no HFCS) it's about 4 euros.  We managed to find a meal that included drinks, for lunch.  Then we passed out at the hotel for way too long, and had supper at the hotel. 

Lunch was a grilled chicken breast, with french fries and a coke, for about 13 euros.  That really was about the cheapest we could find!  The server asked us which meat, then asked if we wanted green beans, salad, or fries.  We said fries.  Then she asked what sauce: Bearnaise, pepper, or barbeque.  We thought she meant for the fries, but that was for the chicken.  We finally got that figured out.

On our trip back we found a little shop selling Thai and Vietnamese dishes!  We bought some drinks then headed back.  A Tabac store had phone cards and candy bars: dark Mars, lion bars, and bounty bars.  Huzzah.

Dinner was pretty good.  We got a meal combo, which was a tuna nicoise salad and burger-steak with salad and green beans.  They really seem to love green beans, because that was an option at lunch.  And they were good!  Fresh, not canned.  Also, that nicoise salad was huge!  That was an entire meal.  I've got photos of dinner that I'll post.  Frank - you'll love the salad.  Real lettuce, tuna, sardines, olives, tomatoes that tasted like tomatoes! 

After dinner (at 10pm) we strolled around, scoping out the area.  Then we headed back so I could blog and we both needed a shower after the hot plane ride.  More tomorrow!

Paris!

We finally got to Paris!  I started to pass out as we got close, and almost missed the landing.  As we got to the north coast, I could see cliffs.  There was a huge cloud bank over France, and we were apprching it.  There was a river winding through the hills, and the outermost clouds were filling in the river valley.  It was beautiful!

We arrived and then had to walk a long ways and take a tram to get to customs.  The line was long but moved really fast.  They basically took a quick look at my passport and stamped it and that was it.  Then we had to find our luggage.  Mine was already there, but mom's took a long time.  We were really worried that her suitcase hadn't made it on the plane!

Her suitcase finally showed up, and then we left.  As we entered the main part of the airport, we had to run a gauntlet of people holding signs with names on them.  Amazingly, only one was using an iPad.  And apparently mom and I were both thinking that we wished our names were on there!

We found our way to the Roissy bus, which goes from the airport to downtown Paris for about 10 euros.  That was interesting!  We got on and started walking down the aisle, and the bus started moving!  A nice man got up and stowed our suitcases for us, while we tried to find a seat.  The trip was about an hour, through often narrow streets, with the driver shouting curses at other drivers and kissing other cars.  We thought there was going to be a wreck a number of times.

We got dropped off at the Opera, which is a beautiful building.  I was hoping to find a taxi stand, so we started walking down the street, and a taxi pulled up.  I waved at him, and his passenger was exiting, so we got in.  Our route took us by the Louvre, and then along the Seine, passing gorgeous buildings on either side.  That was about 14 euros.

We got to our hotel about 10:30, but luckily, our room was ready.  We were ready for it, too.

The Plane: part 2

The food was pretty good.  They gave us a menu before they brought out the food.  My choices were: Chicken fricassee with cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and carrots or Penne pasta with salmon and creamed leeks.  Both of those came with Quinoa salad with corn and black beans, Cheese wedge (Brie), Fruit compote, Coconut cake, Bread, and a small water. 

I took the chicken, because I grew up watching the movie Airplane.  The bread was amazing!  They brought by seconds towards the end of supper.  My menu also included a choice of drinks: Coke products, Schweppes tonic, apple/orange/tomato juice, mineral water, Heineken, red or white wine, and champagne.  Free.  After the meal you had coffee, cappuccino, hot tea, or hot chocolate.  I had the hot tea, of course.

Later on they brought by more hot tea, and a snack: an ice cream bar.

For breakfast they served a fruit medley, orange juice, bread (not as good), a blueberry muffin, and yogurt.  The yogurt was real yogurt, and a little "tingly."  I hope that makes sense.

The Plane: part 1

The seats sucked.  The good news is that I was so far back in the plane that I went from the area where it was 3 seats on each side, to just 2 on each side. The seats were not that comfortable  I kept having to move my butt around.

The lady sitting next to me was a French teacher from Jackson!  I introduced her to mom in case they want to try travelling together at some point. She also had some leg problems and would get up and walk around a lot, which gave me more space to stretch out.

I watched 3 movies:  Wolverine, Hunger Games 2, and Monuments Men.  Gotta love free movies!

Made the plane.

Well, mom barely made it.  She was late getting to Atlanta, because her plane was late getting to Monroe.  From Atlanta.  They start boarding the plane, and I finally get a text from mom, saying she's landed.  Then she has to take the tram to our terminal, get some money changed, and walk all the way to the end of the terminal to board the plane.  I waited, and she finally made it for the final boarding call of everyone who was left.

And we're off!

I got out of XNA okay. My flight was overbooked by 4 people, and Delta went from 300 to 600 Delta $ for someone to wait. Eventually I think a few people didn't show up, so we were alright.

I had to hunt down a Chick-fil-a in Atlanta because my blood sugar was dropping, especially in the hot airport. Finally got that done, got ripped off changing Euros, and now I'm waiting for mom to arrive. She should get here around the time we start boarding.  Whew!

Testing

On my mobile