June 15 - First evening in Paris

As we arrived in Paris, I promised myself to not become anxious just because you're thousands miles away from home and you may never get to shower for three weeks as well as the fact that restroom facilities are so primitive that it could undo 55 years of my toilet training - but of course I became anxious anyway. That feeling of being alien crept in right away as we wandered through the Paris airport to look for our cab. In anticipation of language problems I typed out our entire trip on 3x5 cards, complete with names of hotels and locations to show cab drivers. Our first test of this was about to happen as our cab arrived at the taxi stand. I showed the driver the card and he knew instantly where we were going and few words were said after that. He spoke no English so the trip was quiet and gave us a chance to relax a bit and reflect on the next three weeks. We were on our own with no tour guide, no kids to direct us, and virtually little understanding of foreign languages - God we're doomed!

We arrived at our hotel and braced ourselves for a rude desk clerk that would probably spit on us, our luggage, and our money - (too many movies I guess). The opposite was true. The gentleman could not have been nicer, he spoke near perfect English, he was friendly and helpful, and made every effort to make us feel at home. The name was the Hotel de la Motte Picquet and there web address is www.hotelmottepicquetparis.com.

The room was nice but not luxurious, but it had everything we needed. AC, bathroom, shower, decent size bed, and a TV. Even though it had the walking space of a small RV we were very comfortable and felt this was a good choice. Our next challenge was finding dinner.

We left the safe confines of our room and ventured out into the streets of Paris where we figured muggers, pick-pocketers, and terrorists lurked about waiting to pounce. Instead, we found the Parisian streets fast-paced, crowded with people, clogged with cars - and simply beautiful! We found an outdoor cafe within steps of our hotel and sat down for our first meal on foreign soil. Our waiter suggested the chicken and rice with a glass of the house wine, bottled locally, and it was just what we needed. Simple but delicious. By the end of the evening it was already 9:00PM and it was still light enough to read the paper, so we ventured further into Paris on foot to kill some time before we go to bed. The air was very cool - almost cold - as we mistakenly thought we had fooled the weather gods and arrived in Europe during a freakish cold spell that would allow us to escape the intense heat that this continent is famous for - not true as we found out later. Anyway, our stroll through the streets of Paris was relaxing as we gazed at the beauty of the fine parks and lovely architecture of the buildings. Our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower was breathtaking, it was bigger than I expected and you could not take your eyes off of it - what a magnificent structure!

We returned to our room and called our son in America to tell him we arrived safely. We turned in for the night and talked about what we would do the next day - our first full day in Europe.