July 1, 2007

Well. today has been an education. First thing I learned is that I have a hard time going without sleep. I knew this, but the part of it that I didn't realize was that the day added up like this:

Wake up: 4:15 AM Pacific Time.

Land in Chicago: 1:20 PM Central Time.

Land In France: 8:30 AM Europe Time.

So, doing the math, I figured that I had been awake for 16 hours when I landed, and then wound up being awake and on the go until midnight. That's 16 hours right there. Add in a brief nap of about an hour on the flight over, and it means that I was totally awake and involved for 31 hours, spending 12 of them in a seat on an airplane. There is dealing with jet lag and kicking it in the eye. I'm proud to have done the latter.

We made it through the airport into what the pilot described as a nice day-64 degrees with intermittent rain. I'd lost about 50 degrees in traveling, and had smartly packed my jacket at the bottom of my suitcase, rendering it inaccessible. Thankfully it was cold and misty.

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Nice, huh? Gorgeous France in the summertime! Not a problem. As someone who attended the U of I at Chicago, the Blade Runner look is always a winner with me. It felt like home, though I wasn't depressed or anything.

Our driver arrived for our shuttle bus and took us to the apartment. The last street was so small that us and another vehicle wouldn't have fit on it. But after 8,000 miles of traveling, we were there:

Later on we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, following naps and showers. The area around there is a giant park, akin to the area around the Washington Monument. We were then on a boat tour of the Seine, pointing out the various landmarks we'll see over the next few days.

Dinner was excellent at a corner bistro, shown below...

and the night ended back at the Eiffel tower, with champagne and a chocolate tart.

Keep watching...it gets better...

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