Bonjour Paris

I'm sitting here at the little desk in my little Paris hotel in the early evening of our first full day in Paris feeling extremely lucky. See, we just got back from sitting near the Eiffel Tower after a trip to the market for baguettes, cheese and wine. The weather is gorgeous - sunny and probably mid-70s. Does it get any better than that? The greatest thing about the Paris leg of our trip is that we're here with 6 other friends, not counting the 2 getting married. It was completely surreal this afternoon - sitting on the lawn, chatting like it was any old day. You could almost forget where you were if it weren't for the giant monument behind you.

Let's rewind a little. After our overnight flight we arrived at the Paris airport and with only minimal difficulty navigated our way onto a commuter train heading for the city center. We switched to a Metro line and found our hotel. We're staying in a fairly residential area of Paris - enough away from the touristy spots that it feels like you get a real taste of Parisian life, but close enough that we can walk or take a short Metro ride everywhere we want to go. We met up with our friends and later with the couple getting married for a girls night/guys night. We kepted our jet-lagged selves up until the bars closed down at 2am - very impressive.

This morning we got an overview of the city on a bike tour. There is something about Paris that is just so charming. I've never been in another city quite like it. I'm beginning to feel that "certain something" everyone talks about in this place. I also am accutely aware of how precious this time with my girlfriends is. These are college friends, the girls I rowed with, their husbands/fiancees and our coxswain. These are the girls that I lived with, the ones I got up at 5am with - the kind of friends you feel immediately at ease with even when you haven't seen each other in ages. I mean, we have a hard time finding time to get together in the US! To be in Paris together is pretty amazing.

Ok, so it's actually Saturday now, the day of the wedding and we're just getting a little time on the internet to post! We stopped in a grocery store this morning for some breakfast and managed an entire transaction in French. Woo! So far, the stereotype of the French being annoyed at having to speak English or speaking English right away when foreigners attempt French has not been proven true. The weather is, again, gorgeous so we enjoyed our snacks on a bench in our neighborhood. The scenery behind us (see picture) was a little rough. The experience - just lovely.