Monday (Off to Paris)

We piled into two taxis. First thing in the morning drive to St. Pancras International. This is a nice train station. It was early so we could make it through customs and board the Eurostar train for our 8:20am departure. We had assigned seats, two 4 seat stations with center tables, and plenty of overhead storage. There was a food and drink car just an easy walk through two train cars to get to. I love travelling by train much more than by airplane. The train was fast. We were in Paris in just over two hours. The Chunnel (or Channel Tunnel built under the English Channel ) was only about 20 minutes of the trip.

We got off the train in Gare du Nord, our destination railway station. We hustled onto the Metro, which is Paris' version of the Subway or Tube, and took a short trip to our destination. After getting off the Metro and walking up the steps to Paris streets, it took us a moment to get our bearings. We were expecting sixty degrees but it was rainy, breezy and felt colder. After a wrong turn we had our bearings and found our flat.

One flat owner greeted us at the door. He guided us into a small lift two at a time with a bag each to the 5th floor. The lift wouldn't hold anymore. An old staricase spirals around athe small elevator shaft. The other flat owner received us off the lift with a friendly, old golden retriever who could raise his hands and shake on French commands.

The owners gave us some ground rules and a grand tour of the flat. It's a 17th century building but their flat was part of an expansion in the 1800's. The wood floors are origninal and slant toward the center of the building. This is due to the building sagging when they tunneled below to build the Metro. The flat  has four bedrooms, a study, a small kitchen, a couple showers, a bath, a bathroom, and small fireplaces (or space heaters), and a dining and living room.

The living room.

From our bedroom window.

The dining room.

Looking from Jake and Luke's room to our room through our shared bathroom.

Cari's bathroom.

Our bedroom.

The old wood floors.

The kitchen.

The windows on the south looking into a small center court garden .

Luke developed a fever and a cough. We stayed home while Pop, Grandma, and Cari took the Metro to a bookstore Cari wanted to visit near Notre Dame. Luke napped. Jake and I toured the neighboring streets and market. When Luke got up he and I went out for a 7 up.

For dinner we walked down to a nearby restaruant to eat. One waiter spoke a little English (Parlay veus Anglais, Si Vous Plei) and the other hardly any. We had a good time trying to communicate and they were helpful. However, we had a snafu during payment and if I was reading the one correctly I think we offended him. More later maybe.

When we first arrived in London it took a couple hours to unwind and feel comfortabe. Now in Paris, I still don't have my bearings and feel I have to sleep on it and hope to have them tomorrow. It's not bad but the language barrier and the flat will take longer to get used to. The boys seem fine, but Sam was having frequent melt downs today, and Luke is sick.