kdeversblog

Just a few blocks from our Airbnb is a delightful restaurant where we had our first Paris breakfast , a perfectly cooked omelette with ham and cheese, a flaky croissant, toasted baguette with butter and jam, tea, and orange juice. It was delightful to sit outside and watch the international world of Paris stroll, run, and selfie their way along the sidewalk.

We find a nice place to sit at a small found table and order our breakfast. Then the server arrives with a square table top that attaches to the round table. This gives us the space we need to the meal.

This meal was such a delicious way to start the day that we have come here three days in a row. It’s consistently lovely and the servers are friendly and bilingual. This meal always kept us going through the morning as we walked and used the subway to get to our destinations. John is a master subway navigator and the system is beginning to make sense to me.

Each subway stop has its own unique “look” which makes it fun. The entrances have lovely art nouveau elements in the fences, lights, and signage. John has been patient as I try to understand the system of different lines, directions, and stop names. The tunnels and trains are uniformly clean, wall maps are everywhere and for the most part signage is clear.

The only challenge for me has been the seemingly endless stairs in the subway. You have go down stairs to get into the subway, up stairs to get to a different line, then down again to get to a different direction, repeat, repeat, repeat! Eventually we used the RER and discovered they have escalators – oh, joy! The RER is more of an express train and the M, or Metropolitan is local with more stops. We’ve used Uber once and a taxi but mostly it’s lots of walking and subways.

I love the view from our apartment. We are on the third floor and it’s fun to open the two big windows and observe the activity below. We are on a relatively quiet street but there’s lots of activity at the bistros and shops. One of the aspects of Paris that I appreciate is the aromas of food and spices that fill the air. There is an overall sense of calm and peacefulness that I find very welcoming.

There are lots of cars and motorcycles and drivers don’t hesitate to communicate with their horns. The police and emergency vehicles have a distinctive blue light on the top of their vehicles and the sing-song siren I’m used to hearing in European movies.

I’m using my rudimentary French all the time and I love it when people respond in kind. Although sometimes we use one another’s languages. I’ll leave a shop with a happy “au revoir!” and the shop keeper responds, “goodbye!” Funny!