Nous Sommes Arrivés à Paris

Our flight touched down at Charles de Gaulle Airport around 11:25 a.m. Paris time on Monday. We made it through passport control fairly quickly, grabbed our bags, and headed straight to the airport train station. Two trains and a Metro ride later, we arrived at our little apartment — and when I say little, I mean postage-stamp sized. But the location is fantastic and, coincidentally, just two blocks from where we stayed in 2005.

Rue Cler — a pedestrian only street a block from our apartment  

We were pretty beat, so we rested for about an hour. Hunger hit soon after, so we headed out for a late lunch/early dinner. The place we stayed back in 2005 is on a short pedestrian street filled with shops and restaurants, so we walked over there and ate at Le Petit Cler. We ordered some classic French dishes: escargots, onion soup, beef bourguignon, and duck confit. The duck and beef were divine — no exaggeration.





By the time we finished, dusk had settled in — winter sunset here is around 5:00 p.m. From dinner, we strolled to the Eiffel Tower, just a 15 minute walk.


After sunset the temperature hovered around 43 degrees, but a slight breeze made it feel cooler. 

Next, we caught a taxi to a Christmas market near the Louvre. There were a few rides for kids, but mostly food and drink booths and vendors selling all kinds of wares. It was crowded and lively. We treated ourselves to dessert while we were there.



We decided to walk back to our apartment — about a mile and a half. Yes, Kristi is slower than before, but she’s got stamina. She figures we walked about five miles today, one or two of which were just in the airport.

We got back around 8:00 p.m., hoping to fall asleep early and get some real rest. We’ll see — our body clocks still think it’s 11 a.m.


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