We have arrived! Let the chronicles of our journey begin! Our trip begins with what is technically a 2-day quest to reach Paris. We started out with a shuttle pick-up from our home at 10:30 am on December 23rd and kept on going right until we walked the 5 or 6 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe (where the airport shuttle dropped us off) to our hotel at 3:30 pm on December 24th.
We started with the excitement and adventure from the shuttle when David realized that he forgot his coat, and I realized that I had left BOTH camera chargers on the desk in my office. Already in motion, we were just going to have to figure things out! David ended up purchasing a hoodie sweatshirt at LAX; besides the fact that a hoodie really isn't enough to keep anyone warm in 20-30 degree weather, it was quite a 'locals' sweatshirt, sporting some sort of Los Angeles West Coast logo that I can't deny makes me think of some sort of motorcycle gang. We'll be careful not to throw any signs while visiting the famous sights!
The flight was uneventful but long - I can't deny the effectiveness of a unisom and a glass of wine to help one sleep on the plane! We were fed dinner pretty early, so I hunkered down for some decent snoozing, allowing me to not feel too tired once we got there (or bored during the flight!) Things were pretty smooth through customs and baggage claim, so we were off to the local ATM to get some Euros and start the adventure.
Denied. The story is long and stretched over 4 days as I attempted phone calls, e-mails and multiple conversations with various supervisors...WAMU messed up and we had no cash access - period. I am sure that they will apologize profusely and attempt to make amends when I trot down to close my account, but that wasn't helping much as I attempted to swipe my card in a variety of ATMs and merchants, only to have it declined, even after being promised that the issue was fixed by WAMU representatives. Fortunately, I brought a 2nd credit card and while it didn't give me cash access, it did the trick for purchases, so the drama was not so great that we were trapped without funds the entire time (whew!)
With the drama of the money access a side story and our luggage unpacked as we checked into our hotel, we ventured out on foot to walk the famed Champs-Elysées (let me offer the phonetic pronunciation: shan-zay-lee-zay) and do a bit of evening sight-seeing. We walked from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde (thankfully the guillotine and associated beheadings no longer are a part of this section!) It was beautifully lit and helped to add to the festive mood of Christmas Eve. There was a Christmas Village complete with vendors and entertainment and it was spectacular people watching as well. We tried out some vin chaud (hot wine) to warm up as we walked and enjoyed attempting to translate what some of the different food names meant. Check out these photos mapping the adventures of "Paris - Day 1 and Day 2".
As we cut up a little side street, we chanced upon an excellent little Chinese restaurant called (aptly enough) Elysées Mandarin. (Having Chinese on Christmas Eve reminded me a bit of the scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie and his family have to go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner on Christmas after having their turkey dinner eaten and destroyed by the hound dogs from next door.) I was impressed by what I assume to be the owner's ability to speak Chinese, French AND English to his different patrons - most impressive!
We wrapped up our long first day(s) in France upstairs in the Executive Lounge noshing on cookies, cheese and tea while we wrote out our "My Christmas Wish for You" notes to one another. We had agreed that Christmas gifts were going to be skipped in lieu of the trip this year, but decided to write out some nice notes to one another to open on Christmas morning and have as a keepsake of our time together. We closed the lounge down at 11:30 pm or so and even spent some time downstairs in the lobby wandering around, making sure that we were good and tired to sleep through the night.
Tomorrow is Christmas, we have to be up and ready to take on the town!
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