Paris - Day 2.5

Buried in work (I know, oh boo hoo! You're in Paris!) Believe me I'm not complaining, just explaining why this will be a short post to hold you with a couple of pix til tomorrow when hopefully I'll be out taking lots more and have lots more time to write. There's also a disadvantage to the blog in that I am back in Quite Voluminous Journaling mode, since I have it with me all the time as is my wont over here, so there's not quite as much of an itch in me to write on the blog but I won't leave you alone too long here, never fear, plus I did a few mentions in my journal specifically to talk about here later so you'll benefit from it as well.

Without further ado...

One pic from before Paris:
Lucy inspecting my packing job (note how empty the suitcase is- quite proud of myself - there was enough room in fact for me to put the majority of the books and notebooks in and still when I got to Charles De Gaulle, all my carryon stuff fit in there as well so that I wasn't so loaded down in the RER (metro).

All the books made the suitcase crazy heavy tho and on the way thru the metro turnstiles at St-Michel (my stop) my turnstile went on strike and wouldn't let me thru even tho I had a valid ticket. A lady came up behind me and asked if I needed help and I explained and she said, "Well let's just lift the suitcase over top and you can scoot under." I warned her it was super heavy and she just said, "Ben on se débrouillera, non?" (We'll just manage won't we?!) She laughed goodnaturedly at how right I was about the suitcase's weight as we started to lift it up waste high to clear the turnstile. I thanked her profusely afterwards and she was quite gracious.

Coming out of the metro then there are two sets of about 20-25 steps each. I got ready to start heaving step by step when a monsieur approached and asked if I needed help and I said yes but warned him as well. He grabbed the bottom with both hands and we carried it up the steps stretcher style. He said, "C'est vrai qu'elle est lourde!" (It really is heavy!) And I mentioned it was full of teaching materials. "Oh that explains it!" He put it down and we saw the next flight of steps, "On fait la même chose?" (One more time?) I said, "Volontiers, oui, monsieur." (Gladly...) We did the same for that set and at the top I thanked him again.

Funny how a handful of people this spring when I'd mention I was going to Paris this summer would lapse into riffs of how rude French people were.

Yeah, I mean just look at my first 5 minutes out of the metro - the NERVE of these people, rudely helping me, a complete stranger! And in Paris no less, the rudest of the rude Frenchies live there, we all know that.

La Conciergerie and the Pont Neuf as seen my first evening from the Pont Notre-Dame, on my long walk back from the giant FNAC in Les Halles where I got my $120 magic transformer for my crazy laptop that refused to work with a normal adaptor. (Honestly I didn't really care how much it was by that point I was so panicked at the idea of not having computer access.) The walk was long because I was going more and more slowly - 8 hours' sleep total in the three nights prior, having already traversed the city with my suitcase, having lugged said suitcase up to my 4th floor flat (no helpful Frogs happened to be in my building stairwell unfortunately) and having already gone out THREE times on quests for necessities, two times for something to make the computer work, to no avail. This was on the way back from the 4th quest, successful thank goodness.

Better and more numerous pix later. Back to work for me as soon as I get a little more coffee from the kitchen. I've been going to the café a lot, but my coffee here is yummy too. Why is even homemade coffee more delicious in France?

A plus! (later)