L' arrivee!

After a very long day of traveling, we finally arrived safe and sound at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. Thank goodness for my friend Catherine's fiancee, Thierry. He met Riley and me at the airport and helped us find my sister. She came in at the same terminal, but at the opposite end. That doesn't sound like a daunting task, but even Thierry was confused about where to go. All was well when we finally connected and then jumped into a taxi. We arrived at the hotel around 10:30 a.m., but our room was not available until 2 p.m., so we wandered around the 1st Arrondissement and treated Thierry to lunch for graciously helping us out. Once in the room (right at 2 p.m.), we all basically passed out for 4 or more hours. The most difficult part of the trip so far was waking Riley up after the extended snooze and then dealing with his subsequent grumpiness while walking around the neighborhood in search of some food.

We were lucky in that today just happened to be the once yearly music festival here in Paris. There were different bands playing different genres of music all over the city. Tonight, we went to a cafe that served hamburgers for dinner and ate while listening to a nearby French band play songs by the Cure and the Rolling Stones. We returned to the room at around 11:30 p.m. just as a I got a call from a Seattle friend who happened to be spending his last night in Europe here in Paris.

My friend, David, and some of his other family members had brought his 88 year old father who is sadly inflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease over here to visit Lourdes in the hope of a miracle. David is a sommelier in Seattle and his one wish for this trip was to have at least one good glass of wine. I remembered a wine cafe we had passed during our earlier walk, so he and his sister met me near our hotel and we ran out for a quick bottle of wine. It was quite the moment while sitting at the cafe on the street, listening to a nearby band playing classic French music (complete with an accordian) while drinking fabulous French wine.

Tomorrow, we are planning to visit the Musee du Louvre, as well as some other Paris sites. There will be more pictures and a complete report at the end of the day! For now, Bon Nuit!