Paris Dispatch – 10/21/11

Yesterday felt like the longest day in history: up at 6:00 a.m. for a final (melancholy) walk across the Charles Bridge, then a fast breakfast and ride to the airport to learn that our flight was delayed two hours.

We chilled in the “Relax Zone”…

When we got to Paris, we dropped our bags in our apartment in the 16th arrondissement and rushed out the door for a nightime Fat Tire Bike Tour. This is the view from a block away from our front door. I gasped when I saw it! The Tour Eiffel looks so unassuming and, somehow, even more awesome from this point of view.

This is what we ate before the tour. In case it’s not clear, that’s a crepe stuffed with ham, cheese, and egg — shaped into a cone to hold french fries and a hot dog. What a crazy Americanization of beautiful French food (and I loved it).

More on the bike tour when I’m home and have all my photos properly edited and such. It was a ridiculous amount of fun to ride around Paris in the dark and cold night air. Here’s a snap of Dave and I near the Notre Dame de Paris.

Today we visited the Friday morning market on the Rue Jean de la Fontaine, just around the corner from where we’re staying… then ate steak frites in the corner cafe. We’re both exhausted, and I might be cranky, so we’re resting tonight. Reading, doing laundry, eating dinner at the apartment. It was quite an adventure buying the ingredients; my high school/college French — coupled with very patient, very friendly Parisians — is helping us muddle through. I’ll let you know how dinner turns out; I’m not used to cooking in someone else’s kitchen.