Wild Places and Open Spaces

Leaving Toronto

Day 1

Well, the trip that has been a dream for a year (and longer!!) became a reality once we were on the plane. The weather in Toronto cooperated; so did customs. Our luggage was not weighed, nor were our ‘liquids’ examined; however, we did have to remove our shoes and belts. It was an overnight flight with Air Canada, and we were awed at the lights we were able to see as we crossed Canada, most specifically New Brunswick and Newfoundland….we actually saw the flashing light of a lighthouse! The flight was uneventful, and we watched the sun rise as we headed east.

Day 2

We arrived in Paris at the Charles de Gaulle airport to snow and on the tarmac, literally. We disembarked the plane on the tarmac – which is normal at this airport – and stood on a bus for 20min, freezing with the door open, until a passenger complained and the driver looked up from whatever device he was using and hurriedly sped off to the terminal.

Customs at the Paris airport was a joke – the customs police officer did not even look at either of us as he stamped our passports to allow us in. Perhaps it was because they figured that the military dudes in full garb with machine guns (nope, not joking) would keep us in line if anything went awry. The airport itself is shockingly unaesthetic; made Pearson look beautiful and classy. A driver holding a sign with our name picked us up and whisked us (in a black, beautiful Mercedes Benz) to our rented studio apartment where we met Joel.

Joel, owns a few studios in Paris (Paris At Home), and we are so happy that we rented this one: Studio La Cerisaie. Very small (12ft x 12ft) and quaint…. picture a bachelor apt (only smaller) with all IKEA furnishings – it is all we need and more for $100euros/night. A major bargain in Paris, and only 4 metro stops to the Louvre. Because we arrived prior to ‘check in’, we dropped off our luggage at the studio, and went to get some groceries (and more importantly WINE) before the shops closed – they close by 1pm on Sundays (so nice to see that people still do this).

Oh yes, and the wine…..we bought three bottles of French wine for less than $9 euros. Yes, you read correctly…3 bottles for under $9 euros!

We didn’t want to waste our day by waiting until 2pm for our studio to be cleaned, so we took off for the Louvre. First impressions of the transit system – easy peasee. First impressions of Paris – absolutely beautiful. The Louvre is massive, and to be honest . it took us a while to find where to go inside! We headed to probably what most people head towards first – the Mona Lisa. Hoards of people were surrounding her, and even though there are signs everywhere stating ‘no flash photography’ they certainly don’t enforce this rule – there were flashes going off every few seconds. She is under glass, and actually larger than I thought she would be. And yes, I did get shivers being there, looking at her.

We walked around one wing of the Louvre, and quickly jet lag began to set in….we became wandering zombie-like creatures who desperately needed to sleep. We left, and made our way back quite easily on the transit system. We hit the sack by 7pm, after only having a couple of hours of sleep in a 24hr period.

Pics to come!

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