Paris Day 1

I don't keep a journal, so I'm documenting my trip here.  

Mark and I arrived in Paris yesterday morning safe and sound, but really tired.  Neither of us could really sleep on the plane, which sucked, but hey, we're in Paris, so there's no complaining allowed!  We got our metro pass and headed to the condo to drop our bags off, which they were nice enough to let us do even though the rooms weren't ready yet.  Then we went out to explore!  We walked around the neighborhood a little bit and, of course, stopped at a patisserie for some pain du chocolate (chocolate croissaints).  Then we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower (at which point I finally felt like I was actually in Paris instead of any random European city) and walked around for a little while before taking our river cruise on the Seine.  By this time, however, we were both exhausted since we hadn't slept for over 24 hours.  Both of us were doing the bobble head thing and nodding off.  The cruise was actually quite nice, though-we saw Notre Dame and many other sites we will soon be exploring.  Afterwards we headed back to the condo to take a shower and a nap.  My parents finally arrived around 8pm (they had been in Scotland) and we visited for a while, then walked over to the neighborhood grocery store to grab stuff for dinner and breakfast.  We had a great meal of soup, bread and cheese, then madeleines and pudding stuff for dessert. 

The condo is nice-it's out of the city center, by Chateau de Vincennes.  It's three bedrooms, two bathrooms (split up weird-one full bathroom, one room that has just a toilet, and then in one of the bedrooms, a room with just a shower stall and a sink), a kitchen and living room/formal dining area.  We have a little balcony as well.

I'm sitting here eating breakfast as I type this-fresh baguettes from the local baker, and what I thought was yogurt, but is not.  It looked like yogurt and the label said Danon, but it turns out it's actually whipped cream with the kind of strawberry syrup you get at the bottom of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts.  It was a delicious surprise!  We forgot to pick up butter last night, so my Dad has gone to the market (which is just across the street) to grab some for the bread, then we'll be off to sight-see for the day.  I think we are going to go to Montmartre for the morning to see the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Couer.  It's an artsy area, so I'm hoping to buy some art while there.  My brother and his wife got a couple of cool paintings when they were in Paris a couple of years ago, and I want to get something for my walls too.  

Later!