Wow - am I jet lagged! I woke up two times; once about 2 or 3 hours after I fell asleep and again at 4:00 am. The second time I was done sleeping so I got up and wrote in the blog, surfed the internet, and did some Sudoku and Logic puzzles while waiting for Ron's alarm to go off. It's nice having a separate room so I can be up and doing stuff without bothering Ron in the bedroom. Shortly before his alarm was to go off, I decided to take my shower and get ready before he did so I wouldn't slow down his morning routine. I also noticed that my three-headed dog friend was still hanging around, but not as much, so I took a few more ibuprofen to lull Fluffy back to sleep.
The hotel is really nice; it seems fairly new and it is modern in style. The tub, however; is very tall. I have to climb into it, which isn't bad before the shower, but a little dicey when I'm wet! So Ron woke up, got ready and we headed down to the hotel breakfast. They have a fairly nice buffet with eggs, breads, toast, cereal, fruit, yogurt, juice, coffee, hot chocolate and tea. I ate light - I'm feeling a little odd and disoriented - the usual jet lag funny tummy that can't tell if it's hungry or upset.
We went back to the room and Ron left for work. I was quite sleepy after breakfast, so I took a very short nap, then did some stuff on the computer then decided if I didn't get my behind outside I would sleep the day away. So I went for a walk, and this time, I took my camera with me. Again I decided to walked up to where our apartment is; Rue de la Convention and Rue de Vaugirard. I figured getting to know the neighborhood isn't a bad thing.
It is definitely winter in Paris. The trees are leafless and it is cold!
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| Heading up Avenue Ernest Renan - the T2 Tram is on the right |
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| At Porte de Versailles, you can catch the bus, the T2 or T3 trams, or the 12 Metro line |
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| This interesting structure doesn't appear to have a purpose but its reflections are cool! |
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| Heading up Rue de Vaugirard, and just under some train tracks - which came first, the tracks or the apartments? |
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| View of our apartment building - this is quite a busy intersection! |
Ron had told me about the street market in our neighborhood that takes place on Sunday. He thought the stalls were permanent, but they weren't there the night before. But they were there today. Interesting. But cool.
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| The Dupont Cafe is in the middle of the picture - you can see how close we are to the market! |
I had seen a mall/commercial center on the map - so I got on the Metro at Convention and headed up to the Pasteur station. It was only 2 stops, I should have walked. Once there I headed in the direction of this mall, but I didn't see anything that resembled a shopping center. So I headed back to Rue de Vaugirard and walked back. Along the way, I saw this lovely view:
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| I'm in Paris and here's proof! |
There are a LOT of shops along Rue de la Convention and Rue de Vaugirard. A LOT of those shops are flower shops. I saw these and had to have a photo for Rosie!
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| White anemones! |
It was late afternoon in Paris and the winter light was wonderful. The sun stays quite low in the sky throughout the day, and the sunlight has a thin, watery quality to it.
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| Looking down Rue de Vaugirard towards Rue de la Convention - you can see our apartment in the distance |
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| Another view of our busy corner - I'm very excited to move in! |
It was approaching 4:30 pm at this point so I headed back to the hotel, window shopping and noting the locations of things for future reference.
I got back to the hotel and had a short wait for Ron to return from work. We headed out to dinner and went to Chez Clement, at Porte de Versailles on the corner of Boulevard Lefebvre and Rue de Vaugirard. It's a nice restaurant and it was quite crowded although we were seated right away. It is so cold outside that as soon as I get inside my nose runs. Or so I thought. This time it was a bloody nose! A real gusher, too! It did not go unnoticed by the folks seated around us and I was afraid the damn thing wouldn't stop and I was going to bleed out on the floor of a restaurant on my second day in Paris.
I guess that was a little dramatic, but about 20 minutes later, it finally stopped and we were able to order dinner. I had a salad and a pork dish. Ron had mushroom soup and a variety plate (beef, pork chicken and sausage). Ron's soup looked good but I was afraid to try it. I have had two bad allergic reactions to mushrooms whilst in Europe; the first was in Chamonix in 2002 and the second was in Luzern in 2007. Dinner was good and we managed to get through dinner and the walk back to the hotel without further bloody incidences. It was 10:00 by the time we got back to the hotel, so I'm making progress on my jet lag and went to bed at a more reasonable going to bed hour!
The good news is that it is now Friday and I will be checking out of the hotel and moving in to the apartment this afternoon! Ron is leaving work early to help move us up the street!
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