Settling in and looking around

Steps today: 10,750
Miles walked: 3.97



After a rather uneventful flight, we woke up to this around 3 a.m. on our body clocks. It's the French country side with a dusting of snow.

We made it through customs lickety-split and found the car that we hired to drive us to our apartment. What a fantastic experience! Tim and I actually got to our apartment via the most efficient route on our first attempt.

We found our apartment and as it turns out, it's most convenient to the oldest patisserie in Paris. Rest assured, we will be sampling tomorrow!





We settled in to our apartments, we met up with Shelley's brother and sis-in-law. Priorities firmly in mind, we set out to explore stopping at the first crepe stand we found.

Kevin (Shelley's brother) was the last to get his crepe, so the rest of us, having snarfed ours down already, took photos of the guy while he waited for his food.

Mmmm...Nutella and banana crepes. My favorite!









We ended up at Shakespeare & Co. and Notre Dame. The cathedral is just one of those places you have to experience for yourself. There's no way to even come close to describing how it feels to be inside. So, I'll just share a few photos with you:

Paris Eve

Tonight we leave for 14 days in Paris. Well, mostly Paris. Some Normandy, too.

Packing is especially hard this time. You mix packing for winter and spring with being on the road for 14 days and you get quite an issue. Luckily for us, there's a Laundromat right across the street from our apartment. We'll be using that a few times, I'm sure.

A typical luggage entourage for us is a personal bag and a carry-on. We frequently preach the wonders of traveling carry-on only. This time, because of some very bad influences (yes, Suz and Shelley, I mean you) we're also taking a checked bag. It's helpful to pack the scarves, hats, gloves, boots, etc. in the suitcase. But we've gone into the mindset of "Well, we have room..." So, the inspectors will find in our checked bag--no joke--no fewer than six guidebooks, a jar of peanut butter, full-size liquid bottles (oye!) and a box of FiberOne bars (hey, don't judge-lots of cheese will be consumed on this trip!).

We are legitimizing this by telling ourselves there will be lots of room to bring back souvenirs. It is not our proudest travel moment.

But we're looking forward to this trip a lot. We remember how much we loved Paris the first time we went and are hopeful it doesn't disappoint. The weather is looking wet but warm, which is a relief. And everyone going along seems up for a fantastic adventure.

Our next post will be from Paris!

Let the countdown begin!

Happy to report we can once again live up to the name of this blog--we're heading to Europe!

I hope you'll bookmark our travel blog and visit often between Dec. 27 and Jan. 8. We're going to Paris and this time, we've conned... er... asked a few friends to join us. So, you'll have our (mis)adventures to experience in cringe-worthy style (remember when Tim got pooped on by a French bird? See the posts from 2006 if you don't know the story), you can also live vicariously through eight of our closest friends.