|
« Off To Paris |
Main
| Paris, Day Two: Eiffel Tower »
October 15, 2006
Paris, Day One: Arrival
 We're here.
Our route took us from Seattle through Houston. The layover wasn't too bad; we had about four hours, which actually gave us enough time for a nice sit-down lunch and some book shopping at one of the mini-Borders they've got everywhere.
Notes:
- Continental's airplanes lack a 13th row. They go 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, just like fine hotels everywhere. Since when did the airline industry develop triskaidekaphobia?
- Continental is showing Poseidon as their inflight movie these days. The beauty of an airline showing a luxury-liner disaster movie (it's a sure bet no airline has shown, or ever will show, Flightplan, Turbulence or United 93) is that is serves to both entertain and to warn -- "See, this is what happens when you take that other mode of transportation from A to B!". I wonder if there's a trend, here, with boats showing car-crash or stranded-motorist movies (Breakdown?).
- The fact that Poseidon, Breakdown and Big Trouble In Little China (arguably, a car-breakdown-goes-bad movie) all star Kurt Russell is kinda funny. The guy's had a varied career, I guess.
- Inflight Grisham damage: The Chamber, The Last Juror, The Brethren.
- Keyword Assistant: awesome product. I was behind on tagging my photots, and, as anyone who uses iPhoto knows, the product's default keyword system was designed by drunk, retarded monkeys. This little plugin let me cruise through nearly a thousand new photos (I love my camera) in about an hour. Hands stay on the keyboard, smart integration with AddressBook. It totally, totally rocks.
- Before leaving, I bought a new game for the iPod - Zuma. It's totally addictive, and a nice break from the crazy-making, crack-like Vortex.
- My iPod battery doesn't go as far while playing games as it does while listening to music. The new ones are rumored to have better battery life. Hm...
- I'm tired of airplanes. Tired, tired, tired. Tired of the seats, the food, sitting on my ass for six-to-ten hours a shot. I've got a limited amount of travel between now and the end of the new year (Marnie's wedding, really) and that is it for me for a while.
- This is my fourth trip to Europe since April (!), and I have yet to be disappointed by the beauty of flying in to the sunrise. Dark, dark night over the Atlantic, giving way to small streaks of light and, ultimately, orange brilliance as the sun makes its appearance. It's dazzling, wonderful.
- Charles de Gaulle airport ocillates between bright/clean/modern and shabby/run-down/Heathrowish. It just depends on which 5-foot section you're in at the moment.
- I had an amazing sandwich at the airport - flavorful, soft, wonderful. Elaine assures me that the food here is going to blow my mind.
- The Paris Metro system is modeled heavily on the Tube in London, right down to the station designs, signage, you name it. I can't read a lick of French, but trains are trains. It's cool, and certainly makes it easy for us to get around.
- We have the cutest little loft. Rather than get a hotel, we opted to rent an apartment through an online service. It's cute, small, European in every way, and absolutely perfect for us. We've got a minifridge for supplies (so we hit the local mini-grocer and got sandwich fixin's), small kitchen, couch, you name it.
- What we don't have is Internet or phone service in the loft. And French keyboards are about fifteen times more frustrating than German keyboards when it comes to letter placement, etc. The local Internet cafe charges 1 Euro for 15 minutes, and I swear 10 of my 15 were spent looking for the "@" sign.
We're actually here. I can't believe it.
(Flickr photostream is available, if you're curious.)
Posted by Gavin Shearer at October 15, 2006 11:21 PM. Posted to Travel.
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in,
.
Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
« Off To Paris |
Main
| Paris, Day Two: Eiffel Tower »
|
