I made it! Wow! I had forgotten how much I loved Paris! The weather is perfect! I love the way of life here! The people have been great!
I arrived in the Charles de Gaule airport at 9:00am this morning. The line to go through Customs actually wasn't too long. Two young guys called me over after 5 minutes of waiting. I was afraid they would be intimidating and cold, as they often are. Today, however, the first one smiled and asked me, "Vous parlez francais?" When I smiled and said, "Oui, bien sur!", he asked me in French if I was going to see Harry Potter. What kind of question is that for a customs officer to ask you?!! Nothing about how long I was staying or why I was coming into his country. No questions about what I was carrying in my suitcase or anything. We talked about Harry Potter and a few other movies before he waved me on. It was a great welcome!
I waited by the baggage claim for Ali Mills to arrive on the direct SLC Paris flight. It took about two hours till I saw her. Luckily, I had a good book to read. We decided to save 15 Euros and take the RER train to our hotel and then walk a mile with all our bags rather than paying for a direct shuttle (25 Euros for a shuttle; 10 Euros for the RER train). It was definitely an adventure. We were tired and weighed down with bags, but people were nice and gave all sorts of directions to help us out...some better than others. We finally got to our hotel and met our BYU professor and the other three teachers who we will be spending time with.
I am staying with two teachers, Ali from West High and Agnes Broberg from Timpanogos High (my drama teacher back in the day) in the same hotel room. We have a great apartment setting with a kitchen, living room and shutters that open up to see the Eiffel Tower!! Dusk is approaching and it is all lit up and sparkling now. You really can't get better than this.
We went out tonight to the grocery store around the corner, Monoprix. I started taking pictures of the attached shopping carts (something different from the USA), the food, etc. A guard came up and told me to stop taking pictures. I smiled and said, "Oh, we are French teachers and hoping to compare some pictures of your country with ours back in the USA. We don*t have to put a coin in our shopping carts to borrow them and then get the coin back." He warmed right up and said we should call the store director and get permission. We did this and when the store director heard our story, he gave permission, but not for "trop" (too many) pictures....whatever that means. I took it to mean a limit of 20 or so. The French really are nice if you treat them well first. They are private people, but open to talking and are amused by Americans who are friendly, I believe. We went throughout the store and took pictures of the aisles and ailes of cheeses and yogurts. We bought some fruit and cereal for breakfast. At the front of the grocery store was a bakery, where I bought a fresh hot baguette just pulled from the oven and finished half of it before we got up to our hotel. Mmmmm!! This was right before we went to dinner as a group, but they were irresistable.
Tommorrow, we have lots planned to see in downtown Paris including the Pompidou Museum, Eiffel Tower and Montmartre. Thanks for the suggestions, Emily, about the Rodin museum. I think I will go ahead and see that. The outside of the Louvre is nice and I will take pictures without having to go in. I forgot that you and Josh came here a while ago. Good ideas. Justin, thanks for seeing both sides....I will look for French people stuffing their faces just to see the exceptions to the rule, but I doubt that will happen. :) And yes, I am still blonde...trying not to be naive, though. I think it%s working. Angie, I am glad you learned a little about Bastille Day. Kind of a fun holiday. Thanks for your comments! I appreciate them. You are all awesome!!
2 comments:
We actually have shopping carts that lock together like that at one of the grocery stores here in Ohio. I think they don't have to do it in Utah because most people are honest there, but I guess they had problems with people not returning their carts, so they have the same system as what is in your picture. You put in a quarter to use the cart and then get it back when you return the cart.
How fun that you get to room with Agnes. It sounds like you are having lots of fun!
Angie, that's cool that you saw those type of carts in Ohio. I thought they were a European thing. Agnes tells you high. She lit up when I told her that you mentioned her in your message. Thanks for writing! I hope you are having a fun summer!
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