We Have arrived.

First, I posted some pictures but due to a technical mistake they ended up in my other photo blog. Check it out for today's Photos.

Amelia:

After a fairly easy morning at the airport, we boarded our plane. As we rose in the air over San Francisco I eagerly scanned the scene below, looking for things I recognized. As I looked around for the various bridges, I could see the smoke from the wildfires north of the city. It was quite incredible seeing the smoke filled air from 20,000 ft above.

The flight to Houston was short. The pilot sounded just like ol’ george dubyah over the intercom. That was entertaining!

I had fun watching the people in the Houston airport; trying to pick out which were the Europeans going home & wondering why they’d come.

The next leg of the journey was harder. The flight was very full. Jon and I had changed our seat assignment in order to have access to power for the laptop. We happily gave up our window seat for the power plug. When it became clear that our row was somehow blacked out, there was nothing we could do. For the long, long flight we had no power, no light for reading, no access to the complementary movie or entertainment options offered, no way to ask for service. A couple of hours into the flight, the 3 in front of us got very loud & drunk, so napping was difficult. I got off that plane feeling very stiff, tense, tired, and excited to be here. My senses were alert enough that as soon as we stepped out of the plane door onto the hall to the terminal I could already smell the cigarette smoke.

It took an hour to get our luggage and walk to the area near the train station. I love taking the train. It is far superior to driving. A couple of transfers later & we were lugging our luggage through the Abbesses station. When we made it out to the street, I was a little perplexed. I could tell this was Paris, but it looked just like the French Quarter district in New Orleans. There was actually a street band playing Dixie Jazz, so my brain was saying New Orleans?? Can I get by just speaking English and adding y’all into each sentence? No. This is the other French place. The one that came first.

We found our hotel, got ourselves up to the 6^th floor (the top), and checked out the view from our window. We’re in a terrific little hotel with great views of the city Montmarte is famous for.

We had dinner at …

Jonathan:

… Les Deux Moulins. Unfortunately Amelia was not working tonight. Despite this minor setback, there were still plenty of people smoking and talking foreign to amuse us.

The day before the flight I caught a cold and I developed a sore throat on the airplane. I feel quite a bit better after taking a hot bath and walking around the neighborhood but my throat is still a little sore and I’m a bit jet lagged.

We were sorely disappointed to see some blue sky and sunshine as Yahoo Weather had promised us a cold bleary day. Them’s the breaks…