Paris: Day 1 en Paris

Hello everyone! Here marks the very first post of our blog which will chronicle our trip to Paris, London, and Bath, and then hopefully my stay in Bath and beyond! Who knows...maybe this will be a thing. We shall see. At the very least, I hope that this helps our family and friends keep up with John and I as we travel in the next few days.

First... a little about our trip! I am graduating this fall from the University of Mary Washington and was given the opportunity to apply for a program studying J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and early Anglo-American fantasy in general at the University of Bath this summer. I jumped at this, of course, because (nerd alert) Anglo-American fantasy is a passion of mine, and I have long been fascinated by the work, lives, friendship, and faith of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I will be spending 5 weeks in Bath, starting June 8th, with other students from Mary Wash, taking that course and then also taking a course at the university on Jane Austen. Yay! Jane! She is also an old friend, and I am beyond excited to dive into her work in the city where she lived and wrote!

Ensign John R. Richey just graduated from Annapolis last friday, and has a month of leave. (I'm sorry Johnboy, ill never refer to you like that again in this forum, it just really hasn't gotten old yet. So proud.) This is the longest time that he will have off for quite a while so we decided why not go over to Europe and celebrate our engagement, his graduation, and my trip with a little adventure of our own.

And so  that is how we ended up here, en Paris.  What a lovely, lovely idea.

And so, without further ado, our first day...

Le Premier Jour à Paris

We left Boston at 6:15 pm last night flying Aer Lingus, through Dublin. Freebie for international travelers coming from Boston to Dublin-If you get to the airport very early and are hungry eat at the restaurant right next to the line for security. When you finish your meal they will give you a fast track through security so that you don't have to wait in line! Who knew?!

We had a quick breakfast in Dublin and then jumped on our plane to Paris and arrived around 9:30. Neither of us really slept on the first flight as I was readingThe Hobbit for class, and John was watching Zero Dark Thirty.

We napped on the second flight, but before we knew it we had touched down in Paris! As soon as we cleared customs and got our bags we hopped on the Roissybus from CDG to L'Opera, which is near our hotel. We decided at dinner tonight that we would definitely recommend this to anyone wondering how to get from the airport to where they are staying Paris. A cab would have cost us about 45 Euro, and the bus was 20 Euro for both of us. Yes, it was crowded, but we were so tired from the red eye that it didn't really matter. 35 minutes later we arrived in L'Opera, jumped off the bus and pulled out our map. We are staying at Hotel Langlois in the 9th. It took about 20 minutes to find, but most of that was probably due to the fact that we were functioning on zero sleep, in other words not functioning at all.

After brief naps, we headed out to walk off our flights. And walk we did! We left the hotel around 2:00 pm and did not get back until 7:30!! We walked from down Rue Lazare, down past Les Grands Magasins et La Madeleine on Rue Tronchet, down Rue Royale, all through the Tuileries, until we reached the bank of the Seine. We were thrilled to discover a Flower show and garden exhibition at L'Orangerie, which we explored for quite a while.

After that we walked to the Louvre, and down Rue Ravioli, where we stopped for a late afternoon glass of wine and some people watching. We took notes on French style and mostly came up with this: black...black...more black! Oh!! A pop of Red! More black...gray...camel...and more black! That being said, I have to admit I am very drawn to Parisien style, and I am storing away mental pictures. Eventually we walked back up Rue Montmartre and then made our way back to Hotel Langlois.

John napped for 45 while I did some research, and then we headed to dinner at a brasserie around the corner called Bistro Des Deux Théâtres, which we would HIGHLY recommend. They have a prix fix menu of an aperatif, three courses, coffee or tea, and a bottle of wine for a great price, and the food was wonderful. I had an amazing appetizer of artichoke hearts marinated in honey mustard with smoked salmon and a poached egg on top, and then a delicious rack of roasted lamb. John got escargot, and then roasted Duck, which he thought was to die for. (I cant stand the sight of duck since my Italian cousin offered me raw duck bacon which I couldn't refuse seeing as I was 14 and he was 80, and we had only just met...eek) For desert we had crepes and a vanilla custard flan type pastry, but I can't remember it's name...woops!

All in all a fabulous first day! We are weary from travel, but the walk did us so much good, as did our wonderful. Not to mention the fact that Paris is lovely and green and, well...Paris! We are blessed to be here, to say the least.

Please excuse my rushed entry, I can hardly keep my eyes open. Also, we have more pictures to share from the day but right now I cant get my charger to work with the adapter and my comp is about to die so we will have to post those tomorrow. Je suis tres désolee.

Tomorrow-- Versaille. Stay tuned. I am beyond excited.

Bon soir, mes amies. Nous vous aimons beaucoup.

Emily & John