Days 1-2: SFO to CDG

And so it begins...! With one backpack each, we stepped off our plane in Paris, after a 15-hour journey across the lower 48 and then the Atlantic, feeling surprisingly refreshed, with synapses flaring, adrenaline pulsing,... and my inner Geico pig going "wee, wee, wee!!".

My first meal on Euro soil was a prix fixe breakfast of chocolat (hot chocolate), croissant (croissant), pain (slice of bread), beurre (butter), confiture (jam), and jus d'orange (orange juice) at Gare de Lyon. He savored a baguette graines de pavot (poppy seed baguette) with jambon cru (cured ham) and tomates confites (slow-roasted tomatoes). Possibly the simplest meal of our entire trip.

We then ventured downtown for a self-guided walking tour suggested by Rick Steves, which included a stroll through the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral; the Mémorial des Martyrs la Déportation, a somber monument commemorating the 200,000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps; and the eclectic Quartier Latin. En route, we crossed a Seine River bridge with railings laden with padlocks of all shapes and sizes, scratched with names of couples professing their love for each other. (We resisted the urge to add one of our own!)

We spent the rest of our evening dining, sharing laughs, and trying to amuse the children with a Folkmanis bunny hand puppet at the home of an old friend, one of my two soeurs francaises (French sisters) whose gracious family had hosted me as a High School Junior in St. Brieuc. Over 2 decades later, the braces-wearing pre-teen is now all grown up, with a handsome guy and two infants of her own. *sigh* A heartwarming start to our vacay.