ericksonsinchina - day 1

Nous sommes ici. I am amazed that I feel so at home in Paris. It must be my French heritage.  It could also be the lovely neighborhood of our hotel -- quiet, with many little restaurants populating the streets. And the weather is just about perfect for the moment - moderate temperature, low humidity. Rich and I visited Paris about 40 years ago on an "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium" tour. At the time, we thought we would be back soon, but it wasn't until now and with the encouragement of the French Open that we made the effort to come.

Our good friend Lynne drove us to the airport and after a totally disorganized check-in, a frenzied security check, and an hour delay on the runway, we were finally on our way. The flight was without accident or incident, as our daughter Lee used to pray. Compared to the our trips to China,the time aloft almost seemed short. We had some instructions from the hotel about how to make the transfer from the airport and found the Roissy bus that would take us to the Paris Opera House where we could find a Metro.  We had a wee bit of trouble because our credit card would not work at the ticket machine, but were soon on our way to the city. We called our friend He Da, the son of our host family in China who is studying in France.He met us at the Opera and led us to our hotel which is a long Metro ride. We saw many tourists, but there was no atmosphere of hustle and bustle, perhaps because it was Saturday. Rich's bithday will be before we come back to America. Perhaps we will go to see a ballet to celebrate. Perhaps.

Our hotel room is small but adequate. Certainly, we will be comfortable for our stay. We had "lunch" with David/He Da; I use the quotes because my lunch was more like dinner. We live and learn. After he left for work, we decided to try to find Roland Garros. Easier said than done. It is about a half an hour walk from where we are staying. One funny thing is that a passing motorist actually asked ME for directions. Another funny thing was that a lovely lady of whom we inquired thought my pronunciation of Roland Garros was "cute." I guess that is a good thing. Rich was hoping to get inside the gates and look around, but that was not possible. A not so funny thing was that my feet were complaining loudly. I think I chose the wrong shoes for the trip. Paris is beautiful as we remembered, but the residents, at least in our area, do not see the need to clean up after their dogs. That seems very strange.

On the walk back we found a reasonable place to buy bottled water, an evangelical church that we hope to attend tomorrow, and a bakery. One of my friends teases me about our diet; she calls it "don't bite white." Well, we are biting plenty of white in France. Each of us bought athree foot long baguette for a snack! not to mention the pasta we had for dinner and the pommes frittes (puffy fried potatoes) for lunch. Ah, life is good.

Now we are about ready to turn out the lights. We are not sure yet how we will spend our Sunday other than going to church. Our first day of tennis will be Monday. Bon nuit.

p.s. The menus here are a challenge. The langugage, of course, is the first reason. The second is a different use of the word entre than what we in America do. A popular offering in our neighborhood is sort of a prix fixe with entre/plat/dessert. In this case the entre is something like a salad or a side. I guess entre/beginning makes sense. Then the plat is more like what we would consider an entre. Also, the word libre. I thought it would mean free, but I need to look it up. I don't think it means free.