Whirlwind Paris trip - Friday (arrival day)

A few weeks ago Jason found out he needed to go to Paris one week and Munich the next, which amounts to a free weekend in either Paris or Munich. This provided the perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of his constant travel. All I needed was a plane ticket. Jason was able to buy the price down to almost nothing with his scads of airline miles, so it was settled. I was going to Paris.

Arriving at the gate, I immediately knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep on the plane. I was surprised to see a couple waiting with their 5 young children. Five children, all about 5 years old and younger with the youngest being an infant. I really felt for these folks. To me, traveling with 5 young children to Europe wouldn't be fun. It would be stressful. And migraine inducing. The baby cried for almost the entire 8 hour flight. Now that's what I call stamina. I wasn't annoyed, just shocked that the mother wasn't having convulsions by the time we arrived. I would have been!

I got to Paris at 7:00 am, or 2:00 am EST. Exhausted, I found my way to the taxis. This was the part I was nervous about. My French vocabulary is comprised of about 5 words, so I was a little stressed about finding my way to Jason's office. I pointed at the address to the cab driver, and off we went. Forty-five minutes later we pulled up to a hotel. Hmmmm....this didn't look like an office building. I showed him the address again and he drove around the circle to a door that had a 14 above it. I still wasn't convinced (there were about 50 street signs nearby and it was hard to tell which one we were on) but 14 was the right address so I crossed my fingers and hoped he was right.

After paying a small fortune I walked up to the door and pulled. The door was locked. I looked closer. No BlueCoat signs anywhere. I started to panic. I walked up the street a bit, then walked back and saw a girl unlocking the door. I followed a few people inside and asked if this was the right building for BlueCoat. They stared at me like I had 3 heads. I started to panic some more. I walked up to the desk and asked. She didn't speak English but she seemed to understand my question. She gave me a visitor's badge and from what I could understand she told me to go to the third floor.

I got to the third floor and still didn't see any signs. I started trying doors and they were all locked. Panic started to set in again. I finally found one that was open. I went inside and some guy came and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was looking for BlueCoat and he said something that sounded more or less like "well you are in the wrong place idiot". Back out in the hall a guy walked up to me and asked if my name was Becky. Apparently Jason had been running all over the building looking for me and we had missed each other. I happily followed Yogi to the BlueCoat office (which was locked and had no sign by the way).

I am embarrassed to say I spent the next several hours reading and dozing off in a cubicle. After my fiasco of trying to find my way around, I just felt more comfortable staying put until Jason was done with his meetings. Besides, I was totally exhausted from the long flight and lack of sleep, and we were in a business area so there wasn't much to do nearby anyhow.

On our taxi ride to the hotel I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. That is about all I saw because I had my eyes closed half the time. I think our taxi driver was insane.

We made it to the hotel in one piece and I showered off the patina I had developed on the airplane. Then we wandered around the streets near the hotel. We did some window shopping and finally settled on a cafe for dinner. It was a winner. We sat outside and had a very nice leisurely meal complete with great wine and great dessert. Now this is what I was hoping for from Paris!

That's about it from day 1. We found our way back to the room and I was asleep almost instantly. Here are some of my observations from the first day:

1. It is really hard to communicate with people who don't speak your language (obviously).
2. Motorcycles should never be permitted to split lanes in moving traffic. Yikes. That's some scary stuff.
3. If you live in Paris apparently you are required to smoke.
4. You are also required to drink wine with (almost) every meal.
5. Food in Paris is "da bomb".
6. Paris is the place to be if you are in the market for a Rolex (or "Rolley" if you are cool). You can't throw a dead cat without hitting a shop that sells them.
7. My van would be obscenely large driving down the streets of Paris.
8. Commercials in Europe are much funnier than they are in the US.
9. When a waiter tells you he is going to bring you a "gift" (another glass of wine) you should still expect to see it on the bill.
10. It is very strange to hear a large tough-looking man speaking a delicate sounding language like French.

Stay tuned! To be continued tomorrow with lots of pictures...