We are in Paris

I am writing you near my open window and French birds are singing in the early morning air.

I think my French is coming along because I recognized they were birds singing.

I am not very good at remembering to say Bonjour and Merci and Pardon. When you are tired hello, thank you and please just pop out.

Emma is impressing me with her French courage. She talked to her seat mate in French on the plane and asked if she would trade me seats so I could sit by Emma. (It wasn't a hard sell because Emma was in the very last row.). Also, halfway through the conversation, Emma said, "Help me, Madame!" to her teacher because the French was over her head. She asked directions at the Louvre in French and she asked what time breakfast is in our hotel.

As for me, I saw a girl with a t shirt that read Pardon My French.

I need one of those.

The flight was long and miserable but Emma and I saw the Northern Lights! She is my good luck charm when it comes to seeing them. I love that I have only seen them with her flying over the Atlantic.

Our bus was delayed picking us up at the airport which was a jet lag catalyst. We sat around in sort of catatonic states by our luggage. I slept on the lurching bus to the hotel better than I had slept on the flight. By then I was beyond exhausted and there was no screaming baby like the plane....

The hotel is ok--sort of seedy--but the bed was a flat surface and I was grateful.

We went to the Louvre. I was put in charge of 5 girls. I call them my ducklings and they call themselves SFERV (Sarah, Fiona, Emma, Rose, and Vanessa). Fiona had a course mapped out for us and the Louvre knocked my socks off. We saw such a little part of it but it was amazing.

From there we walked/took the metro to dinner by way of walking through an incredible part of the city. You know, walked by Notre Dame. No big deal!

We had dinner in a tiny restaurant. It was beef stew and bread and lemon tart. Emma said that the beef stew tasted like my French beef stew recipe and I said this is much better!

She said, "Still, you can taste the similarities."

Hey, I will take it.

We walked around some more and saw impressive buildings, one after another. The Seine was alight with boats and everything was perfectly beautiful. I felt like we were in a movie. A movie where I was exceedingly tired and wanted to take a nap on the sidewalk.

I will try to add some pictures.

Maybe in a separate post. Still trying to figure this out...


Sent from my iPhone