The Old Ladies' Travel & Exploration Club - Sunday, 23 October

Scandihoovians love to explore (thanks, Leif Ericson!).  Here are a couple intrepid explorers ready to take off to terrorize Paris, albeit at an old lady pace!  My high school friend (and Lincoln Park neighborhood neighbor) Barb Salo Otava flew to MSP from her home outside Vancouver on Saturday to join me for this trip to the City of Light. Away we go!

Our flight was calm, mostly (except for the little boy sitting behind me who seemed intent on giving me a back massage via kicks to the back of my seat!).  Paris was shrouded in fog - when we touched down you could barely see the tarmac - but shortly before arriving we were treated to a lovely sunrise.  The nice gentleman sitting across the aisle from me did his best to capture it on my camera, but you just had to be there!

Traffic was light coming into the city on a Sunday morning - our Uber ride took just 40 minutes and cost €32.50 (a regular taxi would be nearly double that).  And the driver was a very nice young Parisian man who spoke excellent English and was of Moroccan descent (which was a special treat because Barb had lived in Morocco for a couple years in the '70s and they could swap stories of locations and history!).

Barb studying a map

Guess who is in the kitchen
getting ready to make cofffee?

Even though we arrived earlier than we expected, we were able to drop off our bags at our lovely little apartment and put our feet up while the housekeeper was cleaning up after the previous renter.

I thought that the photos of the beams in this 19th century apartment's listing looked familiar (here it is:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5966315), and lo and behold, this apartment is right next door to one I've used a couple other times (http://www.vacationinparis.com/listing/79/vieux-paris-one-bedroom)!


Then it was time to hit the streets for some groceries and supplies and a little lunch!

A fishy lunch!  Fish & chips with an Affligem, and Salade niçoise with a Chardonnay

A little entertainment next to our café tabke

2 p.m. and it's time for garbage pickup on this sunny afternoon

I had a ticket for a "Hommage À Nijinski" concert up at the Philharmonie this afternoon, but my legs hadn't recovered enough from today's journeys to safely make the trek up to the far northeast corner of town, so I just extended my afternoon nap a bit.  Better safe than sorry for this old lady explorer!