Paris!

Hi, everyone! I made it to Paris! I have plenty of time for the internet here since I am traveling alone, but it is supremely frustrating: the keyboard is different--many letters are in different places--so I'm typing slowly and between swearwords, which the other folks in the cafe find highly amusing.

Highlights include:

TAXI!! I arrived last night, very tired, at about 8h30 pm. I didn't have time to change currency and ended up in a taxi at 10pm that I couldn't pay for. I was concerned since Parisian taxi drivers are notoriously nasty. To avoid getting chucked out of the taxi, alone in the middle of Paris at 10pm, I decided not to mention the currency thing until we reached my hotel. We chatted--a lively conversation in French--on the way. I started to feel bad, though, since he was warming up and confessed that I had no Euros, only American dollars. He seemed a little irritated at first and then winked at me, telling me it was alright. In addition, when we neared the hotel and found the streets blocked off and police cars everywhere, he stalled the meter and snaked his way through the back streets to get me and my stupid behemoth of a bag as close as possible to the hotel. When we saw the police cars, he winked in that French way and said, "perhaps it is the Da Vinci Code?" since most of its beginnings took place in Paris. I laughed appreciatively-I had made friends with the impossible of impossibles--the Parisian taxi driver in August, late at night, driving an American! I gave him 20 dollars, which he almost refused and gave me too much back in change. What a welcome!

FLOWER BEDS? I walked through the Tuileries Gardens today, a large public park with impressive fountains and landscaped gardens. There aren't really any flowers, but the bushes make fascinating mazes to get lost in. As I walked, I noticed an elderly couple, probably in their eighties, inching along with their walkers. As I heard them speak, they turned out to be British. The woman stopped for a moment, took a critical and bewildered look around, and turned to her husband and said, in beautifully clipped and disappointed British English, "I thought there would be flower beds." I almost died. Hilarious! I immediately thought of you, Mr. Tiller...

I'm currently exploring the Latin Quarter, after visiting the Musée d'Orsay. I love this area, but I am always too excited about it and end up a little disappointed. All the street artists seem to paint the same scene, kind of destroying the point, you know? But it's fun to wander. Soon I'm headed to the best chocolaterie in the WORLD--La maison au chocolat on the Champs-élysées. Then I'll shop some and probably call it a day.

I'm meeting Jean-Claude and Marie-Claude for lunch tomorrow, and then I think I will go to London to visit my friend Katheryn. I want to go to Mont Ste Michel, too, but I'm not sure if I have time. Life is good...