Paris, July 4

Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Paris, France

We left from O’Hare Airport at about 8:30 PM yesterday (after a 2 hour delay!) and arrived in Paris today about noon local time. More... Of course, because of the 7-hour time difference, our bodies thought it was 4:30 AM. We’ve found the best way to deal with jet lag is not to give in to the temptation to take a nap, but to soldier on until darkness falls wherever we happen to be. However, since Paris is farther north than most of the United States, sunset here is much later than in the Chicago area – about 10 PM. So it felt like we went without sleep for about 18 hours.

Fortunately, Paris is as beautiful a city as everyone says it is, so it was worth it after all!

We met up with our friends, John and Yvonne, at the apartment that Yvonne had rented for us all on Rue Charlot, in the Marais district. It’s one of the older sections of Paris (more pre-Revolutionary structures and streets than any other area in Paris), so of course the buildings are also older. Our apartment is in a 500-year-old building that has been renovated with modern amenities – sort of. I say sort of because the renovations did not include air conditioning or elevators, which is not unusual in Europe. The older the building, the less likely it is to have air conditioning.

Unfortunately, the apartment is on the top (fourth) floor, and Paris is currently going through a heat wave of close to 90 degrees (F). Luckily, the apartment has really thick stone walls and came with plenty of electric fans!

We all went out for an exploratory walk around the historic Île de la Cité section. Some of the sights included the Sainte-Chappelle, the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), and Notre Dame Cathedral (my first look at flying buttresses!).

South side of Notre Dame Cathedral. Note the flying buttresses! And the statue of John Paul II.

Then we went back to the apartment to meet up with Yvonne’s friends, Tim and Peggy, who are renting the apartment across from ours and will be going on the VBT cycling trip with us. Their friend Bernard, who was married to a French woman, is staying in their spare bedroom for a few days so he can see one of his daughters perform in a music recital at the conservatory she attends.

The five of us went out to dinner at some local restaurant that I was too tired to remember the name of, although I do remember the duck salad with goat cheese, which was delish.