Time Flies like an arrow. Freedom Fries like a banana

Our first hotel for our trip is a full apartment suite in the Latin Quarter. We knew it had a full kitchen, bedroom, Bath, etc. But when we saw it we were shocked. This place is actually pretty big! Most non-American hotels are basically leftover storage units from a midget’s circus, but this is really reasonable. It is totally European, so the bath is so small to be an afterthought, but the typical euro kitchen actually has a clothes washer instead of a dishwasher. after our wine incident this is quite welcome.

Paris is great. It would be a lot better if there were fewer Americans here. When we stay away from the big tourist traps it is phenomenal. But today we went to climb Notre Dame, and had to wait in line for over an hour with the other tourists. The upside of this is that I now have intimate knowledge of the new Star Wars MMORPG, and I realize the wookies are really cool, and dark and light Jedi can make excellent teams, despite their supposed differences. This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear about while on Vacation. Like I don’t get enough of this at Microsoft.

The food is spectacular. You always hear this crap about French Food being small portions of little delicacies rarer than Uranium, “More poached Egret eyebrow, Monsieur?” but what we find here are big, farm style meals, that while not cheap, are more than too much. and everything is fresh. The bread is outstanding. Coffee is perfect. There are also Starbucks here to rip off the tourists, but we avoid that. You also hear crap about the French being rude. Which if you at least try to speak their language, and say Please and Thank You, really isn’t the case that I have found. Not wearing a “W” sticker seems to help. Can’t imagine why.

We are walking everywhere. You literally cannot walk a block without finding some massively amazing thing of interesting historical significance (Hemingway’s Apartment, Pasteur’s lab, Foucalt’s Pendulum, truly excellent graffiti – see attached) or someone selling really good crepes. I favor the crepes myself. And the Cheap wine. And the drinking in public. Did I mention the Graffiti?