| Sunday, June 16, 2013 -- Paris, France -- Day 1 |

Our flight from Frankfurt got us in to Paris a little before 6 PM without incident. We picked up our one checked bag, unsuccessfully tried to get a SIM chip for one of our phones, and then too tired and hungry to figure out the Metro system, hailed a taxi.

The 70 Euro taxi ride to the Hotel Beaugency in Paris' seventh district near the Eiffel tower was pricey but apparently quite relaxing, as the three of us napped most of the way.

Our room in the Hotel Beauggency is more of a top floor loft, five flights up (where the second floor above ground is floor 1). Even though we were traveling light with just four bicycle panniers (two about the size of grocery bags and two smaller), Val's micro backpack, and my handlebar bag, the elevator only had room for one person with our gear in it. Dylan later commented that the smallest shower we saw in our travels was larger than that elevator. In any event, I took to using the staris, which spiraled around the elevator shaft.

As I passed between floors 4 and 5, the temperature rose about 10 degrees, which made for a warm room on the 5th floor with no AC. We have one large window which opens up to Rue Champs de Mars looking southeast toward the Eiffel Tower (see blog photo). The neighborhood has an active outdoor cafe and bar night life, the result of which is a fair level of ambient din into the wee hours.

We had dinner at a sidewalk cafe near the hotel. In the months prior to this trip, I had been dusting off French language skills that I had tucked away in my brain somewhere during classes in junior high and high school, and was ready to order like a local. However, we must have looked American because they brought us menus in English. It is harder to order in French when the menu items have already been translated.

But this is Paris, so we sort of expected general intolerance among the Parisians when trying to speak the language. Nonetheless, the service was the worst of the trip. The waiter spilled my beer on Val delivering our food (she was a good sport about it), but didn't bring me a replacement until I finally flagged him down and asked about 20 minutes later.