The Adventure Has Begun!

Lots of catching up to be done - my apologies for taking nine days to make another post!  Fellow Moms out there know exactly how that happens ;-).  First off, I need to get this out of my system, YAY!!!!! Wowza this is soooo much fun!  I love Paris.  LOVE LOVE LOVE Paris.  Whew.  Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the fun we've been having.

Let's start at jour 1.

We arrived at our apartment after a sleepless 12 hour flight, and an hour and a half after landing not only was my french rusty but I had a fussy baby to contend with.

Now, off to transact with the lovely Arielle who showed us around the apartment.  The apartment really is darling.  It's small, imagine every hotel room you've stayed in NYC, (exception being The Mandarin Oriental ) but very cute and almost exactly as I had thought it would be - except there is no oven.  Let me repeat: there is no oven!   I tried to explain to this little french woman that to me and Neil this was akin to telling Julia Child, "welcome to your apartment in France - now don't cook for a month!"  She didn't quite understand.  So then I said,  "Imaginez dire un de France's le plus grand chef's ce il can' cuisinier de t - puis ce qui?  Still no response so then I said, "Alain Ducasse???"  Still nothing.  Anyone who knows me will know that by now I was faint.  That's putting it lightly.

...as we speak they are "working" on getting us an oven.  I received an email this morning saying they would drop one off at the apartment tomorrow.   Drop one off?  Have you seen the stairs in this place?  You're going to drop one off?  Umm...

I can assure you, my French is not that good.  It must have been the dreaded "Sharon Caruso eyebrow" that prompted Arielle's réponse très rapide!

        
You remember the suitcases - oh what fun!                                                    

Once we had a shower and nap we hit the street to see what Paris at dusk looked like.  I love this picture of Laura in front of the Vélib’s.  I can't wait to head out (without the baby folks!) on one of these puppies again and motor around The City!                        

Here are a few places we passed by on our way to dinner. 

...and what to my wondering eyes should appear... Dehillerin.  I have ooooh'd and ahhh'd about this place from across the ocean for so long!  This is the go to place for copper pots, fancy knives and madeleine cookie molds.

From there we moved on to the Bourse de Commerce

and just outside of that there was a very cute little Christmas tree market (I am hoping that for my Birthday a white flocked tree appears in my living room ;-) )