Eurojournal - 11 August 2006

Our taxi arrived promptly and took us to the train station. I had to really work on my French. I was tired and not fast enough but I got the tickets. The train ride was smooth and easy. The countryside looked so much lie home. I was surprised that the farmers used combines rather than bailing hay with pitchforks manually. I thought to myself, “why do they need all of this expensive machines when the farmers in Transylvania are doing just fine?” Oh yeah, that’s what it is like in other parts of the world. We played cards and I tried to journal.

We arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord. We were welcomed by soldiers with machine guns. How nice. Liam asked why they had the guns and I said they were afraid. Oh okay. Welcome to Western Europe. I was happy to be in France nonetheless. We made it on the metro which was interesting. At the time we were pretty stressed out. Which station? Which direction? And what about all of this heavy luggage we have? We get off the train at our destination and go up the escalator. We were greeted by a cool, slightly wet Paris café at the top. Ah! Bienvenu a Paris! Here we are. The kids smiled big. We walked to the pat and met with the owner. She was really nice. She showed us around the area giving us tips on where to shop and eat. She bought us all croissants. We savored them. We have a boulangerie on our street with all organic breads. I went by twice again to buy some bread for us. Our place is situated in a really family centered area. Lots of children, shops and boulangeries on a quiet street. There are parks nearby. The metro is a block away. The apt itself is a bit small but workable. It has one bedroom and a small kitchen. It feels roomy though. We have a washer which is exciting after spending a month washing our clothes and ringing them out by hand in the bathtub.

We went to the natural foods store nearby. I forgot the address and only wrote down the metro stop so I had to ask for directions. It was so nice being in a store like home. But also a sad reminder of how expensive food really is. We paid more for that small bag of staples than in several weeks of groceries in the village. Ouch! I need to find a farmer’s market or somewhere cheap. It was nice to have some vegan yogurt, sorbet, tempeh and tofu. We walked home and prepared some lunch. After lunch we took a trip to the Eiffel tower. We can see the top outside our windows in the apartment. The kids were pretty thrilled about that. They really wanted to go up but it was really crowded so I promised we would do it another day and maybe picnic there tomorrow.

We went to bed. I saw the tour Eiffel light up. It felt like Christmas. I am in Paris!