Bonjour from beautiful Paris - Day 1

Allison and Christine waiting to board Air France

Lunch at Le Diplomate

We arrived safe and sound Saturday morning, made our way through Immigration and were settled in our apartment by about 9:00 a.m.  We took a two hour nap, then everyone cleaned up and we went out for lunch at a Cafe a block away from our place. 

The food was excellent and we lingered, enjoying the atmosphere and taking in the local culture.  It's so nice to see families dining outside, even the children greet each other with cheek-to-cheek kissing.  Lucky for us, there was a waitress who spoke enough english to help us with the menu.  We heard that the best food is in restaurants that
have an english version at hand, they are not catering to tourists.  This was definitely a neighborhood French cafe.

Arc De Triomphe

After lunch, we strolled over to the Arc De Triomphe.  The weather was beautiful and it's a holiday weekend here in France (Monday is Pentecoste Lundi - a religious-based holiday).  So the crowds were big, the lines were long and we couldn't figure out how to get the wheelchair across the Champs Elysee.  So Christine and I went through the undergound tunnel and walked around the plaza.  We'll try to go back mid-week after we figure out how to get Alli and her wheelchair across the crazy road.

Toyota Hybrid Concept Car

We spent a couple hours walking the Champs Elysee, drooling over the fashion and other interesting sites.  One of the cool sites was the Toyota showroom with a couple of their concept hybrid cars.  We all thought this one was just amazing!

Rose in Park Monceau

After dinner, we went to the Parc Monceau, which is just a short walk from our apartment.  It's fascinating that it doesn't get dark here until around 10 p.m.   I took this picture at 9:30 p.m., just amazing!  It was nice to walk off our excellent dinner, enjoy the park, and be in awe of the number of people who were still in the park when the whistles blew around 9:50, indicating that people should start to leave.  Speaking of the picture above, I have to say I've never seen such beautiful, huge tea roses.  You could smell them the minute you walked into that side of the park, and it was just a beautiful experience.

After leaving the park, we went back to the apartment.  We had made it through our first day here with the intent of seeing a site or two and getting adjusted to the time zone as soon as possible.  I think we can say "mission accomplished."  We all retired for the evening around 11 p.m., happy to be in this fabulous city and ready to enjoy every minute.