Day One - Paris - Fighting the Jet Lag

We flew out of LAX at 5:30 pm, had a few hours of layover in London, and arrived in Paris around 5 pm. We were a little unlucky becuase the train station we had planned to leave Charles de Gaulle from was closed, so we had to hike back through the airport and take a packed bus a few miles away from the airport to another train station. That bus ride was one of my least favorite parts of the trip. I almost toppled over a number of times.

Got on the train, got off the train and onto the Metro, and took the Metro to our stop George V. Up the escalator to civilization and were in the middle of Champs Elysees, the 5th Ave./Michigan Ave./Rodeo Dr. of Paris, only a couple blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. I must admit, we had a hookup in Paris. A friend of a friend owns an apartment and we got an amazing deal in a lovely one bedroom apartment with a kitchen 2 blocks from Champs Elysees and a 15 min. walk to the Eiffel Tower. Couldn't have been better.

View from our apartment

Dumped our stuff off at the aparment and headed out for dinner. We ended up at Chez Clement, which was the only restaurant I had read anything good about on Champs Elysees, an expensive, touristy street, and the food was quite good, and not terribly expensive. After a solid day of airport and airline food, I was craving vegetables. Lucky for me, there was a vegetable platter. The waitress gave me a funny look. You know it's just a plate of vegetables, right? Yes, thank you, with a big smile. And it arrived, exactly how I wanted it, and with a butter tarragon sauce on top. Very good. Hubs had eggs with mushrooms and duck breast that was thin and fried like bacon. We also shared a carafe of wine. I don't know why we don't have food photos. We do for all our other meals.

2 small main courses + wine for 2 =  34 Euros

Forcing ourselves to stay awake, after dinner we walked up to the Eiffel Tower. The sun had set and we took a seat on the lawn to watch the glittery light show on the hour. We were surrounded by young tourists. One group sat in a circle and played Oasis on an acoustic guitar.

The show ended and we trekked back to the apartment at an appropriate bedtime leaving behind a beautiful first evening in Paris.