Finally, Paris.

Je suis arrivé! Our flight landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport just before 7am Paris time on Tuesday – and after a long night of little sleep sitting next to a woman wearing WAY too much perfume, I had finally arrived in the city of lights… and the airport was fairly painless. A short trip on the RER took us to the Metro where we stopped at our final destination: stop Pernety on line 13. A quaint part of town is where I call home – off the beaten path, some might say. Still, there are cafés on every corner and a woman carrying a fresh baguette seems to be always within sight! Bakeries, butcher shops, ‘fromageries’ – they’re all here. I’m not in Boulder anymore, Toto.
We were shown to le Foyer Didot – my new home – and after dropping off over a hundred pounds of luggage, we (myself, my friend Kaitlin, and Sean, another GU student) spent the afternoon fighting off jet lag and wandering the streets of the 14th arrondisement.
Waking up today was a bit of a reality-check: I really am going to be living HERE – in this matchbox sized bedroom – for the next ten months. My walls are still bare. I’m sleeping in my sleeping bag to save myself from the questionable sheets that were provided for me. My bathroom seriously resembles a one-man-linoleum-bombshell. But, this is home, so I had better make it comfortable – or at the very least, cozy! I ran some errands today to help the place a bit… Photos coming soon ☺.
I spent about an hour in a park this morning where I found a free WiFi connection – the internet doesn't work in my building, so I’m getting creative. But I’m toying with the idea of purchasing a router so I can use the internet as I please. Would be nice… But the park is beautiful, lively, lush, and right across the street from where I live – c’est très pratique, non?
After a very informative meeting with Marie Claire, the whole group met for lunch at café two blocks away from Foyer Didot. Lunch was fantastic – complete with a starter of Kir flavored with framboise, appetizer of pesto-tomato-mozzarella salad, and a fillet of salmon atop spinach and potatoes, and of course, finished with une Café – the most delicious espresso shot I have tasted in recent memory. After a great meal, Renalt – a young French guy hired by Gonzaga to show us around our neighborhoods – gave us a tour of the 14th arrondisement, providing us with all kinds of helpful hints (where is the pharmacy? Grocery store? Post office? Metro Stops? Cold Beer? Cheap beer? Better beer? Etc…)
This evening we took our first solo voyage on the metro up to the sixth arrondisement to visit the ladies living in the other Foyer – a beautiful location right on the river. Walked for a while, ate dinner at a creperie, and wandered over to the Notre Dame where we happened upon a professional model and photographer doing a photoshoot – a good source of entertainment.
This city is a beautiful, beautiful place. I can already see myself falling in love with it. And the language? Ah, oui… I have been pleasantly surprised in the past 48 hours to find that I am understanding quite a bit. Not everything, but definitely enough. And it will only get easier, or so I hear.
That’s all for now, it’s late and while my internal clock has NO idea what time it is, my body wants to go to bed ☺.
Love to you all,
--dani