First of all, Happy 4th of July!  You’d never know it was the 4th around here…but hope everyone is having fun back home.

I am not sure why I am writing this blog tonight…we haven’t slept since Wednesday night!  Unfortunately, there was an infant sitting beside us on the plane, and he/she was not a happy traveler.  None of us were able to sleep on the plane…so our first day has been exhausting to say the least.  However, overall the trip has been great… the flight left NYC on time, was very smooth and we arrived in Paris with no problems,

When we arrived in Paris, we had arranged to be picked up at the airport by a chauffeur who drove us straight to our apartment,  and then as we pulled up,  the apt. manager Janet was standing there waiting to show us around.  We were pleasantly surprised at how much we loved the apartment.  It exceeded our expectations.   It’s very open & bright, with big french style windows and high ceilings and old wood beams in the ceiling…and the little street where it’s located is as picture perfect, as we had hoped.

Looking down from our aparmtent onto the Cour Damoye

After lunch, Lena wanted to nap, but if you really want to break jet lag, you have stick to the schedule of wherever you are.  We didn’t want to be completely cruel parents, so we let her doze off for nearly and hour, but afterwards it was back to hitting hitting the pavement.

So…..onto Paris itself!

Let me just say that after only one day…Paris is THE most beautiful city that I’ve ever been to!  Even after seeing countless photos in books and in magazines…in movies and on TV…you can’t really describe how gorgeous it is.  As New Yorkers, we are able to look past the crowds, the traffic and the noise, and just see how beautiful everything is.  And we’ve only seen a teeny tiny little fraction of the City so far!

So, given our jet lag, today was really about exploring our neighborhood.  So we set out…but at every corner, Paris dangles a treat in front of you (literally and visually) and you continue on and on.  For us, we were tempted by the Seine River, and decided to go for a walk along the river side.  But we kept saying “oh, look at that!” and “let’s just see what’s over here”, and we ended up walking all the way up to Notre Dame…which sort of appeared out of nowhere.  That’s the thing about Paris.  There are old, narrow little streets, and at every corner there is some beautiful surprise.  And your nose is as tempted as your eyes!  You know there is a boulangerie (bakery) around before you even see it because the smell of breads and pastries baking wafts down the streets.

Along the way, we had made our way to the Île Saint-Louis, and we literally walked up on one of the places we had planned to visit…the Maison Berthillon, a very famous ice cream parlor.   It was super delicious and refreshing…and served in a perfect sized portion.  I had peach, Josette had coffee and Lena had dark chocolate (which was the richest ice cream I’ve ever tasted).

After we journeyed back to the apartment, we were literally dead tired.  Our bodies were shutting down…so we decided to make a quick dinner at home and hit the hay.  Lena was in bed by 7:30PM and Josette soon after.  As soon as I finish this post, I will be right behind them.