First Night in Paris

We got back on the train after a long day at Epernay and we caught another nap on our way back to Paris.
We had no reservations as the places I had requested rooms from were unavailable. Luck smiled upon us at the first hotel we saw: Terminus Paris Est. Not only did they have a room, which is hard to come by on a summer weekend in Paris, but the room was air conditioned and only cost 110 Euros. We found out later that the listed price was 160 Euros. Don't know why they gave us a discount. Maybe we looked so tired from our day in Epernay that they took pity on us.

After a shower and some max level air conditioning, we were right back up and out to the paris metro to try to get a last minute ticket to the Moulin Rouge. The paris Metro is warmer than the New York subway and just as cramped. It was however not hard to figure out how to get from point A to point B and we were across town in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately there were no shows available that night at the Moulin Rouge, so we decided to walk home and look for some dinner on the way.


We came upon a nice Paris cafe, La Marmite, at a busy corner right outside of the red light district, which seemed to We took a leisurely 2 hour dinner, watching the sun set on a busy street corner. I can't see how anyone can stand driving in Paris. It's like New York with smaller even more twisted streets. People parked haphazardly at corners blocking traffic while huge tour busses attempt U-turns in miniscule intersections. It's chaotic and lively and lends to the incredible energy of the city.

Here I am sitting in a cafe in Paris
rewriting the first line of my first novel
for the thousandth time just like Camus
tragic author in The Plague

Everything at the cafe came with homemade potato chips. It must have been the least healthy / most delicious goat cheese salad I've ever had. Lexi had the barbecued chicken, which was dwarfed by the pile of homemade chips. The food was very good for coming from a random cafe if not a little bit heavy. The best part of dinner were the beignets for dessert. Beignets are the work of the devil. It's pure evil to take a sundae, an already tempting dessert, and throw in a pastry that's all crunchy crust. It plays to all my culinary weaknesses: crusty, chocolaty, and icecreamy.

We walked the rest of the way back to the hotel. On our way we came across a huge crowd of teenagers. We tried to see what they were lined up for, but apparently the corner's just a popular hangout. Our walk also convinced us that most of Paris was under construction. There were major parts of most every intersection torn up. There were a lot more people out late than in Switzerland. Nearly every fashion trend was represented from west coast hip hop casual to double retro 70's pantaloons (I'm not kidding about the pantaloons).

We got back to our hotel and split a bottle of French white wine. It must have been mostly chardonnay and maybe a little bit sauvignon blanc and for the price it was very good. It had been 17 hours since we woke up on the train in Paris. We were completely satiated and exhausted. In one day we managed to get to France, go wine tasting in Epernay, learn the metro and watch the sun set over dinner at a cafe. All in all a great day.