Voila!

We are now in Paris, trying desperately to recover from jet lag. The trip itself went too smoothly to be true. My only complaint was that Iceland Air makes you pay ungodly amounts of money for food on their flights, so we more or less starved the whole way. Also, after viewing all the lovely advertisements on our airplane TVs about the breathtaking landscapes in Iceland, we were looking forward to seeing some of them as we landed. Alas, it was raining and foggy and all we could see was about a half mile of flat, greenish nothingness just before we landed. Maybe next time.

We've been here a whopping 24 hours now and so far I have not experienced any of the supposed rudeness that Parisians are famous for. Maybe it's just our neighborhood and the fact that there aren't any tourists around to annoy people. Pretty much every person we have encountered has been either extremely gracious considering our lack of French skills, or just indifferent. No one stares (for once!) - they just go on about their business.

Our neighborhood is absolutely beautiful. We live in the 9th District near the Notre Dame de Lorette church, whose bells we can occasionally hear. Nearby is a street called Martyrs which offers a very traditional shopping experience. There are several produce stalls, bakeries, cheese shops, butchers, wine stores, and even a shop dedicated exclusively to caviar.  How French! Of course, there are also a couple of supermarkets for practical items like mayonaise and toilet paper.

Last night after a too-long afternoon nap that eventually destroyed our ability to sleep in the night, we wandered out in search of food. We stopped into a fromagerie (cheese shop), with an array of fine, mostly unpasteurized cheese sitting around unrefrigerated. It smelled delicious! Because the cheese is so susceptible to bacterial growth, the man working in the store had to instruct a shopper not to touch it. They also had cured meats that I had only seen in Spain before, such as jamón serrano. We opted for a large hunk of compte and an air-dried salted beef from Italy called Bresaola. At first we asked for a half kilo of it and the lady helping us gasped, instructing the English-speaking man working there to inform us that the price per kilo was €52 (about $66). Instead, we just had her give us about a dozen slices. Just the meat and cheese alone cost the equivalent of $15. That shop will have to go on our "Special Occasions Only" list.

Here's our first meal. It was divine.

And now for the grand tour!

That's all for today. We plan on venturing out to explore more of the city tomorrow. I'll update again soon!