Thursday, January 4, 2007

Days 1 and 2: Flying to Paris

We flew direct to Paris on Air Tahiti Nui. The eleven hour flight felt like forever. We flew during the day and arrived in Paris at 8:30am local time. Once we arrived at Charles de Gaulle, we met up with the brothers Octopus and rode the RER train into the center of town (Chatelet - Les Halles stop). Our hotel was a short walk from there.

Our home for the next six nights was the Hotel Saint Merry. The former presbytery of the St. Merri Church next door, turned brothel, turned gay-friendly hotel, the hotel was small (a dozen rooms), loaded with charm and atmosphere and overall totally awesome. We stayed in room #9, which had-- get this-- a flying buttress over the bed. The medieval, dracula decor was a little creepy at times (especially when my jetlag kept me up late into the night), but I'm happy to say there were no ghosts or other unexplainable phenomena.


Room #9
The hotel had the best location imaginable-- in Le Marais, near tons of great shops, bars and restaurants, and a couple minutes walk from the Seine, Notre Dame cathedral, Louvre and Pompidou Centre.

Determined not to let jet lag get the better of us, we visited Notre Dame in the afternoon. There was a line outside, but it moved quickly. There was also a Christmas Tree (it was the day after Christmas). A small, sparse tree, modestly decorated. More like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree than Rockefeller Center's. (I'm told they use a different type of tree in France).

3 comments:

Creative-Type Dad said...

Jinky's, That bed would have creeped me out

junebee said...

Air Tahiti to France? Did you need to stop at Tahiti?

chanchow said...

Wish I had stopped in Tahiti!!!

Air Tahiti flies direct from Papeete to LA (then the plane refuels and continues to Paris). Tahiti is only 8 hours from LA, while Paris is 11 hours.... hmm....