It happened when I went to New York City, too. I immediately thought of Carrie Bradshaw. I guess she is a character that simply defines part of my generation. And in my mind she is forever attached to New York City (of course) and Paris. She fell in love with a Frenchman and spent several episodes and part of a movie (I think) living in Paris. The fashion, the glamor, it fit her perfectly.

My husband and I are not glamorous. Nor are we fashionable. The husband wore his new Detroit Lions sweatshirt the whole day, representing the big D. Not exactly Armani, but hey.

We handled the beginning of our vacation quite well, I think. Our luggage took an hour to be delivered at the baggage claim. It took us over an hour to figure our way from the airport, through the RER, switch to the Metro, and arrive at our hotel. We were way too early for check-in, but the nice Marriott people let us have breakfast and use the health club to shower and freshen up. By that time our room was nearly ready, so we waited, took our bags up, and were instantly sucked into the bed for half an hour.

We spent the day walking all over Paris. Our tour was led virtually by my good friend and Paris expert Bethany (thank you so much!).

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The city was beautiful, despite being somewhat overcast and chilly out. Around 4pm we decided to have a meal. Our bodies didn’t know what meal to call it, but the maitre d called it lunch, so we’ll go with that. We ended up at a place with a view of Notre Dame. I started with a fresh salad with tomato and avocado. The husband ordered snails because he had never had them before. Watching him work on them with the fancy tool he was given was pretty hilarious. There is in iPhone video, but I won’t post it out of generosity.

We went as traditionally French as we could based on our limited knowledge of French cuisine. The husband had beef bourginougn and I had pasta with a light tomato sauce and herbs d provencal. Delicious! Dessert was creme brulee for him and a crepe for me. I did notice that no French menu ever toted the health benefits of a dish. No “heart healthy” or “Weight Watchers” symbols cluttered our menus.

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(Please forgive me any odd formatting. I'm learning how to post from the iPad, which is a little more cumbersome than a laptop, but much easier to travel with! I'm also working with limited internet access. The joys!)