Paris Day 1: The Arrival
The flight to Paris was scheduled to leave at 07:00 in the morning. We had already boarded the plane, but there was a technical problem with the aircraft that needed to be fixed. The repair eventually took 1.5h, although a couple of times the problem was supposed to be fixed and the plane was already taxying away until the captain realised that everything was not ok. We were already wondering if we were going to make it to the destination at all. In the end, however, the plane took off and the flight itself went smoothly and without any incidents. We slept, listened to music and admired the scenery from the window.
At the airport in Paris, it took us a while to find the train station, as the route was rather badly marked. We originally planned to take the bus, but we couldn’t figure out the timetable and the right bus, so we ended up taking the train. Buying tickets was fairly easy and the staff were very helpful. The journey itself took a long time, as we had to travel first to the centre of Paris and then by metro to the Latvian Embassy. My friend’s half-sister works there and promised us we could leave our suitcases there for safe keeping.
Once our bags were safe, we began to look for a suitable place to eat. The embassy was close to the Arc de Triomphe, so we got to see it as we wandered around looking for a nice lunch place. Finally we found a fast food place called “Original French Taco”. The food was good, but the only thing resembling a taco was the name. Basically, it was a burrito with protein filling, lettuce and French fries and your choice of sauce. Very filling, but pretty dry. The flavour certainly didn’t resemble Mexican food at all.
After eating, we decided to explore more of central Paris. The curfew was 5pm, when the embassy closed and we had to be there to pick up our suitcases. We set off from the Arc de Triomphe to walk along the Champs Elysees, looking with interest at the fine shops and other sights. Eventually we ended up in the side streets hunting for a grocery store for some “special” energy drinks. We visited several shops and eventually found energy drinks we had never tried before. After sipping them, we continued our journey and finally ended up in the Place de la Concorde. There was a great obelisk and lots of tourists, we took some pictures ourselves and embraced the atmosphere of the place. We continued along the river slowly back towards the Arc de Triomphe. The walk was nice, the weather was fine and the centre was full of things to admire. We also saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance, which finally made us believe that we really were in Paris.
We were a bit too slow, as we ended up being rushed to the embassy and almost had to run. However, we made it in time and got our bags with us. My friend’s half-sister had kindly agreed to put us up for the journey, so we set off with her towards the nearby town where she lived. We took the metro and train again, and after a moderate amount of sitting around, we arrived at our destination. On the way from the station to the apartment, we picked up some frozen meals from a shop so we could have a proper dinner. Apparently the French love frozen meals because of their convenience, which is why a chain of shops specialises in them and they are of very good quality. We also bought a few beers and some other snacks for the days ahead, as we knew we would be walking a lot and on the road for a long time. After that we continued to the apartment.
The apartment was cosy and in a very nice looking old house. Me and my fiancée got a place to sleep on the sofa in the living room and our friend got to sleep in the children’s room. We were already pretty tired, so we sat down gratefully. I heated up our meals, we cracked open our beers and chatted with our host, catching up and recounting the day’s adventures. We also noticed that one of the kids had Pokémon cards all over the place, which fanned my already budding spark of collecting into flames. The evening passed quickly and we soon went to bed.
