One long day

And we are off! It was an early arrival at the El Paso international airport for our flight to Salt Lake City...where we waited, and waited, and waited for 7 1/2 hours for our connecting flight to Paris. Our flight was about ten hours long and we arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle at 11:00 am, almost twelve hours later, we are all in our rooms and ready for bed. Our departure from the airport finally came at 2:45 pm. We were met by two EF transfer representatives, Aurore and Bastien. We were informed that we would wait at the airport for the group from Missouri. Some of us changed, ate and did some serious people watching during that time. Once on the bus, our travel time to the hotel was about 45 minutes. There was quite a bit of chatter and an equal amount of snoozing. The weather today was extreme...on the warm side and sunny one minute, pouring down rain and wind the next. We thought we had left that behind in El Paso, but no such luck. Once we dropped our bags at the hotel, we took the metro in to the center of Paris We strolled a bit on the Ile St. Louis and then to dinner at a cute family run restaurant, Le Bossu, The Hunchback. Dinner was roasted pork, a baked potato and Greek style,yogurt with raspberry purėe for dessert. It was pretty fabulous. From the restaurant we went to Notre Dame on the Ile de la Citė, the island where Paris began. We arrived just as Sunday evening mass was beginning. There were hundreds of people attending this evening. By now the bells were ringing, the wind was blowing and the rain was pouring. Naturally some of us decided to go get ice cream from Le Berthillon. It's is said that the recipe for this ice cream dates back to Louis XIV and it was his personal chef who created it. No matter, it is always delicious. 😍 A squashed metro ride took us to the Tour de la Montparnasse, the tallest structure in Paris and the only skyscraper within the city limits. Once it was built, citizens were scared that the Paris skyline would be forever changed by skyscrapers and there was a ban on new development for these buildings. The view from the 56th floor and 59th story observation deck was birth freezing and amazing. We arrived just in time to watch the hourly twinkle light display on the Eiffel Tower. Gorgeous! Our first two days, which really feel,like one long day, have come to an end. We were more than happy to get to our rooms, shower and go to sleep, as tomorrow is a very early day. From the time we departed the plane until now, we have managed to walk 16,925 steps. Our investment is already laying off with all of the things that we have seen and done in this first day alone.