We are back on the grid with our wireless so here is our first entry.
The trip over was great. The easiest I can remember.
AF is the best. Sarah slept almost the number of hours she does at home, but Emily slept none.
The apartment is just as we remembered it and it felt as if we were coming home.

The walked around Rue Mufftard, had crepes (Deb and Sarah) and joined Marc and Em at a greek restaurant where they were having hummus and chicken kabob. The girls wanted some lemonade, so Marc beckoned the waiter and said "lemonada" he looked a bit confused and brought over two cut lemons on a plate. So then we just decided on Orangina instead.
We then found our "flower ice cream" place where the wait is about 30 minutes at any time of day and each cone looks like a flower! Emily had cafe and tart tatin and Sarah had Mango and chocolate. Deb and Marc nibbled both.

While sitting at the Greek restaurant eating, we felt some water dripping....was it raining? The sky was clear and no one had umbrellas out. Then we looked up....that's when we spied the flower boxes overhead. Someone was doing the watering (must have been a femme de menage, not a wife we guess!

Dinner was eggs, breads and cheese later back at the apartment. We managed to stay up until about midnight and woke the next morning at 8am...not bad.

We are reminded that this a very lively area and that the normal waking hours seem to be from about 10am-1am (our hours actually, so I guess that's OK).

Beautiful day today. Few clouds but no rain until now (9pm). Marc ventured out for crossiants and yogurts and fruit. I am feeling grateful for my pre ground Peets coffee.....

Today was Emily's choice, so of course we needed to SHOP. We visited some boutiques in the Marais, and saw the Place des Voges, but then had to get serious, so after a lunch (salads, salmon fumee etc) we headed to Galleries Lafayette. What a zoo. But lucky for all of us (?) they have a "teen section" (conveniently located next to the book section) and Emily bought some fun things (sandals, sunglasses and a pencil case for school). The $ is painfully low and the prices in EUROS just make everything look bad when it really is.

We then took a bus to the Champs Elysee and walked up looking in more expensive stores (I took Emily into Louis Vitton for a reality check). The Arch de Triophe was big and crowded. We couldn't find the Etoile metro stop for some reason, so hopped on a bus going somewhere. When we looked at the map and were trying to figure out how to get back to the 5th two young women tried to help us but gave us and told us to take the metro. We were all overheard by an older (very proper) french woman who spoke NO english, but helped us find a connecting bus (actually took us off the bus and led us to a connecting bus that took us to the Pantheon, near our apartment). Very nice.

Back to the apartment to crash and read the NYT on Deb's blackberry.
Dinner tonight? We are still trying to decide. Stay tuned.