To quote one of my favorite movies, "I should have taken that cardio more serious." I have never seen or taken as many stairs as there are here in Paris. I honestly didn't even think about it. With luggage in hand we went to the Metro. If you are planning a trip or thinking about taking the metro with luggage, don't. Pay the extra little bit and just get a taxi or a shuttle to the hotel. We had three pieces of luggage, a computer bag, a camera bag, and my purse. The luggage that we had weighted in at around 33 pounds each and the carry on was close to 10 pounds. When you do not lift or workout like myself, it was a challenge. My husband was able to lift and run with them no problem, but by the fourth set of stairs I just wanted to throw the luggage down the stairs and pay someone to carry it back up. After all of the stairs I have found that wheels really do matter, so buy the good luggage with four wheels and not just two. It will make your life easier and not to mention your hands and arms will be thankful.
These were just some of the stairs.
Once we climbed all of the stairs we found ourselves on the wrong side of the hotel and had to drag the luggage a good mile to where we needed to go. Go ahead and laugh, we did. When we finally arrived at the hotel the room wasn't ready since we were three hours early. We just checked our luggage and went to find food.
I am a foodie. I am a picky eater at home, but on vacation I feel you must try different things than what you normally eat. If you don't try things then why do you go on vacations to different places? The one thing that everyone told me about going to Paris or France in general were that the service people are rude. My French is limited, but I can get around and can read, but still was worried about the language gap when ordering food. Food is my life. I love to eat and wanted my first ordering experience to be a good one. We picked this little Café near the hotel and this way we could spend a few hours and relax before the room was ready.
Ernest is a very cozy restaurant with like any café seating outside and inside. A tip is that if you see no glasses or cups you can seat yourself, however if you see these things, wait to be seated. Normally outside seating will not have glasses, silver wear, or napkins, but they will bring it to you when you sit down. The tables are very close together so make sure that you keep an eye on your bag. People will be sitting right next to you and may or may not be smoking. When you see your waiter for the first time say Bonjour (good morning/good afternoon) or Bonsoir (good evening) depending on the time of day. Ordering itself was easy, we said our hello's in French, ordered in French, but asked questions in English. The lady that served us was very nice and her English was well spoken, unlike our French. The man sitting beside me noticed that there was a bee that was landing on my food and he wanted to have a conversation. I knew enough French to say excuse me and he repeated that the bee liked me and wanted to just there. He was not rude, despite what others had said. The lady came back once we had finished our meal and asked if we would like café or a dessert. Now is the time that you can either say "Non merci. L'addition s'il-vous-plait." This simply says no thank you, just the bill. If you do not ask for the bill you will be sitting for a long time, because they will think you are not done. We decided that we would get some coffee or café since we were starting to fade. While their coffee here was very strong it was very good and made the United States' coffee seem like water. Add a packet of sugar and it will take the edge off and don't forget to dip your cookie into it!
With our batteries recharged we started back to the hotel. I will tell you this about the hotel now, AMAZING! There will be an extensive review of this hotel next week.
Tips for the day: *When you come to Paris or to France in general make sure you are aware of the stairs.
*Buy a book of 10 train passes. This will save you time and money.
*Wear good shoe.
*If you fly in that morning, make sure that when you get to your room to take a nap and a shower!
*Try to speak to the language.
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