with ♥ from paris

yes with love from paris, but whose love? certainly not the french's. we are greeted by the stuffy, stinky, outdated, falling apart, urine smelling airport that is charles du gaulle. really........ is this the major airport of paris? i guess so.

we wait patiently for what seems like an eternity to retrieve our bags from the again stopping, starting, stopping, starting carousel. after 30 minutes of successful luggage battle, our real battle begins with the parisian public transport system. yes you guessed it, there are no signs of anything english, so we find ourselves running around like chickens with their heads cut off. first we take the train from the airport (outskirts) of paris to the gare du nord. i am in shock. the view form the train window looks like a 3rd world country. extremely hideous buildings with graffiti every square inch as far as the eye can see. after arriving to gare du nord, this time the struggle with metro begins. we finally manage to get to our stop. (tip: metro in paris is really outdated and old so when it stops, you have to manually flip the handle to kindly let yourself out)

i crawl out of the metro hole and voila! i am in paris. i look around and feel the instant connection. this is love at first sight. i am blown away with paris already without seeing anything. the grandeur, the aestheticism and the elegant presence of the buildings that surround me are just enough reasons to come visit paris, i realize with joy. and these are just apartment buildings people reside in. they remind me of my collage bogazici university in istanbul. lots of ornaments, details, ironwork in each and every building on the streets. one can't stop but wonder how they had the patience to construct all these unique and detailed beauties. they never went and said "ohhhh enough is enough, lets just build this one plain and simple. put some cement and erect some floors on it, we don't have time to deal with this anymore???"

our hotel is on a quiet street with a lovely receptionist woman who is very friendly and speaks 3 languages. french, english and portuguese. unfortunately the room is not ready yet so she advises us to walk around and visit the bazaar nearby where they sell fresh fruits, cheese, flowers, jewelry etc. we happen to come across a mini bakery, where i get brushetta champignon. first bite: spongy and greasy and second bite: big thick black piece of human hair staring at me sarcastically as if foreshadowing all the food nightmares to come in this so called fine food capital of the world. i throw the whole thing into dumpster. ok, let's keep moving. now i have to quench my thirst, then maybe i will erase the memory of this hairy situation. there it is. bottles of water in a fridge. i go inside and get one and proceed to pay however the woman comes at us yelling, "no outside service." what??? and she says "it's 2.5 euro." whatt??? for a tiny bottle of water???? here we go. our first rip-off. at that moment, i visualize myself slamming the bottle on her face multiple times and find myself grinning at the idea. ohhhh

after getting some much needed sleep (2 hours), we throw ourselves into the arms of paris.. well more like into the arms of public buss #63. sitting at the very back, soaking all the scenery, watching the landmarks (eiffel tower, louvre, muse d'orsay) through the rainy bus window, we decide to get off at the heaviest rainfall around the eiffel tower and hop into the first cafe we see. we are seated among the many americans that inhabit the cafe. some cheery, happy, young american girls to our right and slightly subdued young american girls to our left, we almost feel at home. boy are we wrong.

15 euro for 3 courses; hard boiled eggs with mayo, grilled steak with fries and cream caramel. that's what we order. seems to good to be true. right? and it IS. first, it takes the server 15 minutes to bring hard boiled cold eggs to our table. ok that's devoured hence we are starving. then the steak proudly announces its presence after 20 minutes following the cold eggs. fries look real good, yes they are yummy after all they are called french fries. how can they screw them? (they are called french fries but of originality belongs to belgians. just a friendly reminder.) let's move to the grilled steak. one bite and i am in hell. imagine your cheap ass, made in china leather shoe (yes, we all have them). cut the tip of that shoe, put it in your mouth and then start chewing. now roll it from the left side of your canine to the right side and keep repeating until further notice. realize that there is no swallowing that can possibly be done and just roll it out of your mouth and spit it on the side of your plate. faux pas? hmmm some might say so. wait for half an hour for the garson to notice that you barely touched your food and finally have the courage and say "garson bakar misin kardes? take this thing away please and bless me with your cream caramel." garson takes the plate away. good.. that's what i call progress. wait for another 20 minutes for the cream caramel to show up, by the time you taste it, you are physically and emotionally done. wait for another 15 minutes to pay your bill and get the hell out of there as soon as you can. mourn for the 2 hours of your wasted time in paris that you will never get back and get on with your life with an empty stomach.

this is the name and the address of this almost sit-com like place that you should avoid at all times if you happen to be in paris and in that area. you are welcome!


here it is the eiffel tower. big and humongous, it hits you like a ton of.... well steel. it's chilly, cloudy and damp. get some pictures and decide to walk back to our hotel instead of taking the bus. ohh wooww what is that? the sun is coming out with all its glory, ripping the clouds apart and replacing it with blue clear parisian spring like sky. we walk, walk, walk. it's 2 miles to our hotel from the eiffel tower. we pass by all these lovely neighborhoods. one theme that repeats itself at every 5 feet is the abundance of cafes. people sitting outside drinking coffee, wine and enjoying life. so many cafes, all of them so cute, so different and so busy with people. don't these people have to be at work? it's so lively, so happy, so much hustle and bustle. it feels like a big great city and it's a big great city and i feel at home. this is what a city should feel like.

we sit outside in one of the corner cafes, i order a glass of rose wine. omg i am in heaven. i have been released of the steak devil of hell and blessed with the angel of rose de Provence. this is good living at its best. after people watching and enjoying the warmth of the sun on our skin, we continue to walk. walk in those narrow streets filled with many little shops, boutiques, bakeries, art galleries, all with incredibly creative and cute displays. the sun sets around 8:20 pm in paris this time of year. my favorite time of the day: dusk. we walk and walk until the city is lit and finally we close the day.

this is only the first day people. 2 more days in paris to come.