In Paris!

Ugghhh...we had a long day yesterday. I tried to do this last night, but we couldn't get the internet to work in our room (due to the fact that they gave us the wrong password and the staff at our hotel were less than helpful).



We drove through the Champagne region, which was gorgeous. We started our day with the drive from Reims to Epernay. When we got to Epernay, our first order was breakfast. We ended up at a little Patisserie and Boulangerie for some of the most amazing baked goods I've ever had. I can't remember what mine was called, but it was a croissant with cheese and ham....mmmmm!!!! I think I'll have one of those everyday for the rest of this trip, thank you!



We strolled around the town a bit after that, compiling a picnic lunch to take with us. We had an interesting conversation at the fromagerie (cheese store). The woman didn't speak a lick of English and I, unfortunately, don't know any French words that are helpful when picking out cheese. There was a huge selection, most of the varieties I'd never seen or heard of before. So, we went blindly, pointed and said "s'il vous plait" and managed to get out of there with what we needed. We ended up driving down the Champagne route, stopping along the way for our picnic. Again, I could do that every day for the rest of the trip -- cheese, fresh bread, some fruit and, best of all, CHOCOLATE!

We took a tour of a winery, De Castellane, in Epernay. It was pretty interesting -- what I could understand of it, anyway. The tour was in English, but the guide had such a thick accent that I had problems understanding if he spoke too fast or if there was too much noise. The caves that they store the wine in were absolutely fascinating (and covered in mold, by the way).

After leaving De Castellane, we headed towards Paris. We have my aunt & uncle's GPS (lovingly nicknamed "Le Garcon" for the trip -- our GPS at home is nicknamed "Bossy"). Le Garcon said we would get to our hotel by 7:30, so we were planning on checking in and eating a late dinner. Um, yeah, that didn't happen. Let me say this now -- DO NOT DRIVE IN PARIS!!!! I can't say this enough -- don't even consider it!!!! The GPS was great, until we went into a tunnel -- a really long tunnel -- and came out on the other side with a dis-oriented Le Garcon. We then missed our turn while Le Garcon was figuring out where we were again. Then we ended up in a tunnel for something like 5 miles (and got stuck with a lovely toll of 7.70 euros -- about $10.40 right now), which took back under everything we had just driven through and ended up back where we started. Then we got to the block where the hotel was and COULD NOT FIND IT. Seriously, we were just 50 yards from it and still couldn't find it. CRAZY!!! It was 10:00 before we got checked in and by then everything was closed around us, except one greasy little diner that was more American than French. Eh. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Our hotel here in Paris is really nice and is close to the metro, so that is good. As of bedtime last night, however, that was all I could say nice about Paris.