#2 Paris - Bonjour!

Today was our second full day in Paris.  I had some anxiety coming to France.  Most people I talked to said that people would be rude here and I felt some hesitation to talk to anyone,  but so far it hasn't been bad.  Sometimes they don't smile or they respond in short quips but some do smile and even make small talk. When we first arrived we spent some time relaxing in the park waiting for our AirBnB host.  I decided to go explore while The Girlfriend watched our luggage.  A playing toddler ran up to her and his brother tried to retrieve him but he wouldn't go.  The mother came up to The G and asked her if she spoke French.  In English she said "He didn't want to leave you."  And then a woman with a newborn baby sat next to her and chatted for a while.  That's a pretty nice first impression of the French people.

A friend in London recommended the Fat Tire Bike Tours, no relation to the beer unfortunately.  We signed up for a day tour and a night tour for our first full day.  It gave us a chance to stay active, see a lot of the tourist sights at once, and get a little bit of a history lesson.  It was also refreshing to be in a group that spoke English.  I don't know any French except the basic words that are common knowledge or you hear on TV.  I'm picking up a few things here and there but I wish I had given it some time or at least learned how to sound out the words.  Anyways, the day tour was a great experience!  I highly recommend it and we're planning on doing the sister tours in Amsterdam, Berlin, and London.

 The park across the street.

A random fancy cheese shop we found and bought the gooiest soft cheese I've ever had.

For our second full day we realized we were pretty tired and decided to call it a rest day.  We slept in without any alarms, which ended up being past noon, and made up an agenda on the fly.  I made a breakfast of fried eggs and a wedge of cheese we bought at the local convenience store and we ventured off in search of the Marche des Enfants Rouges... The market of the red babies?  Apparently one of the oldest open air markets in France it was made up of a cafe, several ethnic restaurants, wine shops, and a couple of produce stands.  I thought it would be bigger but it was nice for a late lunch stop.  We also passed a large tent of protestors at the Republique train station.  To finish it off we followed the European tradition of sitting in a park for a long period of time to people watch, then walked around the Marais, the gay district. While wandering we found a couple gay bars full of men and posters for leather, bears, and more men.  Even in France, the lesbians are harder to find.

Tomorrow we plan on going early to the Louvre, then possibly a nice dinner at a restaurant my coworker recommended.

Here's to many more pleasant days in Paris till we leave on Monday, and for all the croissants and cheese I've been eating to melt away with all the walking we're doing.