Four Blocks and Steep Stairs
After an uneventful Thalys ride back to Paris, Gare Du Nord was lousy with people because it was Armistice Day (1918) in France. Of course, we didn't know this and just chalked it up to Paris being, er...Paris. What we didn't know was that our apartment was a mere four blocks away as we queued up for a taxi. Our driver gave a little chuckle when I asked him to take us to our apartment and I thought it was just my horrible and barely rudimentary French. After sitting in 15 minutes of traffic that got us all of 20 meters, 5 minutes later I realized why he was so amused. Without traffic, the ride would have been about 3 minutes. Or we could have just walked. Still 15 Euros for a slightly frenzied set or arguments between the cab driver and other folks outside and a quick dash to our swank pad seemed worth it...mostly.
Our apartment is incredibly beautiful...top floor with skylights and wickedly cool rooms and a full kitchen. And steep stairs. So steep in fact that there were no less than 20 warnings about them from Philippe (translated through his partner). Ok, and not shit, these are steep. So much so that we opted for the downstairs bedroom even though the bed is quite small.
After sitting and snacking on Spanish sausage and tea, we went trolling for a place to eat a real dinner. We ended up at a place just across the street and an Italian one to boot. Sole Caffe & Cucina was a decent meal with a linguine with foie gras and creme that Meriko chose and the tagliatelle that Janet and Russell had. The rest was good but not great. I think we had the typical first-time-in-France restaurant experience with switching off waiters that realized that our French (except for Russell's - four years of schooled French) was not so good. We managed to make do though.