Paris: An Introduction

One item on my must-do list for the semester was a quick trip to Paris.  We booked tickets on the Eurostar, a high-speed train connecting London with Paris and Brussels.

The Eurostar crosses through the Channel Tunnel, also known as the Chunnel, which is a 31-mile rail tunnel connecting England and France under the English Channel.

We booked a room at Hotel Dieu.  Hotel Dieu ("hostel" or "house" of God) is the name given to hospitals in French towns, and Hotel Dieu is the oldest hospital in Paris.  It was founded by Saint Landry in 651 on the same site as it now stands, although it has been destroyed several times by fires. The architecture of the present building dates from 1877.

On the sixth floor of the hospital, there are about 15 hotel rooms for rent.  So we checked in, walked past doctors in scrubs and x-ray machines parked in the hallway to get to our room.  It was lovely and in a fabulous location -- just across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral on a little island in the middle of the Seine River.

Since we were next to a major tourist attraction, there were lots of food stands and souvenir shops.  We tried the sidewalk crepe stand -- delicious!

Alan picked caramel; I got one loaded with Nutella!

We didn't figure Cooper would like to spend days in museums, despite the fabulous art in the city, so we opted instead for a bus tour:

Photos of the various attractions coming later.

We walked a little bit around our little neighborhood, and we quickly discovered the fastest way to move:

Solves a lot of problems, not the least of which is Cooper's seemingly unquenchable need to buy things "to remind me of this trip."