Ma première journée à Paris

Free and I arrived at Charles de Gaule just before noon on Friday.  We took the RER B (a train) and then transferred to line 6.  It was very cheap to take public transportation (€10), but it was quite difficult lugging our bags up and down the stairs. But nevertheless, we arrived at our hotel - Hotel Delambre - around 2 pm. We relaxed there for a little bit and freshened up before we decided to head out to get me a cheap phone and SIM card.

I found out that I could buy a cheap phone at an electronics store chain called Darty.  We went to the Madeleine metro stop (named after the beautiful Église de la Madeleine). We found a Darty sign over some stairs leading undeground, but it was a restricted entrance.  So we decided to just wander around and follow whichever streets interested us, hoping that one would eventually lead to Darty.

L'Église de la Madeleine

So... we wandered around the streets of the 8th and 9th arrondissements.  Here are some cool architecural finds:

Freedom

He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders

Painting of a building on a building

We stumbled upon this very cool street (Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré) with a lot of cool private Art Galleries and artsy bookstores. I must remember to return there and explore it more in-depth!

Back of the US Embassy, maybe?

After wandering for quite a while, we made our way back to the area where we started and found a sign for where Darty was.  It was underground in what could have been a metro station, except it was only a couple of stores.  Anyway, I eventually chose a small phone and bought it using all French, which I was very happy with.  Then I headed over to Free Mobile with Free to get a SIM card for my new phone.  They have a bunch of kiosks with screens and all you had to do was follow the instructions on the screen.  No talking required, which pleased me as an introvert, but was kind of disappointing as a French student.

Next, we were very hungry so decided to hunt around for a restaurant.  Unfortunately, it was only about 5:30 and none of the places we went into were serving food yet.  There were lots of people sitting at tables outside drinking coffee or wine, but no one was eating dinner yet.  However, we eventually stumbled upon a larger restaurant on a busier street called Pépinière that was serving food.  Our waitress was very kind and patient with us as we struggled through ordering in French.  I got a Breton sausage with mashed potatoes and Free had duck for the first time.  I also ordered a glass of Rosé just because I could. :)

After that, we were utterly pooped from a long day of travel and exploring.  So we went back to our hotel and called it an early night to prepare for our first official day on Saturday.