Moving Through Jet Lag by Jenni

It feels as if today has gone on forever, which is not surprising. We left the house at 8:00 AM on Saturday and arrived in Paris at 6:00 AM Sunday (midnight at home). The general advice about jet lag is "try to stay up as long as you can and go to bed at the right time in the new time zone". We settled into the apartment, found the boulangerie for croissants and the grocery for fresh fruit, and then set out to see something of Paris. Since we were too tired to do anything strenuous and it's Sunday, so all the museums and churches are very crowded, we decided to ride the Batobus around for a while. 

Someone on ParentNet suggested the Batobus for our first day - I think it was Margie Mott. The Batobus goes around in a circle on the Seine and stops at many of the most-visited sites in Paris. You buy a pass and get on or off whenever and wherever you want. The weather today was warm and sunny - perfect for a boat ride.

Our apartment is less than 1 km from the bridge over the Seine to Notre Dame. The walk took us past the Hotel de Ville (city hall), where they were having a blood drive. We peeked in the windows of the shops and cafes and made mental notes about which ones we want to stop at while we're here (at least I made mental notes, which I probably won't remember since I am jet-lagged). We planned to walk over to Notre Dame and catch the Batobus there; as we headed across the river we saw the boat stop at the Hotel de Ville stop and changed our plans. 

I'm trying to use my very rusty French, and of course everyone I speak to knows I'm American as soon as I start fumbling for words. I managed to purchase our tickets without too much difficulty and we set off on the boat ride. 

Surprise of the day: the commercial boat traffic on the Seine, vying for space with the tourist boats. party boats and house boats. The house boats are fascinating. Some of them are gorgeous - dark polished wood, fancy wicker furniture, gleaming brass. Some are more utilitarian and some are downright shabby. A few of them had cars tied to the aft deck - one looked like a Model T! Mostly they were small minivans or sedans, though. 

We did get off at one stop:

We have two-day passes for the Batobus, so we'll probably hop back on tomorrow. Emma wants to go to the Jardin Luxembourg and (of course!) she's eager to start shopping. It's cooler than she expected and she *must* have a jacket or heavy sweater....

Yawn. I don't know when I'll be able to post this, since our WiFi isn't working at the moment. Right now, it's time for this very long day to end. Bonne nuit.