Our travels went incredibly smooth, way better than we could have imagined. 

As we were walking around this evening Jordan and I kept talking about how it was just way too easy to get here. That they whole flying over an ocean to a new country thing went way better than some of our quick trips to a couple of states over. We just woke up and we were in a new city, a new country, we were in Paris! 

Here's a recap of our journey so far: 

Day 0 | Travel Day

11:30 am | driving. 

We hopped in the CRV to drive to Chicago O'Hare, this was about a 4.5 hour drive. Jordan had to stop in Springfield, Illinois at Maid-Rite sandwich shop to get some of their famous chopped meat sammiches. 

4:30 pm |  arrive in Chicago, eat pizza with my friend kelly and head to the airport

Kelly is a good friend from our bloomington days. She graciously agreed to drop us off and save us the outrageous long term parking fees. I'm sure we can find a good souvenir! 

6:00 pm | arrive at O'Hare International Airport

Security and checking in took quite a while, they were suspicious of all of Ruby's beverages. We walked around and everything moved very quickly and before we knew it we were boarding our plane. 

Jordan and Ruby were disappointed to not have a little extra time in the airport to explore and find some big planes, but Ruby did get to walk the wrong way along the moving sidewalks as much as she wanted. We were all disappointed not to be in a terminal with a USO. They do such a great job of easing the stress of travel on military members and their families.

8:00 pm | board plane. 

We had two seats and three people. It's safe to say we weren't looking forward to a long, cramped trip. Shortly before takeoff, an Air France crew member offered us to move to seat with a bassinet. I had looked into this, but didn't think she would be able to use this, since she hasn't used a bassinet for over a year, but she was just fit and it worked out wonderfully! She was already worn out, and didn't nap much and we gave her a little benadryl and she slept soundly the entire night. I was so jealous. 

Day 1 | Arrive in Paris 

October 1, 4:00 am (Central Time ) /11:00 am (Central European Summer Time) | arrival. 

After washing down a better than average airline dinner (complete with mini-baguette) with a glass of red wine, cognac, and a benadryl, we woke up with only an hour or so left in our flight. The seven hour time difference was like a time warp and the few fellow travelers that opened their windows to take a peak outside were not well liked, at least in our row. They gave us a light breakfast and before we knew it we were taxiing to the terminal. Jordan was surprised to find customs was a breeze (only 5 minutes). We picked up our luggage, grabbed some euros out of an ATM, and walked to the RER metro B line to Notre Dame - St Michel stop. 

Noon | luggage haul to the apartment.

Worst part of the trip by far. We were all tired. We had too much stuff and we had to climb too many stairs to climb. Then we went to the wrong apartment (Airbnb sent us to #9 instead of #8 on our street). Eventually, we got in and crashed for a few hours

6:30 pm | time to get out and explore 

by this time we were all waking up from our naps. we were hungry and ready to explore. We stopped at the grocery to grab a baguette, formage, rose, olives, and macaroons. We are staying very close to the eiffel tower, so we walked and had a little picnic and let Ruby play at the playground near the foot of the tower. By the time we were sitting down and enjoy our picnic which was 8:00pm  the lights on the eiffel started sparkling. We finished up our dinner and walked back home along the river Seine. 

We're back now, we put away or clothes, organized a bit and are ready for our stay here in Paris. 

We have a long day tomorrow, we are lucky and are here on the free museum day! So you know this art major will be dragging her family around all day to see all of the museums. It will be a long day so, we need to get some sleep! Let's hope we get accustomed to Paris time quickly.