We have arrived in Paris!

I had a fun day visiting the chateau near Amboise in the Loire Valley–Chenenceou. It straddles the Cher River and has about 400 years of history, lots of it involving powerful women. I loved that part. During WWII, the Cher River was the dividing line between Nazi-occupied France and free France. So if you were on the entrance side of the chateau, you were in occupied France, on the other end and you were free. I wonder how they worked that out.

We took the train to Paris this afternoon and then our first Metro ride to our hotel in Montmartre. We got along just fine until it was time to climb the 100+ stairs to get to street level. All of this with our packs on our backs. Made me long for the giant elevators of the Moscow Metro.

Montmartre is kind of a funky area, but fun. We are about 3 blocks from the infamous Moulin Rouge. Our hotel is run by a friendly, English-speaking Korean family and has free wifi internet. Yeah! Our room is in back overlooking a small garden so we’ll sleep with peace and quiet. We went out tonight to get food for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, then ducked into a Thai buffet with delicious food. It was quick, healthy and casual…just what two starving women needed.

Tomorrow we will explore this area and then go downtown to see some of the traditional sites in Paris-Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, St. Chappelle. Looking forward to another fun day.