From Paris with Love

It is finally here. D-Day (Departure Date). We finished the yard work, finished all our preparations that we left until the last minute -- why does that happen? Two years to prepare and it still goes to the last minute. Hopefully we coverd everything that needed to be accomplished. Before we left I took a walk with Charlie. I wanted to breath in the Colorado air and look at the evening sky in all of its glory. I knew that, even though there was excitement for our new adventure, 45 days was a long time to be away from home. So with all of its splender I bade farewell to that wonderous Colorado sunset. Charlie and I turned and went home.

That was approximately 48 hours ago. And now our journey has begun. We landed at London's Heathrow Airport about 12:00 noon today after a late night flight. The airport was clean and bursting with actitivity. What a cool airport. We arrived at our first destination -- Paris -- at about 7:30 p.m. The airport here is older. Paris is very green and busy. At first it reminded us a lot of New York City. We arrived at our hotel where we are actually staying directly across from the American Embassy and around the corner from the Presidential Palace. Just glanced in but it looks beautiful. There are a lot of policeman around.

We are all very tired having been up for close to 24 hours, but we walked to a sidewalk cafe. I know that this short excursion from our hotel to the cafe had nothing to do with every generation except I have to say that there are a few generations in my family who could really appreciate it ... Every designer boutique you could image was within walking distance. Lou and Jonathan didn't realize I knew so much French! Let's see; I saw Hermes, I saw Channel, I saw Cartier, Perla, Gottier, just to name a few. But wait there were more: Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Gucci... and that was only within 2 blocks! I really didn't have time to stop in and it isn't really what we came for, but the window shopping for those 30 minutes was outstanding!

Tomorrow, the journey begins. Paris isn't necessarily the place where any of our ancestors actually lived, (that we know of), but I'm sure that if they had the opportunity. it would have been a city that they would have visited. So we are visiting in their honor. I am going to close for now because my brain is shutting down due to lack of sleep. I'm sure if FL and Jonathan were still awake they would have something to add. But, for today, we say goodnight "with love, from Paris".