At about 7:30 local time, we arrived at Aeroport Charles de Gaulle!!!!

After a long roundabout journey from the terminal through a Beautiful but strangely deserted airport, through border police to baggage claim, I was on a taxi to my next location by 8:45. I stopped first to send mom an email and mentally prepare myself for leaving the beautiful bilingualism of the airport… I actually had in my inbox an email from my lovely hosts with detailed instructions of how to get to the apartment via métro and really considered doing that to save $ (or € I guess) but…it required like 2 ligne transfers and while my bags aren’t super heavy, they’re heavy enough that I decided against it….plus I figure I’ll get to drive through Paris along the way! Like that scene in The Parent Trap where the American Lindsay Lohan drives through London for the first time…maybe the cab driver will let me stand up through the sun roof too!!!

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Things that will be unexpectedly hard to adapt to:

• Kilometres (?!) what even are they? how long are they? how do they compare to miles?
• Celcius…what do you mean 35 degrees is swelteringly hot?!
• 24-hour clocks…so much subtracting 12!!!
• Oh yeah, and like, everyone speaking French all the time…that too

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Driving into Paris seems a lot like driving into New York. You’re just surrounded by cars and tunnels and flyover ramps and big old industrial looking buildings covered with graffiti and hotels. I’m waiting for the turn into the Lincoln Tunnel with the amazing view of the city skyline. Although, I don’t even really know what the Paris city skyline looks like…so many things I should probably have looked up: What does the Paris skyline look like and what the HECK is a kilometre??

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Okay!! 9:24, our first glimpse of what one assumes is typical “Parisian” architecture! WOO! Feeling pretty touristy right now. Can’t bring myself to break out the camera though. That would just be embarrassing.

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If I ever become a taxi driver, I will probably be the annoying one who is really excited for people to be visiting my city for the first time and who takes it upon herself to become combination taxi driver and personal tour guide! Or maybe I’m just saying that because I wish my taxi driver would clue me in a bit about our surroundings…I have no clue where we are. Yeah, let’s be real, I would be the most unenthusiastic taxi driver because I would just be so annoyed by all the yammering people…unless they were having interesting conversations to listen in on…hmmm I don’t know why actors don’t become taxi drivers instead of waiters. I don’t know how flexible the hours are, but you’d sure get to observe a lot of pretty interesting folks.

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AH HA! A sign spotted at 9:35 saying 150km to Paris centre!

Now…if only I knew approximately how long kilometres are…Maybe I should just rename this blog:

Anne discovers in a slew of different scenarios how embarrassingly limited is her knowledge of the metric system

subtitle: Didn’t you learn this in like 2nd grade?!

sub-subtitle: well, that was a long time ago, DAMMIT.

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9:40: It now appears we are in what resembles the actual city of Paris…OMG WHAT?! Okay, so we didn’t get the awesome view of Paris from across the Hudson, but I guess we wouldn’t have…cause Paris isn’t on an island. It seems we have essentially taken the Beltway around Paris into the 15th arrondissement.

HERE WE GO! LEG 3 ALMOST COMPLETE! Now onto Leg 4: getting into the apartment and meeting my famille d’acceuil!!!