Day 3 January 1, 2024
Dear Adventure Avenue,
We slept in til 8:15 this morning due to staying up so late last night. We all met upstairs and had breakfast on the club floor.
After breakfast, we were getting ready to head out when the fire alarm went off! We followed our evacuation plan and went down to Mere’s room to make sure she was okay. The alarm wasn’t going off on her floor, but at this point we were dressed and ready to go, having grabbed our essentials (coats, purses/wallets) before evacuating.
Once in the elevator I noticed there were 2 (French) firemen, so I asked them in French if there was a problem on our floor. They told me in French there wasn’t and the alarm was caused by a toaster. (The hotel preceded to lie and said it was an alarm when my mom asked about it in English but then I heard them talking in French saying there wasn’t an alarm scheduled and then they went to find out for themselves what had happened.)
With the danger of our situation averted, my parents and I headed out to Jeff de Bruges to get hot chocolate and chocolates for people back home.
We walked by the Arc de Triomphe and were surprised to see how clean it was already, considering how many people were in the street the night before.
We picked out our chocolate and the employee was very nice and gave us an extra (free) hot chocolate. (Probably because we bought a lot of chocolate). My dad said it was the best hot chocolate he’s ever had.
We walked back to the hotel and took a taxi to Montmartre. I got very car sick because I was sitting backwards, it was very jolty, and I having head issues due to the weather.
Montmartre & Artists’ Square
Upon arriving, we immediately went to the restaurant Mere wanted to eat at, Le Poulbot. I had steak and fries with a salad that had a wonderful vinaigrette on it. With the food, I was much improved and able to continue on.
We then walked through the artists’ square where my dad and brother had their portraits drawn for 60 euros each. Mere, Mom, and I have all had it done before.
After their pictures were finished, we waited in line to enter Sacré Cœur – Did I mention it was busy there? Since it was New Year’s Day, this was one of the only things that was actually open to do today.
Mere and mom taxied back to the hotel, but given my last experience, I opted to metro home and my brother and dad joined me.
It is quite a few stairs to get down to the metro station but we succeeded to get to the ticket entry machines.
Metro Fiasco
My brother put his ticket in and went to go through, but it didn’t work. He tried again and again, and it wouldn’t work. Then Dad tried and his worked, so he went through. Luckily this station had someone working at the ticket counter (though the line was heading down the tunnel), so I told him in French that my brother’s ticket didn’t work because the machine wasn’t working. He thought I was trying to use a ticket that had already been used because tickets only work once. I explained that it hadn’t worked the first time because the machine wasn’t working. He took my brothers ticket, verified that what I was saying was correct, and he opened the door for him. Once I saw he made it, I went through. My French was once again useful!
We got on the Metro and needed to switch. It was a very old train and the doors had to be manually opened. Some might say I was a little ahead of the game and opened the door before the train came to a complete stop, but I say, I did it at the earliest possible moment. (I heard the air pressure release).
We switched to our line 1 metro and made it back to the station with no problems. We even cut our walk short by walking through the mall next to our hotel.
Once back at our rooms, we relaxed for a bit.
We went up to the club level and I had some hot tea.
Then we went to Au Chien qui Fume for dinner. It required us to take a taxi there and an Uber home. I had a caprese salad with eggplant, burrata, and a couple cherry tomatoes.
Mom’s pasta with burrata cheese was very good. Dad had duck and my brother and Mère both had the chicken.
We Ubered back to the hotel and went to bed.
Until tomorrow,
A
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