We're Going to Paris Day 0: The Build Up

"I want to see Victor Noir's statue," Mike told me earlier this week.

"Who?"

"Victor Noir? He was in a duel with Louis Napoleon. Second to a Republican - I don't remember his name - and Louis Napoleon killed him."

"Okay."

"Apparently his statue... is really worn out around the, um, crotch area. People keep rubbing it because he was supposed to have a really big dick."

"So this guy has a statue and he's famous for being killed in a duel and having a big dick."

"Yeah."

"Could be worse I suppose."

Mike is very excited about Paris. It's been his dream vacation for a long time. He's a huge history buff, and he's been reading a lot of history and culture books about Paris and the French Revolution and the Paris Commune and all this stuff. He will excitedly message me about certain passages or tell me about them over the phone. Our schedules the past two weeks have been too different to see much of each other in person, so a lot of our "planning" has been remote.

Here is a screenshot of a map of Paris, complete with pins of all the places Mike wants to visit during our trip:

Just a few ideas Mike had.

We're entering our trip this year in a different headspace than we entered our trip last year. 2017 has been tough for both of us, and we've been distracted with other things instead of planning very much. We have tickets to Versailles and plans to see the catacombs and certain museums and cemeteries. Random wandering around Montmartre of course. Churches. Mike, areligious heathen, is very excited about churches. But we also inevitably get sidetracked by other things on the internet when planning a trip via Facebook messenger:

Not much to do with Paris but 

Also important to plan photo ops

We got to the airport around 7 PM on Saturday for our flight, and I gotta say, Saturday night is a great time to fly. Nobody is here. It's almost like it's a typically inconvenient time to start a trip.

Boarding the plane, I was about to put my suitcase in the overhead compartment when Mike said, "I'll do it." Oh man, guys. As a strong, independent woman who don't need no man, I am definitely capable of putting the suitcase in the overhead, but it is truly great to have someone else do that kind of thing for me. What a boon for femalekind. I had no idea.

Mike and I booked WOW air because it was insanely cheap, and when we boarded the plane, we finally found out why. I've been spoiled on international flights with screens, but there are none on WOW air. I've been spoiled with WiFi that you can at least pay for - none of that on WOW air. I've been spoiled with controls on the side of the seat that let you turn the light above you on or off or call for a flight attendant or even put your seat back - literally, on this flight, none of that was an option.

I've been spoiled with flights where I could fall asleep by finding a pleasant enough way to arrange myself, but these seats are so uncomfortable it's just not an option. But hey, at least it was only an 8 hour flight in the middle of the night!

We had a layover in Iceland that was mostly uneventful except for accidentally getting my card frozen for about an hour, so that was chill. Also, for Mike saying "We've seen Iceland now. We don't have to come back here."

"I know that guy," Mike said in the taxi from the airport to our rooms. I looked at the sign he was referring to. It said "Victor Hugo" on it.

"Are you going to be doing this the entire trip?"

"Yeah."

"Great."

We got to our Airbnb around 9:30 PM. Our room is up 5 flights of narrow stairs and our Airbnb is tiny. Seriously. The whole place feels like its 100 square feet total. But it's located in a beautiful neighborhood (next to three highly-rated restaurants on Yelp, according to my phone!) and, honestly, we're not looking to hang out in the room very much anyway.

We were starving because we hadn't eaten since we left LA, so at 10:30 PM on a Sunday night, Mike and I bravely looked for food in Paris. Paris does not like to be open on Sundays in general, so even though I was craving a crepe and a chocolat chaud, I kinda knew it wasn't going to happen. Instead, we got chicken shawarma sandwiches and I got an ORANGINA I FORGOT ABOUT ORANGINAS. THEY ARE SO GOOD. Plus, the chicken shawarma in Paris is really much better than it is here in the States.

We walked around for a short period of time, but I was tired and made Mike return back to the room. He is the cutest. He is so happy to be here, and I can't help looking over every few minutes to see how he's taking everything in. Traveling with someone this happy to be a place is already so fun.

Okay it's Monday morning, which means nothing is open in Paris, because Mondays are another day off. Also the museums are closed. Okay, okay, okay, I'll adjust my attitude. I'm about to find some crepes and chocolat chaud, so it's gonna be great.

Also, here's a screenshot of me asking permission to take screenshots and Mike agreeing, because screenshots are my fave: