A Lie

Just the other day when I hurt my leg pretty badly and I told the others that I was fine. I hate being fussed over, I'd rather bear the pain and discomfort in private.

Scorching heat in Paris

Tags

France, heat, Paris, postaday2012, scorching heat, travel

Today we came full circle, as Inigo Montoya said in the “Princess Bride” you told me to go back to the beginning, so I go back to the beginning. The TGV from Lyons to Paris CDG was really nice, we found a luggage cart quickly and wheeled ourselves and our luggage directly to the Sheraton Hotel right in Terminal 2B. Our flight leaves at 6:40 so we have to be here by 4:40, I know that I’m not going to be at my best at 4:30 and neither is the baby girl so that is why the airport hotel.

The bonus of arriving a day early is that we had more than enough time to hop on the rail to get into Paris. The baby girl wanted to get two small packages of the famous Macarons of La Duree, I said why not, going into Paris is a wonderful idea, my famous last words.

The train ride only takes twenty minutes but today it was twenty minutes of crazy heavy heat. I don’t remember Paris being 40 degrees Celsius ever in the past. The train ride was brutal, we were sweating huge drops of sweat, it reminded me of Carcassonne. The train took us to the Gare du Nord, in the northern part of Paris, with the heat attacking us I flagged a taxi, there was no way that the baby girl and I could have walked to the rue Royale near the Place Concorde. We would have melted away the heat without question.

There was no one in the streets or the cafe’s, I think that everyone was hibernating. It was too hot, it was unbearable, we got to La Duree’s without a problem and upon entering the store filled with Macarons, patisseries and veinnoiseries, we immediately forgot the heat. The presentation of all the perfectly crafted desserts coupled with the air-conditioning, rendered us oblivious to our internal thermostats. The only thing that I could think of was “all those desserts look perfect, which one do I want to eat right now?” it was so pleasant in the store, we really didn’t want to leave, so with a little sadness we left, but not without goodies, I bit into my cannele as soon as we were outside, it was perfect, the little cake was moist and custard like for a cake, complete with the caramelized exterior, makes for a perfect little cake, more than one bite, but not too many bites so that you feel bad.

We tried to continue exploring Paris but it was just too hot, we made for an immediate retreat back to the Gare du Nord to hop on the return train to CDG. On the train we were sitting, not talking, just dripping these insanely large drops of sweat. There was no refuge from the heat, not until we got back to our room.

Tomorrow we’ll be traveling back home, so I am turning in right now to try to be fresh for the flight.