We turned our boat in at Douelle in the morning. Erika was mostly interested in if we had a good time, but thanked us for recording the few things we found wrong with the boat. We, of course, did have good time.  We were somewhat surprised at the number of boats going in and out today; the staff was busily checking boats in, cleaning them, and preparing them for departure, as last week’s guests checked out and this week’s guests waited patiently on the dock.  Everyone was watching the blur of activity.
At the train station in Cahors, Carol and Sandy took up wth a person of questionable mental stability who talked to himself the entire two hours we waited for the train. While we waited, Mike, Shoe, and Lou went to rue Gambetta to get sandwiches for lunch.
We boarded our train, which departed Cahors on time for Paris at about 12:30 PM – right on time. Our train took us through little villages, towns, bigger cities, farmland, pastures, suburban areas, past cows, horses, sheep, and fields, modest farm houses, huge manor houses to Paris – a full five hours later.  The terrain became flatter as we left Dordogne and headed east and north to Paris. Weather ranged from cloudy, sunshine, or full-fledged rain – despite it all, we made great time since the train driver had his foot to the metal at every opportunity. France’s train system is a model to behold! We disembraked at Gare d’Austerlitz and made our way to the “C” train, then the “B” train to Les Halles/Chatelet. We left the train station and made our way to our apartment near Les Halles and the Georges Pompideau Center.
We checked in with Russ, who, since Jean-Paul had recently passed away, checked us in.
Here’s our living room with two sofas and three windows going out to the balcony
The living room/salon has a fireplace, too – though the weather is supposed to be fine!
Russ had attempted to communicate with us via e-mail, but it has been virtually impossible the past three weeks.  Naturally, our fifth floor apartment is accessible by an elevator – seulement deux personnes, s’il vous plait! or a spiral staircase. Our apartment has a salon with two sofas, a dining room with six chairs and table, three bedrooms, one full bath, and one bath with only a shower and sink.
Our “American-style” Kitchen
The rest of our kitchen
Our kitchen has a huge American-style refrigerator and is remarkably large for a Parisian apartment. Best of all, our balcony circles two sides of our apartment. With six of us, the only difficulty could be the one and only toilet! But, we do have the opportunity to wash and dry clothes!
Making a list and checking it twice: in the dining room with two windows to the balcony
We settled in, showered, made a grocery list for tomorrow.
After unpacking, we headed off to Table des Gourmets restaurant, recommended by Russ, a family run and operated facility with traditional French-style food, for dinner.
Kir Royale, tasted by the entire team, followed by onion soup, red wine in pitchers, and either chicken with mushroom sauce, cod filet, or lamb steak – and, for dessert, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, creme caramel, or iles flottante.
Lou, Shoe and Mike at dinner
After lugging our suitcases through train stations with broken escaltors, flared tempers, and wrong turns, Pat again vowed never to return to Paris without taxi or shuttle service while lugging suitcases.
Our balcony wraps from one end of apartment to other!
Pat and Mike’s bedroom has a fireplace!
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