We are in Paris!

We packed up our cute apartment in Colmar, drove to Strassbourg to return the car. That is always an adventure! Husband got us to the car return office but it was closed with a sign with directions to a parking garage. After a couple of wrong turns, we got the car parked and situated at Europcar. There was no-one there to check it over but we took lots of pictures of its condition. (A few hours later, we got an email saying all good and no extra charges).

Our train departed at 1044am. We actually found the right car and seats and settled in for the 2 hour ride to Paris Gare de l'Est. We couldn't check in to the apartment on Rue Lekain in the 16th until 3pm (we were informed too late that we could check in at 2pm) so we choose a sidewalk cafe and had lunch and drinks. 

The apartment check-in process was interesting. They had the keys in a keybox (like real estate agents use) hooked to a bike parked among many other bikes near Aux Mervelleiux de Fred. Once we found the key, and bought the delicious pastry, we checked into the apartment. We liked it but it had a few problems--several burnt out lights; a broken fixture in the bedroom; super cluttered closet; dusty, dirty/broken roller shades in the kitchen; tiny toilet room; no extra linens as agreed upon. I reported the problems to the hosts and they agreed to fix the burned out lights and broken fixture, and provide linens. The apartment was in a great location and was overall comfortable and quiet.

We headed out to Le Marais for our traditional first day in Paris fallafels. The Metro deposited us at St. Paul, we walked through a market that was just ending (one vendor was super friendly), through the (seemingly perennially) busy streets to L'As du Fallafel. We got takeaway and headed to the little square to eat. Afterwards, we wandered by Hotel de Ville, over to Ile de la Cite, and found a spot for people watching and drinks.