Hello! We're in Paris now!

It's so exciting! This has been our first day in Paris, and it was SO cool(literally actually, it was freezing cold!) We rugged up in lots of warm clothes and went out exploring, and these are just some of the photos I took--a random assortment of stuff, not the usual touristy pix(wanted to do something different)--but of things I thought you guys might like--ice-skating in an open air rink near the Hotel de Ville, various gorgeous food shops, and so on!

I've been to Paris before(we went there a few years ago to visit Mamy) but that was in warm weather, in late spring I think it was. Paris in the winter is quite different--colder of course, it snows a bit and rains a fair bit and even when it doesn't, it's perishing cold--but to make up for it, a lot less tourists around, it's less rushed, and there's heaps of sales on in the shops! Anyway it's always gorgeous, it's such a lovely city--so elegant but not scary or intimidating at all. Mum says that though it's such a big city, the centre's 'very intimate' and 'on a human scale' because a/you don't get big skyscrapers and things and b/most of the shops are small shops(though there are huge department stores too in some areas), so it feels cosy and homely, strangely enough. Everything is so well-presented too, though the weather's grey, there's so much colour, from the flower shops, the cake shops, all the various small shops with beautiful things arranged in the windows..Magic!

We had a great lunch today in this little caff, just real traditional Paris cafe food--I had steak and chips(yes, it IS really traditional, it's a special sort of steak with a yummy shallot and pepper sauce and PROPER chips, fat and crusty and yummy) Dad had moules marimieres which are mussels done in a gorgeous wine sauce, with rice, Mum had a 'poulet basquaise' which is chicken cooked in a tomato and garlic sauce, and Mamy had pot-au-feu which is a really nice stew. Tonight we're eating at Many's, it'll probably be fantastic gourmet food too!