Cruise Director Hettie dangled a carrot in front of us that we couldn’t resist: a Viking river cruise in France. Make that two cruises actually, back to back. We’ll go northwest out of the City of Light/City of Love to the Channel and back on the Seine aboard the Fjorgyn and then we’ll transfer to the Hermod to cruise south from Lyon to Avignon on the Rhône.

The obvious first task is to get ourselves to Paris which for us is easy peasy since we can go nonstop. We chose the 11:00 PM departure to increase the odds we’d sleep on the plane. Our flight time from Dulles to Charles de Gaulle was seven and a half hours. Immigration and luggage retrieval were a breeze and took another hour tops. We were met by cheerful Viking staff and whisked off to our hotel. By the time we were settled in our room it was 2:30 PM local time, 8:30 AM at home. Jet lag here we come.

Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements or administrative districts. They are arranged in the form of a spiral moving clockwise, much like a snail shell, starting from the middle of the city near the Louvre Museum. Our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, is conveniently located in the 16th arrondissement in case you were wondering.

A treat for us was meeting Jen and Rhett, along with their traveling companions Megan, Steve, and their son Tanner, for dinner. It was our first day in country and their last. By sheer luck or brilliant planning on Jen’s part, or both, our hotel and theirs are on the same side of the river, the East Bank as they say here, about 30 minutes apart on foot. Everyone enjoyed their meals which ranged from duck to chicken to salmon. Crème brûlée for dessert.

Boy does the bed look inviting tonight. We’re heading that way after a perfect Day One.

… For the Unduly Curious …

We are in the land of the euro. Exchange rate: 1€ = $1.12 or $1.00 = 90€.

There’s not a single stop sign in all of Paris, or so they say. Lights and roundabouts, yes. Stop signs, no.

The Bloody Mary was invented in Paris at the Ritz Hotel for, legend has it, Ernest Hemingway.

France is a little smaller than Texas.

Austria, not France, created the croissant.

A baguette must measure between 21.5 and 25.5 inches in length in order to be considered genuine.