So warm in Paris! So not warm in Reykjavik.
Let me take you back to last night: it was one of those beautiful evenings in the city. The heat dissipates with the setting sun. Parisians (and visitors) just cannot get enough of this moment of pure idleness, outside, with friends, maybe even alone. (I'm seeing many more solo diners -- often older women. This is totally new. For decades I've been the one and only person in a dining room without a companion.) The sun sets around 10 p.m. I look outside our window and listen to the gentle hum of happiness.
(Paris, at 10:15p.m.)
Is it a wonder that we should stay up this late? We do a little better: lights out for Snowdrop at 11!
And the morning is sunny and everyone says -- this is going to be a hot one!
Not for us.
We eat breakfast, perfect for the second day in a row. We've settled into our croissant routine. Today's waiter is charming and politely not intrusive. Another wonderful morning at the Baume.
We have a little time before we have to leave and so I propose a walk to the Luxembourg Gardens. Snowdrop loves these gardens almost as much as I do! Possibly under my influence, or maybe just because this space is so very wonderful.
(school kids)
We do a loop...
... then go back to the hotel, pick up our suitcases and head for the airport. The girl is tired and asks if maybe we could do a taxi. We're dressed for Reykjavik and the train is going to be crowded and possibly without air conditioning. And the walk to it is uphill and the cab cost isn't hugely in excess of two train tickets. Frankly, I am relieved to cab it.
Until we hit the traffic in Paris. Actually the traffic along the entire route. I keep watching the clock. Did I underestimate the needed time?
I haven't taken off from Terminal 1 of CDG airport since I was here with my own little girls. Being now a dedicated Air France/Delta/KLM traveler, I'm always leaving out of the newer, bigger terminal 2. But today, I have no regrets in bypassing the main hub. The traffic there is so backed up that you'll need at least 30 minutes at the airport just to crawl to the entrance. That would make it a 2 hour journey from our hotel. Incredibly taxing! (For us, it was already a 1 hour 15 minute trip. Snowdrop fell asleep. I worried.)
We are lucky once at the airport. No lines anywhere. We are at the gate just a few minutes before they open the doors for boarding.
The flight, on IcelandicAir, is more or less on time. And three hours later, we are back in Reykjavik. At the airport. Where it's raining.
We cab it to town in the gold chariot that should be transporting us, given the rates of cabs here. At least the driver is a speed demon (85 mph, on Reykjavik roads??) so we get to the hotel in good time. In 45 minutes. Past fields of lupines.
I switched hotels on us. I got a last minute deal on the Reykjavik Edition, which has a fabulous location, even though I could not justify the price of a good view, so we look out on... a building.
I'm not sure the switch was a good idea. The Edition is huge -- some 250 rooms. It's impersonal and the room is not as described on the internet, a fact that I point out to them very quickly, netting me a 20% discount. This is the trip of discounts for hotel mistakes! I'll take it!
Being 2 hours behind continental Europe time is confusing. Though Snowdrop does not complain, I'm sure she is both hungry and tired.
We have a dinner booking at the Seafood Grill for 7 pm. Which is 9 pm Parisian time. And yet, it will not ever grow dark tonight, nor the next night, nor the one after.
(walk to to the restaurant)
At the Grill, she orders the catch of the day -- Icelandic wolf fish. She finds it absolutely yummy! And the fries! If I eat the kale, can I have another order of fries?
We walk back to our room energized. And much to my amusement, we find the room had been rearranged in our absence, to be more inline with the description on the website. I know this sounds terribly fussy, but it was a question of seating: I picked a room that had a place for us to read during the day. And after dinner we did just that -- on the newly installed couch. How they found a spare couch is beyond me, considering that the hotel is completely full!
And on nearly the longest day of the year, we retire way before the partial sunset. To our credit, "sunset," such as it is, comes after midnight here: at 12:04. If I thought I'd stay up to see it, I was wrong.
with so much love...
