I see London, I see France

Our British Airways flight from Phoenix to Heathrow was blessedly not full, meaning Kevin and I both had empty seats next to us, hooray!  We both did our best to sleep and start converting ourselves to the new time zone.  Unfortunately we had an eternal layover at Heathrow, which was busy and crowded.  But once we got to France, we were once again pleased by the (lack of) care upon entering the country -- no immigration paperwork was necessary at all, no forms to fill out, the guy just stamped our passports and looked bored.  The customs agent had left for the evening so we didn't even need to deal with declaring or not declaring anything.  So easy!

The French class that I've been taking through city of Scottsdale has been paying off surprisingly well.  The taxi to the hotel and the hotel check in were both conducted entirely in French and only twice did I need the old standby "Repitez-vous, s'il vous plait?"  (Meaning: wait...uh...what did you say?).  I've now just barely learned how to say things in the past tense and the future tense, so my language skills have gone from that of a four-year-old to that of a seven-year-old.  Look out, France!

Our hotel is not far from the Arc de Triomphe so even though it was late we took a little walk.  It's a pretty touristy area.  We ordered two beers at a terrace cafe and the bill for 18 euro nearly gave me a heart attack.  Granted, they were "big beers" (1/2 liter), but still...  But the weather is fantastic and we were outside on the Champs-Elysees, so really I can't complain.