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It's the biggest cliché, but Paris is still my favorite place to visit. Something about all those baked goods and men who actually wear clothes that fit (not a single instance of diaper butt!). Usually I come here to brood alone, so it's a nice change to finally visit the most romantic city in the world with someone else... my vegetarian cousin, Amy. We'll see how much she likes it once she finds out even the croissants here are cooked with beef stock.

After much nail-biting, we were assigned seats in Business for the flight to CDG, assuring us 7.5 hours of Class. Amy is a nervous flier but I think the free champagne and French fashion magazines calmed her down. We arrived in Paris an hour early thanks to a strong tailwind and then spent two hours in the airport dealing with WaMu, who denied my card at the ATM "to protect the integrity of my account," despite me calling them beforehand to say hey, I'm going to Paris and will be using my debit card. Apparently that is code for "My card has been stolen by a Frenchman who looks and sounds like me and also knows my PIN."

We finally arrived at the apartment we are renting in the Oberkampf neighborhood of the 11th district. It's super-cute, with naked lady paintings and a fancy washer/dryer-in-one. After taking a 4-hour nap (right now you are thinking that's dumb, you are supposed to stay awake when you arrive in foreign time-zone so as to get over jet-lag, and to that I say eff off, it's vacation and you can sleep whenever you want), we went to Monoprix for a light dinner of bread, cheese, rillettes and proscuitto. And wine that cost 4 dollars. Of course I forgot my camera's USB cable, so you will have to make up what you think these things look like until I get home.