My dad taught me to look like I know what I’m doing regardless of the situation. In other words, display confidence even when I’m completely lost or bewildered. For example, within my first two hours of being in France, three separate people asked me for directions. In Redding, this is quite normal, but in Paris I had to laugh. If only they knew I spent 45 minutes trying to decipher how to leave the airport.

And now, some of my first impressions:

1. To answer the question of how to leave Orly International Airport: Take the Orly Val train to Antony Station, then transfer to the B line north.

2. Paris is a maze of streets and boulevards.

3. Paris is packed and dense. Every inch of the this city to put to use and the parks are lovely. And, people are everywhere. All kinds of people. To put the packed/dense thing into perspective, the city of Charlotte has 900,000 people living on 300-ish square miles of land. If Charlotte were as densely populated as Paris, it would have 16 million people. That’s staggering to think about. The only city in America that’s comparable is Manhattan in NYC.

4. Yes. The bread to noticeably better than in the US and not expensive. We have quality breads in the US but they tend to be expensive ie a good sourdough loaf in Redding is $10. What I mean to say is, the average bread in Paris is delicious.

5. The relationship between the Catholic Church and Paris- and by extension France- is very real. I walked into two separate Cathedrals yesterday. One was commissioned by Napoleon and the other was built by local priest. One was dead and one was alive. I’ll let you guess which was which.

6. Finally, of all the US cities, Paris most reminds me of…New Orleans. I know, what a shock.

That’s it, for now.