To Paris, and our apartment

After a little snafu that involved me leaving the train tickets on the kitchen counter, realizing it halfway to the train station, speeding back to the house, and speeding back to the train station- we made it onto our ICE train to Paris!  The Intercity Express can get from Kaiserslautern to Paris in about 2.5 hours, compared to a little over 4 hours driving.

Here is the distinctive style of the ICE train- grey and red.

Maddox and I checked out the restaurant car.  

When we arrived in Paris we got into Gare d'Est, and were supposed to take the Metro to our apartment.  But, we couldn't get the ticket machine to work, it wouldn't accept our debit card because it didn't have a chip in it that some European cards have.  The other machine only accepted coins, and we didn't have enough change on hand.  So we stood in a long line again, to get to customer service and buy our Metro tickets.  Then we boarded the Paris Metro- which although it was convenient, was normally packed, smelly, and pretty dirty.

Our apartment was at the Cadet station- just a short ride from all the tourist things we had planned.  The neighborhood was beautiful!  I found this apartment on Airbnb, and it was much cheaper to rent an apartment, than to get 2 hotel rooms for 3 nights.

Our apartment was in an old building, on the 5th floor.  Since they consider the Ground floor different than the 1st floor, that meant it was really on the 6th floor!  It was up a long winding wooden staircase, and it was quite a workout!  Here is Mav pouting and walking down the hallway.

The kitchen was awesome- we bought food at the grocery store and cooked a few times.

This was the dining area.  Because the family we rented from had a child, this place was very child-friendly.  There was a high chair (we didn't need it), and toys as well!

Here is part of the living room.

The other side of the living room, showing the ladder up to one of the lofts.  It was too hot to sleep up there, so we slept on the fold out couch.

Mav enjoyed playing in this space!

We have now stayed in Airbnb apartments in Venice, Paris, and Amsterdam, and they have all been great.  We've already booked one for our trip to Dublin in the Spring.