I woke up to an intense smell of buttery croissants this morning at about 6:45am. You know you’re in France when it is sufficiently potent to smell intensely on the 5th floor!

My flight from Seattle was smooth, although Delta’s FlyReady program didn’t do much as usual. I did get a boarding pass out of it, but still got called up to the counter to show everything all over again. The plane had lots of empty seats, so I had no trouble boarding with my excessively large 32L pack as well as my full size roll aboard. I did manage to stretch out across 4 seats for a good part of the flight, but noxious children in the row behind kept it from being restful. Arrival in Paris was easy with less than 5 minutes to get through the formalities. I did stop at the pharmacy to update my Vaccine pass with the booster, even though they are no longer required. If that changes or I go to a country that does require them, this pass should work anywhere in the EU. RER took me close to the hotel and I had charged up my Navigo pass from my phone before leaving Seattle. I’m experimenting the a variety of eSims this trip. While the initial installation of the first one was rocky, it is working, I used an Airalo SIM for my iPad mini, and then bought a Bouygues eSim for my 13pro and I’m still using the same Orange physical Sim in my 11pro. So far all are working, but I am finding that having a separate travel phone is more straightforward than using dual sim features.

After dropping bags at the hotel, I went out for a bite and then stopped for Coffee at Peleton, then to Decathlon to buy some poles for my camino. Much less expensive here, I got a nice telescoping set for 32 euros. They didn’t have the rubber tips, but I had brought some spares, and found some at a different store. Also got a Swiss Army knife. Managed to have lunch at Le Sancerre in the 3rd and then grazed a little for dinner at L’Avant Comptoir du Mer. Weather has been off and on raining, but not very cold. Today, Wednesday, it’s definitely wet and gray without much let up. I’m quite concerned about the weather on my camino route. Forecast is for rain on Friday, fine, but then very cold, as in freezing temperatures and snow for the next few days…. Not too promising!