When they get 'er cranked up. . . . .

When they get 'er cranked up she can really, really move! This morning we took the Thalys High Speed Train from Amsterdam to Paris. AmTrac trains may top out at 60 mph. The Thalys is just getting warmed up at that speed. Nobody is quite sure just how fast this baby will move, but Duane thinks about 500 kmph. Duane is wrong, of course, but trust me it goes really, really fast!! Check it out. . . . See, this is an interactive blog. Get busy!
After a brief delay (They never did tell us why) we arrived at our new home for the next 30 days, 7 rue Saint-Claude. Look that up on that googlemap thingee. You'll find us there. If you go to Street View you can see Paula peeking out from behind the fig tree on the patio. We're on the 4th floor, which is actually the the 5th floor cuz they start counting at zero. Duane found this out the hard way when he walked up the stairs!!! Duane is very determined to climb the 387 steps in the North Tower of Notre Dam, so a few more stairs to climb is nothing.
Our host, Olivier, met us and walked us through all the things one should know. Like don't lock yourself out, don't wear shoes in the apartment (164 year old hardwood floors), be sure to water his plants and don't smoke the funny plant on the patio. Olivier is a college professor (French Literature, what else?) who inherited this apartment from his Grandmother. Quite a dandy inheritance I would say; a 500+ square foot apartment in the hottest part of town. 500 sq. ft. may not sound like much, but in Paris it is HUGE!
Those bells are ringing again and I gotta go. No pictures tonight, I'll double up tomorrow if all goes well. Bonsoir.