C'est le temp pour parler Francais

Wednesday, Sept. 15th
Kortrijk, Belgium to Paris, France via train

Last night we had the entire hostel to ourselves. The couple who run the hostel are incredibly friendly and very hospitable. Upon check-in we were given a tour of the entire hostel, and the woman explained everything to us including the specific table where the tea would be located in the breakfast room and how the water in the showers starts out cold but then warms up (shocking). This morning we had a personal breakfast tray for three waiting for us, along with a buffet of cocoa crispies, corn flakes, bread, cheese, nutella, fruit, coffee, and tea. We ate leisurely and are now packing up for what will probably turn into an interesting day given our history with hostel finding. I am excited for Paris!!
I made another list of the things we're learning:
1) When the hostel clerk tells you your room is on the first floor, you have to walk up a flight of stairs to get there.
2) Belgium checks for train tickets
3) The Belgians who speak French think that France French sounds hoity-toity similar to the way British English sounds to us.
4) Supposedly french people like American accented French... we'll see.
5) It's much more useful to ask for directions and info about hostels than to try and figure it out on our own.
6) Don't make assumptions!!!!!!
7) All the countries Napoleon dominated drive on the right side of the road.
Update: We made it to Paris! This morning we did a lovely plyometirc workout in the park to kill some time before heading to the train station. When we got there we found out a train was leaving for Lille, France in about 10 minutes. So we booked it to the train with our bikes (good thing our heart rates were still up). However, our effort proved futile because when we arrived in Lille at 1pm we found out we couldn't get a train to Paris with our bikes until 4pm. So we went to the grocery store. Despite the HUGE Carreforre store, it took us about 45 minutes to find some peanut butter which we have been craving. The train to Paris was nice, but it's always a bit stressful traveling with bikes and panniers. When we got off the train, we located a map of the Metro, found our hostel, determined our Metro route, and bought metro tickets. As we tried to enter the metro though we were yelled at, and told that the only way we can get through the city with our bikes is to ride them. So, we exited the train station and I found myself getting quite nervous. People were staring at us, making comments at us that I didn't understand, and we were clearly not in a good part of town. Luckily, our hostel was a straight shot from the train station, and with a somewhat decent bike path we were able to bike to the hostel with more ease than I was expecting. The hostel is outside of downtown Paris, also in a sketchy part of town, but everyone inside seems very friendly and our bikes are safely locked up in the basement. There is a kitchen in the hostel and we cooked up a yummy root vegetable stew for dinner. The metro stop is right near by so we will venture into the nicer part of Paris tomorrow!