We woke up this morning in Paris.

What a way to start the day! It was a bit of a challenge to get here; our journey included a four-hour delay in Chicago on Friday evening due to severe weather conditions. And by that, I mean a Tornado Warning, which resulted in us spending about 45 minutes in a hot, airless emergency stairwell with about 100 of our fellow travelers.

Then, due to the delay of our inbound craft, we missed our connection and ended up spending the night in…Iceland. Here’s what I now know about Iceland: It is really, really cold. And windy.

But let me focus on the positives: We were flying Business Class on Icelandair and the cabin crew could NOT have been nicer and more attentive. The in-flight service and amenities were fit for Queen Mama, and the BC team really made a fuss over her. I’m afraid that Mama D will accept nothing less on future flights, LOL.

One of our favorite amenities was this cool chocolate bonbon — the filling was almond butter and the exterior was dark chocolate with a cool mirror glaze that looked like a galaxy.

We learned mid-flight that we had been rebooked on the April 2 (Sunday) flight (apparently there is only one flight per day to Paris) and rather than stressing out, we decided to go with the flow and see how Icelandair would handle it. As it turns out, they were great.

All delayed passengers who had to stay overnight were given vouchers to cover transportation, meals and lodging during the delay. We were loaded into a taxi and whisked away to what I think it the best hotel in the area, the Hotel Keflavik. While the rooms were pretty spartan, like a 1960s college dorm room, they were absolutely spotless, the beds were comfortable, and the shower was nice and hot. And the staff — every single person we encountered, were extremely kind and accommodating.

The common areas of the hotel was a rabbit’s warren of little nooks and crannies with interesting artwork and comfy seating areas. I found that particularly interesting, since. The exterior of the building looked like a big rectangular box.

I intended to take a walk around the neighborhood and indulge in one of my favorite travel pasttimes: checking out the local grocery store and trying to figure out the Icelandic language labels on the food packages. But after stepping out of the lobby, and being battered by horizontal rain and gale force winds, the best I could manage was to take this photo of the hotel. I did snap some shots of interesting stuff inside the hotel, including this beautiful display of gold-plated serving pieces and … a Champagne vending machine.

The hotel was pretty quiet in the afternoon, but apparently this is THE hot place for young Icelandic singles to spend a Saturday night. The bar, the small patio lounges and the restaurant filled up pretty quickly and soon, the place was jumping! We ended up sharing a table at dinner with a professor from Perdue University and his daughter, who were headed to Manchester, England. Like us, their delayed flight from Chicago meant that they needed to stay over. We really enjoyed chatting with them over burgers and sharing our travel stories.

We got back on schedule Sunday morning, and arrived in Paris early afternoon without mishap. We did experience some delays getting from the airport to our apartment in the 14th due to a couple of accidents on the main road into Paris and some heavy traffic from the Paris Marathon. But I am pleased to report that we saw no protests and there were no piles of trash on the sidewalks in the areas we travelled through.

We were met at the apartment by Tania, who is the City Manager for the apartment rental company. Tania walked us through all the quirks of the late 19th Century building, and all the French appliances. We are still trying to master the electric radiators, but have figured out just about everything else, including how to use the teeny-tiny washing machine.

We spent the day resting, and discovering the neighborhood. But we are both pretty jet-lagged, so we will be taking it easy for the next couple of days. After all, we have the entire month!

In my next post, I’ll give you a tour of the apartment and our little neighborhood.