Arriving in Paris - June 11th & 12th

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This entry by Tom.

It was a bit of a process but we made it to France and our hotel for the first two nights in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. Caroline’s folks, then her sister Nathalie, drove us to the airport in Montreal. Checking in with our bikes went smoothly and our flight on a huge A330-300 on AirTransat departed for Paris more or less on time just after 10pm for an overnight trip across the ocean. We tried to get a bit of sleep but it’s not easy at the best of times and this was not the best of times as we were packed into steerage. I nodded off twice in between a movie (“Passengers”) and a few episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s “Places Unknown”. It was enough.

After taking too much time to get us off the plane and then WAY too much time passing through customs, our bags and bikes were waiting for us. The trek through Charles de Gaulle airport from terminal 3 where we landed and terminal 1 where we planned to take a shuttle bus to Orly went well enough, then we hit another delay while trying to find the ground transportation at terminal 1. It wasn’t obvious and the famous French efficiency was in full effect again but then when we finally got to where we needed to go a very helpful and probably Canadian flight attendant helped get us right on the bus to Orly.

After a fairly quick cab to our hotel, a Première Classe, a helpful clerk at the front desk got us into our room, bypassing a finicky automatic check-in kiosk. This is a very basic, very inexpensive place but I don't mind because we won't be spending much time in our room except for sleeping plus the Campanile that it shares a parking lot with will be where the others in our group will be checking in when they arrive tomorrow.

We needed a shower and a nap but mostly a nap so that came first.

After some down time I got the bikes together. That went smoothly; no damage, forgotten tools or missing accessories to deal with. Then more down time.

Got in touch with Don and Dan who have been at the adjacent Campanile since they arrived on Friday. They got here even earlier than we did and have been out riding in and around Paris. Went over and chatted for a bit, and got a tip on places to eat nearby. We strolled over to a corner butcher that they told us about that also had prepared food. It looked like a northern African kind of place, judging from the food and the people. Hooked us up with some very tasty curried chicken, roasted vegetables, rice and other sides. You really can’t beat the food, people and value at a good hole-in-the-wall type of place and that’s what this was plus unlike most of Ottawa it was actually open past 10pm. Later on, we realized that this was probably a Muslim joint and they had to open late on account of Ramadan.

And that was the end of a very long day-and-a-half for us.

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