Bon Voyage and Bonjour!

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I flew through Detroit to get to Paris. After a weekend at EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival, I needed to get back to Mom so we could travel together. Flew in without a hitch. Mom was waiting for me at my gate and we caught up as we walked the 20 gates to catch the 6pm flight to Paris.

The flight was noneventful, thank goodness, but a 7 hour flight meant that we were gonna have a hard time being rested before we arrived in Paris the next morning at 7am their time! We both got less than 2 hours of sleep (it was probably closer to 1) and landed at Charles de Gaule at 7:15am.

We got off the plane and walked for what seemed like miles toward baggage claim. Just as I was about to ask someone if I'd missed a turn along the way, a sign announcing passport control popped up.

Now imagine the LONGEST line you'd ever hope not to be in. Worse than Target or Best Buy on Black Friday, the line snaked its way back and forth so many times it made me slightly nauseous. There were two lines next to it with about 20 people in each. Literally, a thousand people vs. 20. I noticed a young girl next to the entrance and walked up to ask her a question. I'm not sure what I was going to ask, I just needed someone to tell me I had to get in the line from hell. I couldn't do that to myself.

I learned that the two short lines were for EEU passport holders and Delta Sky Priority. Now, I'm not a Delta Sky Priority member. I don't fly enough or pay enough BUT I am a pretty good talker and we had purchased Delta comfort seats for the trip (more leg room and the seats recline further). The zone on my boarding pass said "Sky" and I smiled as I said the only French phrase I learned for the trip, "My apologies, I don't speak French" and then, "Do I belong in THAT line?" She looked at my boarding pass, looked at Mom and I and said, "Go there", nodding at the very short line!

Who said the French are rude?! I love it here already!

So, 45 minutes after touchdown, we were through customs and on our way to catch the train into the city!!

The train station is a nice walk from the Delta terminal and I had directions on how to go about buying tickets from the people we were meeting. As usual, following directions written by others never goes the way you think they should. For instance, there weren't lines of people buying tickets nor people selling them. We found kiosks selling tickets, figured out which tickets to purchase, realized that cash payments required exact change and the machine only accepted coins. No bills.

Tickets in hand, we asked no less than 3 other people where to go and which trains went to city center. Answer: all trains from CDG are on the same line and they ALL run the same route through the city!

The little tour group (there are 8 of us) was supposed to leave the hotel at 9am and someone was coming back to get us at the hotel about noon so we didn't hurry at all (not that we could have gone any faster).

Our first impressions of Paris weren't very good. The outskirts of town appear dingy from the rail lines. There is graffiti everywhere. It started to get better as we got closer to the city. We got off at our stop, Luxembourg, and headed out the exit. Across the street from the train is the Luxembourg Gardens and it's in the middle of an adorably quintessential Paris neighborhood. Stately and grand. Off we went toward our hotel, Grand Hôtel des Balcons, a little over a block away.

Surprise! We were so early (9:20am) and our group was running a little late that they hadn't yet left the hotel! We quickly stowed our luggage in the hotel storage room and headed out to experience the magic of Paris!

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