Birdlady42
Day 1 is more like day 0 and 1 all run together. We left Indianapolis Sunday evening and arrived in Paris Monday morning. Getting our 4 bags checked was a breeze – and free thanks to our new Delta cards! TSA is never fun, but it was smooth and the wait wasn’t too long. We were supposed to have TSA Pre-check by now, but that’s a story for another time.
The flight was nice, we had managed an upgrade to Comfort + and the flight was only about 2/3 full. We won’t be so lucky on the return flight it looks like. After dinner service, I tried every thing I could to get to sleep. We’re both pretty sure we dozed a little, but it wasn’t much before the lights were on and they were passing out breakfasts. I also got coffee, lots of coffee.
The border control in Paris was moving very quickly, then for some inexplicable reason, an attendant decided to divert our part of the line to an available agent on the EU passport control side and we ground to a halt while the regular line emptied out. After some goading by an older man who spoke fluent French about how ridiculous it was to move us, they reassigned us to the original line, where we flew right through due to all the agents available.
As we got down the escalator into the baggage claim area, I noticed Brian practically leap off to the left. There, right at the edge of the escalator, was our baggage carousel and our four bags were just passing. We barely managed to get them all before they slipped out of reach around to the back again. I grabbed a cart, Brian started getting it loaded and I jumped in the line for the ATM which was right across from us. Happy with our luck, we headed to the exit area in search of the driver for our private car. It always works so well in the movies…..
Last time we made a serious error in judgment and figured we would just use public transportation to get from the airport to the hotel. BIG mistake. Even with wheels those bike boxes are heavy. And we have another suitcase and a very large duffel bag. All of them approach the 50lb limit. If you’ve ever traveled the metro in Paris, you will know that changing lines involves stairs, lots and lots of stairs. By the time we got to the hotel, we had blisters on our hands and very sore shoulders. So this time, I looked up reputable private hire cars in my Rick Steves Paris book, went online and booked one big enough for all our luggage.
So back to this morning in the airport. We were surrounded by drivers with name cards, but none of them were ours. I had a phone number, but we didn’t have our local sim cards yet. I found a very helpful airport agent who dialed the number and loaned me his phone. The driver would be there in 5 minutes. And he was! He took us to the big Mercedes passenger van and our luggage fit perfectly in the back. Turns out our flight was early and the customs delay was short, so we got there sooner than they expected. It was a positively lovely ride right to the door of the hotel. And as an added bonus, due to traffic backups on the periphery road that would usually be the fastest way to get to Montparnasse, we took a shortcut through town, with quick glimpses of the Eiffel Tower and other sights we remember. Our room was ready early, so we were able to put our bike boxes in the interior courtyard and our other bags in our room. After a quick freshen-up, we trekked back out to get our sim cards from an Orange store. For long stays, it’s quite reasonable. 40 Euros for 2 weeks. We’ll buy a “Top-up” for the last couple days of the trip. We then walked to a crêperie we like near our hotel and enjoyed some gallettes and cider. We love that place because it is authentic Breton food and drink. We then went back to our rooms, changed, and went to the tiny courtyard to build our bikes. Brian recorded a video of it on his Go-Pro. We had fun speeding it up and adding some appropriate music.
By now we needed some rest. I didn’t sleep, but rested in bed for over an hour while Brian worked on the video. Once it was ready to upload, we headed to our favorite nearby-ish pub, “le Smoke” and then grabbed a metro ride to see the Eiffel Tower at night. Brian took a lot of photos, then we sat on the grass in Champ de Mars and waited to the top of the hour to see the light show. Neither of us had ever seen this, so we got to enjoy it for the first time together. Now, we must sleep! Tomorrow we head to the train and take it down to Orléans, where we left off last time.