During the movie, they also served a very late-night dinner. I originally asked for the chicken, although traded for Jeff's pasta when the chicken didn't look all that appetizing. After eating, we again attempted to go to sleep. I think we both did a poor job of getting any shut-eye. When I finally dozed off, I woke up to find breakfast in front of me - yogurt, peaches and an egg-mcmuffin-type sandwich. I nibbled on breakfast and attempted to fall back asleep. As I just dozed off, we started our descent to Paris - which, of course, meant that I had to put my seat in its upright position.
We landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at about 11:15am, Paris time - following an 8 hour flight. We taxied for another 30 minutes to our gate. Finally, we were able to get out of the plane and head towards customs. Jeff was very bummed that they did not stamp his passport on his way through. We crossed our fingers as we headed down to baggage claim. I was worried that our bags may not have been as patient during the layover in Detroit and decided not to make the flight to Paris. Luckily, the Deloitte & Touche duffel bag came rounding the bend with the other luggage.
With our luggage in tow, we sat out to find our driver. We passed a group of drivers, however, none were holding a "GILMORE" sign as we were promised. So, we went in search of him. I assumed he had left us because our plane was almost 1 hour later than we expected due to storms we avoided in flight. On our second pass by the group of drivers, an additional one had appeared with the "GILMORE" sign - we were greatly relieved! As we followed him to the car, we learned that he did not speak english. Instead, he was from Columbia and spoke only French & Spanish. We struggled to communicate with him all the way into the city.
The driver dropped us at our hotel around 1:00pm local time. Check in was very smooth and easy. The lift was very small - so, Jeff went up to our room first and dropped off the first set of luggage. I waited until he sent it back down and then took the lift up myself with the remaining luggage to room 32 (on the 3rd floor - which actually would be the 4th in the U.S. - our "1st" floor is their "0"). We had a lovely view!
When we finally made it up to the room, we both crashed. I was the first one down - Jeff still cared enough to brush his teeth before his nap. We woke up at 5:00pm local time. Immediately, I set out to get our room in order. I can't stand a messy room! After things were stowed to my satisfaction, we set out on our fist exploration of the city. The concierge provided us with a map that clearly marked our hotel location, so, we felt comfortable that we would not get lost on our first evening in Paris.We set out down the Rue de Turbigo to the Boulevard Sebastopol. Our goal was to head south towards the Seine. It was a quick and refreshing walk - after so much sitting in the airport and the airplane, it was great to stretch our legs. The river was very close to our hotel, so it was just enough to get us moving without tiring us further. The Seine was beautiful... everything I thought it would be...
Not wishing to get lost after dark, we began to head back towards the hotel as the sun began to set. We eventually slipped into a cafe for dinner and a drink along the Rue de Turbigo, not far from our hotel. I had a croque madame with a salad and Jeff truly ventured out with his club sandwich and frites (fries).
We made it back to the hotel around 11:30pm where we retired for the night.
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