We landed in Paris on Friday morning.
Another guest post by Scott.
Sure is nice to sit in the front of the plane. You get quickly off and quickly through customs. I can not complain. We arrived in Paris to a low ceiling cloudy overcast day, but the clouds were summery/autumn type with depth not the bleak high winter type.
We used the service blacklane car service for ground transport from the airport to our hotel on the left bank. The car was a Mercedes Benz – quite a nice ride. I don’t know if our driver speaks English. He has said about as many words in English as I have said in French.
Here are my first person unscientific stream of conscious first impressions of France
One of my first observations: Ah, it feels great to get some fresh air instead of recycled airplane air.
Second observation: Paris’s airport garage smells the same as every other airport garage. Lol.
While driving down the champs élysées, my head and Jen’s head were on a swivel. Look. There is the Eiffel Tower. Look there is arc de triomphe. Look there is another crazy European scooter.
Speaking scooters, What the are rules of the road around that arc. Based on how all the drivers were going, It seemed like there were rules, but I could not tell.
The architecture of all the buildings was super cool. I was surprised the width of the main older streets. Some were super wide multiples of ill-marked lanes. Others were so narrow. Of course, the original buildings and roads were not built with vehicular traffic in mind. Still: Why are some wider than wide. Are they for the huge Marching Armies of Napoleon? I will have to look that up.
Traveling to Europe as a middle-aged adult with a small bit of disposable income is much different than as a relatively cheap and poor young adult. Now that I value time and peace of mind as much as money, having a car service pick you up at the airport and drop you off right in front of your hotel is super nice and sure beats the stress of train riding and walking and having no idea where one might be going.
At the Hotel, right as we entered, the registration desk handed us my wifi hotspot. I’ll explain that later. Our Hotel is great. It’s a boutique hotel quite quaint. There is a library off the small lobby. There is a little courtyard in the middle of the building. The elevator can only hold one person and one suitcase. There is a not level circular staircase all the up to the fifth floor.
Our bedroom is nice. Not so small that you have no room to stand, but definitely smaller than most American hotels. We have a small chair near a window overlooking the courtyard. A small desk. A dresser. The wallpaper is orange with black and white Asian toile motif with matching bed frame, bedsides, and drapes. The location is outstanding.
After freshening up ourselves and our phones’ battery life, Right away we walked to the Musée d’Orsay both to visit and to purchase our 4 day museum pass.
As we walked in, the main room with all the sculptures was quite grand, but only a prelude to the Louvre. We walked around almost Zombie like. We were so tired from the fitful airplane sleep. We did hit the highlights. I really enjoyed peering at Van Gogh and the Toulouse-Lautrec paintings.
Jen and I were so tired that we went back for an afternoon nap. Hey! Isn’t napping a perk of vacationing?
Our next stop was The Louvre… Stay tuned.
