Paris!

We finally got to Paris!  I started to pass out as we got close, and almost missed the landing.  As we got to the north coast, I could see cliffs.  There was a huge cloud bank over France, and we were apprching it.  There was a river winding through the hills, and the outermost clouds were filling in the river valley.  It was beautiful!

We arrived and then had to walk a long ways and take a tram to get to customs.  The line was long but moved really fast.  They basically took a quick look at my passport and stamped it and that was it.  Then we had to find our luggage.  Mine was already there, but mom's took a long time.  We were really worried that her suitcase hadn't made it on the plane!

Her suitcase finally showed up, and then we left.  As we entered the main part of the airport, we had to run a gauntlet of people holding signs with names on them.  Amazingly, only one was using an iPad.  And apparently mom and I were both thinking that we wished our names were on there!

We found our way to the Roissy bus, which goes from the airport to downtown Paris for about 10 euros.  That was interesting!  We got on and started walking down the aisle, and the bus started moving!  A nice man got up and stowed our suitcases for us, while we tried to find a seat.  The trip was about an hour, through often narrow streets, with the driver shouting curses at other drivers and kissing other cars.  We thought there was going to be a wreck a number of times.

We got dropped off at the Opera, which is a beautiful building.  I was hoping to find a taxi stand, so we started walking down the street, and a taxi pulled up.  I waved at him, and his passenger was exiting, so we got in.  Our route took us by the Louvre, and then along the Seine, passing gorgeous buildings on either side.  That was about 14 euros.

We got to our hotel about 10:30, but luckily, our room was ready.  We were ready for it, too.