Paris, France – September 14, 2012

Our flight into Paris was uneventful once we finally got away late from Charlotte at about 6:15 PM yesterday.  The weather and flights were good, and there was no real turbulence to speak of.  We did learn that with US Air, we need to look at the specific planes that are making the flights when we book the reservation to avoid what we will describe as the “cattle car” experience.

For transatlantic flights, US Air normally either flies newer Airbus 320/330 aircraft  or old dilapidated Boeing 767’s.  Ours was the latter.  The seats seemed smaller than our last transatlantic flight on a newer Airbus, they seemed closer together, had no in-flight entertainment screen in the seat backs in front of us, and the overhead bins were even smaller than the bins we had on the smaller plane going to Charlotte on the first leg of this trip.  In addition, the sound system for music was terrible, you could barely understand any of the words from the songs.  I guess we knew it was a 767, we just did not realize it was that old.  We would have much preferred to  pay the same fare for a more modern and larger plane.  I guess we will pay attention to that next time we have choices on the airfare.

The arrival in Charles De Gaulle airport went smoothly, we went through immigration, and then collected all of our luggage without incident  Next, we proceeded to purchase our train tickets into Paris.  We took the RER B train into Paris, and the transit took about 35 minutes for the 13 intermediate stops before arriving at our stop.  We then took the Yellow #10 metro line (subway) one stop and then walked the 3-4 blocks to the hotel.  It was nice that we had been to this hotel and area of Paris before.  Even though it was close to 3 years ago, everything was still very familiar.

Since it was only about 11:15 AM when we arrived at the hotel, and the check in time was 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM, our room was not yet available.  We left our luggage in the locked storage and headed over to the Louvre.  The line was not too bad, and within about 40 minutes, we had our tickets purchased and were heading inside.  The Louvre is divided into different wings or sections.

We first visited the Denon wing containing all of the art work, specifically the Mona Lisa painting.  The Mona Lisa was not as large as one would think.

There was so much art in this wing, it was overwhelming.  One could spend days looking at all of the paintings (not us though!!).  They are really pretty, but after a while, they tend to start looking the same.

We grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe inside the Louvre, and then we headed over to the Richelieu wing to go and visit some recreated apartments of Napoleon Bonaparte.  That was actually more interesting to us than the paintings.  There were also many pieces of period furniture and other items that had been part of his empire.

After spending about 4 hours at the Louvre, we decided to head back to  the hotel and check in.  We received an inside room on the 5th floor, and although it has a window, it looks out into an alleyway between the front and back of the U-shaped hotel. At least is will be quiet.  Last time we stayed at this hotel in 2009 for one night, we had a front room facing the street.  Oh well, it is still a nice room, a little on the small side, but about average for Europe.

We stopped by a small grocery store to get a large 2 liter Diet Coke for Stephanie, and we also bought two bottles of wine, priced at less than 5 euro each, by choice.  We don’t know that much about French red wine, so this will also be part of our education, wine sampling.

Our plan was to go back to the room and freshen up since we had been in the same clothes for about 24 hours, and then afterward, head back out for some night time photos and sightseeing.  After a good hot shower and a change of clothes, we felt refreshed and then headed back out into the Paris nighttime to see more sights, albeit difficult since we were a little tired.

The plan was to head over to the Arc de Triomphe so that we could take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, and also of the Champs Elysees at dusk. But first, we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral, and just made it into the cathedral before it closed at 6:30 PM.  There was a Mass going on, so most of the Cathedral was cordoned off for the Mass.  We took just a few pictures and headed back outside to walk to the metro station and head to the Arc de Triomphe. We will plan on going back to the Cathedral later in the trip, we just wanted to verify the Mass times for Saturday/Sunday.

After arriving at the Arc de Triomphe, we went under it looking for a restroom, but none was to be found.  We were planning on purchasing a ticket to ride to the top for the pictures session, and found out that the restrooms were at a level near the top of the Arc.  Also, we had to walk up stairs to the top, there was no lift in operation.  I guess that is one way to regulate uninvited persons from using their facilities, make them walk to the top of the Arc.  We did just that, and it made us a little dizzy going up the long spiral stairs.  Finally reaching the level for the bathroom, we soon found out that the men’s room was closed for repairs, so it was sharing the two stalls in the women’s restroom, and there was already a line.

Finally, we made it to the observation deck, and the sight was tremendous.  There was a cloud cover in the distance, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated, and the traffic on the Champs Elysees was mesmerizing, one side being brake lights in a long row, the other being headlights.

After finishing taking pictures, we headed to walk down the Champs-Elysees  to see all of the stores.  We only walked a few blocks, and since we were getting tired and hungry, we then took the metro back to the area near our hotel and stopped for a bite to eat.  It was a decent meal, and the wine was good.  The time was about 11:25 PM, and we were exhausted.  We never did get much sleep on the plane flight over, but our plan when flying to Europe is to always stay out as late as we can on the first night to acclimate to the time change.  We think we succeeded

We are heading to Versailles in the morning, trying to beat the crowds.  That is another story that will have to wait for tomorrow, the the fact that there is a weekend in Paris where once a year, it is  free entrance to every museum in Paris.  Guess which weekend that is this year, yes, it is this weekend.  Talk about planning.  From what we hear, the crowds are supposed to be BAD.