CDG/Paris

Bonjour tous.

I exit the customs and hug Monsieur Paris. Hey, long time no see. LOL

I hand him his goodby bag. Oh I have more for you!! We laugh.

It is wonderful to see him. Like a true gentleman he helps me with my bags. I am grateful that he could come and greet me. Last time, not to complain or anything, I was ladened with bags, carry on, and had bought him Aussie wine from Heathrow Duty Free, not knowing I would be doing several parades up and down stairs. I miss my Aerogare 1 !!

We go out to his car which I am not quite sure was parked legalment but hey I love the convenience. We load the bags into the car, actually, he loads the bags, appreciated. I like the service here.

I break out one of the last hotel confirmations. The Comfort Hotel. Mesnil Amelot, ou quelque chose comme ca. We drive away from Aerogare 2 and through the many passageways and underpasses that is CDG. I am loving it. Je suis en France and it feels wonderful.

I would have spent more time in Paris, but like Frankfurt, could NOT get a hotel.
I sweated out Priceline several times, rien. Last time I had the Courtyard which is actually a very nice hotel, beautiful lobby.

I went on every site, looking at 300 euros, like Frankfurt, drove me crazy. London hotels were coming in better and was hoping that Mr. AF would fly up, but hence he had to cherche l'appartement. Ou la la LOL.

I remember this area from the SAS Radisson. It is in the boondocks. Way to the East of the airprort, I think we are half way to Germany. smile. The Rad was ok, but the shuttle bus always stopped at some little dumpy hotel, with name changed, guess where I am going.

Finding the thing is not easy and we do the British roundabout in France thing.
Alas, there it is, Le Dump! He parks in front and we unload to a cart.

Oh and I had found this via Expedia. com like 60 something $$$ Americain. If it is worth that much, ok.

The lobby is decent and the check in staff are nice. He speaks to them in French, I do that Frenglish/Franglais thing, bad habbit I know. My French professors spanked me for it, I can assure you. One of the femmes behind the desk is gorgeous. Bonjour. Easy check in, all pre-paid, no hassles, j'en aimes.

Le chariot(cart) like at Gatwick doesn't fit into the lift, so I had to take the bags in pieces. I leave the more expendable and grab my suitcase and carry on and up I go, figuring the other bags were fine. Beloved France, they were fine.

I grabbed my crap and ran it up. It is a college dorm room and now I understand the meaning of Water Closet, LOL.
Not meant for a fat man, to put it mildly. I fit ok, but would drive me crazy.

Big bed takes up the whole room. I throw things down but I can open the window, j'en aimes. ( I like it, love it)

P is now back from le parking and we take the rest up.

He and I are good friends but we could easily be long lost brothers. We have so much in common and we both collect everything and I mean everything from the airlines, hotels, whatever. I grab it, throw it into a bag, give it to him, we are good. Jon back home is similiar. I have a birthday suitcase from Jon, I still need to get into it. smile

Down at the car I took out everything for him and it is nice to have my black carry on, bertha, empty again.
He grabs a bag or 2 and brings it up and it is Christmas Day, I love it. He in turn gives me my goodies and they are less than usual, he apologizes, I say tres bien. I have too much stuff. Normally I will run to London/Paris for a long weekend mileage run, but in this case I have 2 weeks worth of stuff, so ca fait bien.

He likes what he sees. The American blanket from Business Class fell into my bag, golly gee. He likes it.
Unfortunately, I only have one BA blanket, from COACH, and it is nice, like that of a Business blanket, and I say, it is mine. LOL

I take some other goodies out of what has been my schoogi bag(German for chocos), I always have a schoogi bag, and throw them at him. Yes, at him, he can handle it.

The last time at the Courtyard he sat near my suitcase and we played a game. I threw chocolates and they had to go into the suitcase. He, the duly appointed gatekeeper, but finally a nice one!, lifts the top up just enough. I get a few in, some don't, but we both laugh ourselves to Heaven. Too much, love it!

This guy is great. Magazines, pretty much all the safeties heretofore, timetables, brochures, whatever. He loves the ELAL stuff. He makes fun of ELAL but the goodies are nonetheless fun to have. He works at the airport and ELAL is a pain to deal with to say the very least. I think any airport employee where LY flies in can attest to that. SECURITY!

I go through my goodies and there are some First/Business class amenity kits, I love these, new Air France pyjamas, a stack of magazines, PSA, Western, and more. Love it! I am also appointed courrier to bring a package for SFO Phil. he he he Yeah maybe you'll get it, kiddnig. It is all magazines in Chinese, but I am going to have a good look see before you get them in 2 weeks when we come up.

Oh and Antenne 2, France 2 if you prefer, has Friends on, en francais, but I know the dialogue. Their French voiceovers, ah, stick with le subtitles, s'il vous plait.

With that, it is Paris time. I am thirsty and I am starving. We get in l'auto and head for Paris. It is occassionally snowing, lightly. We go right thru CDG and see all the cool charters and what is now Terminal 3, vs. previously
T9. They call the terminals now, 'Terminal' but I stick with Aerogare, more French.

Out onto l'autoroute/freeway to Paris. We go for a bit with speed and then all of a sudden, bouchon/bottleneck. I still remember my professor describing a bottleneck to us via diagram.

There is a nice sunset. As we get closer to Paris, the traffic is awful, even though we waited for traffic to die down a bit. Gee, I am from LA, what do I know about it? he he he

It starts to snow. It starts to snow harder. I love it. The California dude gets to see live snow, probably the only time this year I will, which works for me.

We listen to French radio, not that I love French music. I must have several dozen French CD's and last time I was here in Paris I went to Virgin and went nuts. Cost me well over a $100 US. This time I passed.

You could see the Eiffel Tower flicker. It flickers on the hour. It is all lit up in beautiful Gold, with la lumiere, searchlight going around. It is incredible from the air. At the start of the hour it flickers for what, 5 or 10 minutes.
My heart sinks as I see this. I am in love. I am fascinated with this place.

I am like Meg Ryan in 'French Kiss' but I actually see the thing. She keeps missing it and then at the very end.
Wait til you go on it. My family can't get me down from there. It is Heaven.

We come into Paris and my French tourguide takes an earlier exit for the Champs Elysees due to le trafic. One f in French. What happened to circulation? That is what I had been taught in school.

First to the Champs, our special place, my special place! He told me he never goes there save when I come to town. Too much. I suppose I go places in LA only when tourists friends come to town, so fair.

We do the British roundabout at L'Arc de Triomphe. Oh my my. If you saw French Kiss and European Vacation you can relate. Americans have no business driving here, really, only the French, but the Italians could do well here as well. Cars dart in and out and it is scary. It is fun and exciting, yet scary. I hold on to my seatbelt and several cars miss us by that much. He knows what he is doing. The French are crazy drivers, but they are very skilled and it shows. There should have been 1000s of accidents and in the US there would have been, sorry, but true, but the French know what they are doing. Again, keep the Yanks out of this place, thanks.

I love L'Arc de Triomphe, it is special. I thought it was everyday. When Brian and I came back from South Africa, P was in Uzbekistan, we came here and they did the ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was beautiful.
I had no idea it was done once, twice a year, so we got lucky. A part of my heart is in France, and more so in Paris.
Paris is Heaven in many ways.