Friday, May 21

We arrive in Paris! We made our way rather quickly through customs, and then found ourselves in the terminal. We spent a little time changing money, tidying up, and figuring out how to get into Paris. We caught a bus to the train station (short ride), and then spent some more time figuring out what to do. I got in line to buy tickets into Paris, but then came an announcement that the train had a problem and they shut the ticket window down. Confused, I consorted with the others, only to find out that within 5 minutes, the problem was solved and once again got in line, this time securing our 4 tickets.

We headed for the platform, and only waited a couple minutes and got the next train heading to Paris, eventually transferring at Chatelet Les Halles to RER A line to La Defense, where our first hotel awaited us. Once on the train, the trip went quickly, and we departed the RER and found our hotel right at the RER entrance. That was handy! Our hotel was the Mercure Hotel Defense Parc , which was a 3-star business-type hotel that I secured through Priceline for a very good rate. We checked in; the clerk was very friendly (we were wondering what our reception would be in France with all the turmoil going on in the world involving the US).

The others decided to take a 2 hour rest, but I was pretty awake, so I set off exploring around the hotel, and wound up at La Defense, which was pretty interesting, especially the Grand Arch. Soon it was time for everybody to awaken, so we headed to Place D'Etoile, and proceeded to climb the Arc de Triomphe. We spent some time fascinated by the traffic in the massive round-about. Then we did some window shopping along the Champs Elysees, and stores nearby. A perfect way to spend our initial day there.

We did Italian for dinner, just off the Champs Elysees. We then returned back to our hotel, and got to bed quickly for a full night's sleep, and tomorrow we were set to see the Louvre, which you don't want to visit when you're half asleep.

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