Paris - Day 1

As some of you may know, Shad and I just returned from 6 days in Paris, France. My brother-in-law wanted to surprise my sister and so he offered to pay for our airfare so that we could join them on their trip to Paris. Shad and I leapt at the chance to go! It has been a dream of mine to visit Paris since I was 12 years old and took my very first French class.

We had a wonderful time and took a million pictures. It's going to take me forever to blog about our trip, so I'm going to do it in installments.

Thursday November 20 we flew to Houston where we met up with my sister Julie (who was not surprised - we Machnicki women are impossible to surprise - we always find out, without even trying!) and Chris. Then it was off to Paris. Despite being completely exhausted, all 4 of us had a hard time sleeping on the plane. We flew on a Continental 767. My favorite feature of this plane is that each seat had it's own TV screen with on-demand movies and TV shows. I watched Phantom of the Opera and Shad watched Hancock and Get Smart.

Here we are on the flight to Paris!

We flew into Charles de Gaulle airport and then struggled to find a telephone to call for our shuttle service to the hotel. I HATE trying to figure out European payphones. I finally gave up and got a clerk at the Continental counter to call for us. My first experience speaking French in 13 years was a bit terrifying, but I managed.

Our shuttle ride was interesting, to say the least. Parisians are crazy drivers! And they  have a love affair with their horn. We all commented several times during the 30 minute car ride that we were very grateful to NOT have to drive in Paris. 

We stayed at the Best Western Opera St. Lazare on Rue de Constantinople.  Shad's and my room wasn't ready, despite the check-in time being listed as noon on the website (the concierge insisted the website was mistaken), so we dumped all of our luggage in Chris and Julie's room.

The first thing we did after getting to our hotel was get some croissants and baguettes at boulangerie (bakery) a block away from our hotel.

Chris is the one with the backpack. I'm standing on his left and you can see the top of Julie's head through the door window to the right of Chris. 

Thanks to Shad for being the camera man.

I am convinced that the bread in heaven will be French bread! C'est magnifique!