What a day!

Thursday turned into quite the experience. It started out with a landing at CDG, where we breezed through customs and getting luggage. CDG is HUGE, but the terminal where we landed was pretty quiet - reminiscent of the memphis airport. Once we got our luggage, we were off to meet the driver who would take us into Paris. Let me stop here to explain that while Pam is petite, her suitcase is not, and it would have been a struggle to wrangle that thing up or down any metro stairs - thus the driver.

I cannot imagine driving in Paris. The traffic from CDG to the city center was bad enough, but the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe is traumatizing. There are no lanes. There are no stoplights. There are no signs. It is a free for all, with vehicles come from all directions, each going with speed  and intent to its desired exit point. Our driver seemed fearless and navigated both it and other challenges without any audible cussing or other signs. He seemed sane, but there had to have been a level of insanity to have that job. 

He was fine, but we were traumatized. 

Our schedule being three hours off by the delayed flight and the time that it took for us to get to the city (three hours between landing and getting checked in), we spent the rest of the day focused on recovery. We ate well, drank 10€ water, walked a lot, climbed the Arc de Triomph, took a bateaux mouche tour, ate more, saw the Eiffel Tower (but were not able to get tickets to go up yet), and were zombies by the time we called it a day. Dan and I were out like lights at 10 pm, which was 5 pm CDT.

Panoramic from the top of the Arc

Sacre Coeur and Mon Martre

Not even gonna tell you. 

Champs Elysees from top of Arc

Doug and Pam