Two Americans (allegedly) in Paris

Dave and I arrived in Paris on Tuesday, August 15. We arrived at the 7th gate of hell (Charles De Gaulle airport) at 6:30 AM. We were reunited with our luggage at 7:30 or so, and then made our way to the train station to take the RER train into Paris. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? To get the tickets, though, we tried three different automated ticket kiosks, and then asked at the information booth. There they told us exactly where to go. So at approximately 7:50 we were on our way. We reached the Châtelet station around 8:30.

The next challenge, then, was to find the hotel. We had an address that was simply Place Marguerite de Navarre. But my less-than-detailed map didn’t show many places (plazas or squares would be a rough English translation). Dave finally found it on a map. Then we had to find an exit from the station that would be close to the hotel. Because it was early and/or because it was a bank holiday in Paris, many of the exits were closed. We wandered around for quite a while before we found a way out. Then we luckily found a fellow who spoke English who could direct us to the hotel, which was fortunately very close.

It goes without saying that we took a taxi back to the airport. It’s one thing to be challenged in that way when you’re on vacation, but quite another when you’re traveling on business.

We retired to our rooms and attempted to get some work done. Easier said than done, since we had very little sleep on the flight (around 20 minutes for me, maybe a couple of hours for Dave). So work was pretty much impossible. We went out for a stroll over to Notre Dame (about a 10-minute walk from the hotel) and on the way back had lunch at one of the hundreds (it seemed) of bistros (bistreaux…?) in the neighborhood). After lunch we again tried to get some work done, but finally just gave up and napped most of the afternoon away. We each awoke feeling a fair amount better, had a little dinner at yet another bistro and then retired for the evening.