A Very Happy 2017 New Years to all our FB friends and blog followers around the world. Had a great first day here in Paris! Ah Paris, the city of lights especially in the dark of winter - the lights come up much earlier. Our lose them or use them points from a canceled cruise last year was enough to get up to Paris in Business Class, nice. Great flights and great connections especially in Toronto when a hostess was waiting at our gate as we disembarked the plane with Jan’s name on a plaque. We had been selected to have an escorted transfer to the International Terminal in a new 7 series BMW they are promoting, nice, yes the one where the back seats recline - not that we used that feature.
Well winter in Paris, as we were landing I looked out the window and it was if we had landed in the sub arctic. The trees were all covered in an icy frost and it was cold, a damp bone chilling minus something cold, good thing we dressed in layers. Cleared customs quickly and our luggage was the first off the plane, now that has never happened before, great. There are many options in getting into Paris from the Charles De Gaulle Airport, Private Driver, Taxi, Roissy Bus or Metro. For us, with our Hotel minutes away from the Roissy Bus stop it made great sense to us try this service out. We have taken the Metro before which is also great but the advantage to the Roissy Bus is that there are no stops along the way and more importantly, no stairs. Depending on your Metro stop you could lugging your luggage up and down several stairs, this is when you understand why they call it luggage.
Checked into our Opera District, Chess Hotel at about noon and surprise our room was ready, wonderful. More on our hotel later. Unpacked got organized, had to pick up our Museum Passes at a Tourist Information centre close by, had a little lunch then a power jet lag nap as we were getting ready for New Years Eve here in Paris. Headed out at about 8pm, took a stroll in front of the Galleries Lafayette shopping area, wow, now these are window displays I have never seen before, spectacular, lots and lots of moving pieces as well as lots and lots of windows to look at, simply amazing. Dinner was at a covered and heated outside Brasserie, very nice and then we headed down to the action on the Champs Elysees. Security is paramount in this city as you could imagine with all that happened here not to long ago, so with that there was quite the line to get into the closed off main street of the Champ Elysees. We waited in line for a while and realized the lack of sleep and weariness from travel was kicking in. As it was only ten at this time we thought that going on for a few hours was going to be difficult, we bailed and meandered back to the hotel, returning there at about 11. If was great watching the New Years Eve celebrations on the TV and hearing all the fireworks with out window open. Lights were out by about 12:30, a good call as we needed the rest. A great welcome to Paris.
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