Paris, France July 8

We arrived safe and sound Thursday afternoon @ 5:00 PM with no major flight delays or problems. That's the good news. The bad news is that when I called the shuttle service the hotel had arranged for us, they had no record of our reservation for that day. Instead, their records showed a pick up on July 30th, the day we're scheduled to return to Paris after our bike ride! Since they had no available drivers to pick us up, Rich and I had to fend for ourselves and figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel without it costing us an arm and a leg.

Being the resourceful duo that we are, we were able to map out a route via the train/metro system that only required 3 train changes/connections! Along the way, we met up with a nice couple from Ventura, CA who were in a similar predicament. We pooled our collective intellectual resources and made our way to the RER train that would take us into Paris (1 hour train ride).

Rich and I finally made it to our hotel @ 8:30 PM after a lot of lugging our luggage up and down stairs at the various metro stops (will someone please let Rob know that I'm staying in shape carrying 2 30-lb. suitcases up and down those stairs?).

After checking into our hotel, we wandered out in search of dinner and found a nice cafe a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. I've attached a few pictures we took along the way. The weather here is very warm and the evenings are balmy. I'll post more updates this evening if Rich doesn't hog the computer.