Getting There - 14 September 2008

This is the first post in my France tour series. I'll be putting a date with each one so people can understand I'm talking about past events.

I didn't sleep terribly well but, that was normal just before a big trip. I did manage to pack everything I needed though I got 1 surprise when I found out one of the shirts I wanted to wear during the tour had 2 big stains I didn't know about previously. I packed the shirt planning to find a dry cleaners in France where I could get it cleaned.

I was out in front of my apartment early waiting for the airport shuttle. My biggest concern was getting to the airport. Once I made it there, events were out of my control. It was up to the airlines to get me to Paris. To my relief, the shuttle arrived on time and, I was its last pick-up. The drive to the airport took only 20 minutes or so. Traffic was light as it was Sunday.

I had no problems checking-in and found the departing gate. I had over 2 hours to do something before the flight. I checked out the airport shops but, they didn't have anything I wanted. I played a game of level 2 Sudoko which took care of 45 minutes. My flight ended up being late getting in due to mechanical problems. Our departure got pushed back over 30 minutes. However, once the airplane arrived, the American Eagle staff were quick to turn around the aircraft and I was soon on my way to JFK.

I had to change terminals at JFK which was something I'd never done before. I followed posted signs and managed to find the airport terminal tram. It took me to the next terminal but, I wasn't thrilled that it left the secure area so that I had to go through security again. I managed to find my friend Harvey and we proceeded to explore terminal 7. There wasn't much to explore. Compared to other terminals I've visited, JFK terminal 7 was small. After checking out the terminal, we went to the British Airways lounge. We found an excellent selection of snacks and drinks. I was starved by this point so I tore into the small sandwiches they had. I figured I would have some of those till dinner time on the flight. After we'd finished our snack at the terminal, we decided to wander around the terminal some more and see what shops they had. The shops didn't turn out to be terribly impressive. Also, I was leery of buying anything as that would mean I'd have to carry it with me for 2 weeks. When we returned to the lounge, we found out they were serving dinner in the lounge for the flight. They wouldn't be serving dinner on the flight. I wasn't thrilled with this news as I was pretty full from the small sandwiches I'd eaten there earlier. We decided to have the offered dinner in the lounge. It turned out to be excellent and was one of the finest airline meals I've ever eaten.

Finally, it was time to depart for London Heathrow. We made our way to the gate and didn't have any problems boarding. The Business Class sleeper seats were very high tech but, they weren't as wide as I expected. I opted for a window seat and enjoyed watching as pulled away from the gate. We promptly got stuck in a queue that was on hold. We ended up waiting over 45 minutes before we were able to finally take off. This turned out to be standard for JFK.

The flight to London Heathrow was very nice. Unlike my flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, I managed to get at least 4 hours of sleep which would serve me well later. By the time we arrived at Heathrow the next day, the airplane captain had managed to make up 30 minutes which was invaluable as we had a short layover in Heathrow. We still thought we had plenty of time to get to the gate as it was also located in the same terminal the new terminal 5 building. We got a shock when we had to go through security again. This turned out to be standard too. I don't understand why if I'm staying in terminal 5 and I don't leave the secure area that I have to go through security a second time. This ended up seriously delaying my friend and I and we had to hurry to get to our gate.

The flight from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle International (CDG) was a very short puddle jumper. We arrived at CDG within 45 minutes. I was surprised to find out I didn't have to fill out a landing card. French customs was a breeze. We kept checking our watches as we were anxious to catch the Noon Globus shuttle to our hotel. To our delight, a man named Louis from Globus appeared outside the luggage area showing a Globus sign. We let him know we were there for a Globus tour. To our dismay, my friend Harvey's suitcase didn't arrive. Considering the short time we had between flights at Heathrow, it was understandable. A lady with British Airways summarily took all the needed information and assured Harvey his bag would be on the next flight to CDG. After that, we made out our way out of the baggage claim area and met Louis. He directed us to the assigned waiting area where we met our first fellow tour members. They were a couple from Australia which I thought seriously cool. I loved their accents. Louis summarily lead us to our coach where we met our driver who would drive us the entire tour barring mandatory days off.

The ride into Paris was uneventful though interesting to me as it was the first time I'd seen the place in over 6 years. We said good-bye to Louis at our first hotel and, we never saw him again. Apparently, he works out of Globus's Paris office and is something of a jack-of-all-trades. Our hotel, the Novotel Paris Tower Eiffel was just off the river Seine and down the street from the Eiffel Tour. We found out that we would get to meet our tour guide Susan at 6 p.m. in the lower reception area. This seemed to be the standard meeting area for tour groups as there were signs for our group and 2 others. Once we received our keys from the reception desk, Harvey and I dropped off our bags and decided to go see the Eiffel Tower. It turned out the Eiffel Tower was farther away than we thought. It took us over 20 minutes to walk to it though it was an easy walk as we just followed the river and road to the tower. To my delight, I was able to find a BNP Paribas ATM machine at the tower. BNP Paribas has a deal with Bank of America where they won't charge you a fee for using their ATM machines. I planned to use their ATMs to get Euros (the European Union currency). After that, we walked back to the hotel where we waited for our first group meeting and the beginning of the tour.