Paris, Day 1

Landed in Paris today around noon, Paris time. I felt pretty good when I got off the plane, so I thought I would take the train (RER) to my hotel. When I got to the train station, there long lines at the automated tellers. The line at the human teller was ridiculous. I had just spent 8 hours in an interior seat on a plane, so I was not in the mood to wait. "@#$% it" I said. "I am on an expense account, I'm taking a cab." Problem was, none of the cab drivers wanted to take me to downtown Paris. "Beau coup traffic" the taxi dispatcher said. He went down a line of leathery old cab drivers who waved me off when they found out where I was going. Finally, they got to the "new guy." "He will take you," he said. "No problem." Only problem was that the "new guy" had no idea where my hotel was. Fortunately, I had anticipated something like this and had printed out my confirmation email, which had the address. Thank God for GPS navigation systems.

Anyway, the hotel (Marriott Rive Gauche) is nice.



























After taking a nap, I walked to the Latin Quarter, the Seine, and Notre Dame cathedral.


A fountain near the entrance to the Luxembourg palace.

















Notre Dame. I went inside, but there was a service going on, so I did not take pictures, but it is amazing. The ceiling is incredibly high. I kept thinking about all the people through the ages that had been in there. I don't see how they constructed it using Middle Age technology.






































Here is a view of the famous flying buttresses.















That scene from Pulp Fiction is true! May have to click on the image to the full-resolution version to see what I am talking about.




















When I got back to the hotel, I was pretty wiped, so I got a baguette sandwich and a bottle of wine and went back to the hotel room. Here is the view from blogging position:















Soccer Chauffeur out... It has been a long day.