They have the location of this one wrong and I do not know how to change it. This blog is not about crusing the East Coast of the U.S. but is a story of a trip to France.

There should be a blog preceeding this one about me winning a free trip to France from a local television station drawing. My son, Tim, and I took the 8 day trip and enjoyed it immensely............

We left St. Louis Lambert Airport around 8:00 a.m. bound for Chicago's O'Hara where we were to catch our connecting flight to Paris. It was quite a wait since the Air France plane was not scheduled to take off until 6:40 p.m. I called a cousin of mine who lives in Chicago to see if he could pick us up at the airport and spend a little time visiting before our next flight. He was out of town that day taking his son to collage. Danny had just been accepted to attend Princeton. Marge, his wife, was working that day so the idea to see them did not work out at all. He expressed regret that we did not get to see each other, but we had a little visit over the telephone and caught up on a few things since we had been out of touch for some time. The time did not pass too slowly, however, because we walked around the airport and watched planes take off and land, got something to eat, and checked out some of the many gift shops throughout the terminal. At around 4:00 o'clock a clerk appeared at the Air France desk and we were able to check our baggage and get a little information on the flight. One thing I wanted to know was if meals were served on the flight. I thought it was possible that all we would get would be a snack since we were taking off rather late in the day. As it turned out, not only were we served a delicious meal complete with champagne but also a breakfast the next morning just before we landed inn Pars. The plane ride was rather exciting since I had never been on such a big jet or so long a trip before.

At about 9:00 p.m. it seemed a bit chilly on the plane since my seat was by a window. A computer screen in the front of the plane showed our progress as well as outside temperature (minus 60 degrees), ground speed (550 to 600 mph), and atitiude (35,000 feet). I got a blanket from the overhead compartment and tried to get some sleep. I selpt surprisingly well until about 7:30 in the morning, or so I thought. As it turned out, it was 7:30 Paris time (I had changed my watch) but only 1:30 by our old St. Louis time. I thought I would probably be sleepy most of the day but would try to stay awake when we got to the Paris hotel and just go to bed early that evening. Then I would be on a different schedule but not too bad off for the next day of sight-seeing. The sunshine was shining brightly outside my window as we crossed over Ireland and the Isle of Man and headed for our final approach into Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport. We barely had time to finish our breakfast and the crew cleared the trays while we were landing in gay Paree.

I thought we would never get out of the airport with trying to figure which bus or train to take into the city and get to our hotel. We finally got into the city after much hassle with the Metro system. When you don't know how the trains operate it is very confusing trying to figure out their schedules, especially when it's written in French. We lugged our suitcases around and finally figured out where we needed to go to get the right train that would take us to the hotel or at least close to it. I called this the nightmare station because it felt like we were in the "twilight zone" and could not get anywhere. When we finally got in the vicinity of the hotel we couldn't find the right street where it was located. Tim walked around while I stood on the corner with all the luggage and waited. I was so glad it was a bright sunny day and not a dark night to be out standing alone on a strange street corner. Tim finally found the hotel but then got lost trying to find his way back to where I was waiting. He managed to retrace his steps and finally got back to where I was anxiously pacing back and forth. It was such a relief to get to the hotel and get checked in. Thank goodness the man at the desk spoke English, even if badly. The hotel, called Hotel Montana Tuileries, was located on rue St. Roch in downtown Paris.

After we got settled in, we took a walking look-see around the city near the hotel. I could see the Eiffle Tower in the distance across the Seine River and we headed in that direction. We passed the Louvre Museum and noticed it was closed on Tuesday, the day we were there. I planned to go back in the morning and see it on the inside. All of the streets are narrow and most of them are one way, making driving practically impossible if you don't know the city well. In fact, we were warned not to rent a car and attempt driving there and I am glad that we did not. Anyway, it is better to get around on foot and that way you can see much more of the sights. We strolled along the Champ Elyssses and took pictures of the many interesting statues, parks, etc. that we came across. The Eiffle Tower was only sometimes visible because of all the tall buildings. We knew we were getting close to it and thought we should prpbably go up in it that night since we might not have time the next day if we wanted to explore the Louvre. It was necessary to see as much as possible in the time we had, and that included time spent finding our way somewhere after first getting lost!