France: Day 1 - Paris

I am very much not in this time zone.  Last night up at 1am.  I slept a bit before my alarm went off just after 6 and I quietly left the room and took the CGDVAL shuttle train back to terminal 2E.  Everything from the hotel lobby to the terminal was busy with people getting morning flights.

I am so glad I booked an airport hotel with the way things worked out.  Easy shuttle access to the airport saved this trip.

I called the number on the wall at the Baggage Service window/door at 2E and 5 minutes later I was dragging a massive box around the terminal.  The agent asked me, "Why didn't you wait for it?".

Back at the room Aidan woke up and we threw the box contents all over the room and put the bike together.  Breakfast at the hotel and on to the next issue.

Aidan had a travel backpack for his train part of the trip and some things he wanted for his summer vacation at home.  There were a lot of clothes and some really heavy stuff.  Dungeon and Dragons stuff is not light.  We needed to post this to the hotel in Bordeaux.

In my sleepless period I looked up Le Post and realized there was a post office at the terminal.

I had searched and found the office before getting the bike. It was tricky to find even knowing the location on the map because there were so many levels.

We took Aidan's backpack to Le Post expecting a bit of an ordeal.  It took just a few minutes.  They had boxes and everything we needed.  We were feeling good about everything.  Next up Aidan's bike.

I had ordered a bike on the Decathlon web site for store pickup borrowing my friend Jean-Francois from Nice's phone number to register and using PayPal to pay because they would not take any of my credit cards.  I had gotten several emails saying the store was keeping my bike "warm" for me.

After an Uber van ride to the store we were directed to the bike area and off several workers went to find the bike.  They could not find it.  No bike in the store.  4 days to reorder.  Crap!

Our clerk who spoke English looked around to see what was in stock at nearby stores.  Nothing, nothing ... Ahhh, the closest store has one.  Off we go in another Uber van.  At least we are getting closer to Paris.

The next store at Domus mall is a much nicer store in a much nicer mall than O'Parinor.  I would go straight here next time.

We had some lunch at the mall, fitted up the bikes and began our first leg.  12km through Paris.  Aidan was a little shaky but he did good.  Most of the route was along bike routes and most of those were dedicated bike lanes and paths.  Paris has an excellent bike infrastructure.  In many places they have taken multi-lane streets and given most of it to bikes.  These routes are heavily used.  There are a lot of people riding around.

We got to our hotel about 4 which was about right for the day's plan.  The second Uber cut the riding in half.  It kind of all turned out to be a wash as the extra Uber cost was more than made up for by all the extra stuff the bike had on it.  Clearly it was a return or had been prepared for someone as it had front and back lights, water bottle holder and a bell; worth more than the cost of the Uber.

We had begun! 

Next we headed to Notre Dame.  I ordered Metro tickets on my phone and Aidan said he would just buy them at the station.  He was laughing on the other side of the turnstile as the system rejected my phone.  I bought tickets.  Guess I'll never know what went wrong.

It was an amazing, warm day to be walking around Paris.  If there are this many tourists at the beginning of May, it must be insane in July.  There are guys at each bridge selling locks for people to lock to the bridge.  On random bridges there are little growths of lock bundles.

We had dinner at a place near the Metro of our hotel.  It was decent.  Back at the room I was out in a minute.  I expect it will be like in Spain a few months ago where I slept an hour later each day.