Arrival in France

       This blog is going to be covering my trips throughout Europe.  I am starting out in France, then Ireland, back to France, onto Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and back to France.  I am a huge Raiders Fan so that will be the theme of the blog as you will be able to see below in all of the pictures.  I hope you enjoy!  Feel free to add any comments or suggestions.

       Well it took over 24 hours, but I finally made it to France.  The day started out early in the morning on May 17th.  I had a flight from Atlanta to Charlotte, a four hour layover in Charlotte, and then a flight from Charlotte to Paris.  The four hour layover turned into a seven hour layover, but luckily I had a good seat at the bar with ESPN playing on the TV.  After enjoying a couple beers at the bar I found out I had to get my passport stamped in Charlotte and then decided to read a book recommended by my cousin, Water for Elephants.  It is an engaging book about a vet student's life in a traveling circus during the 1930’s, and the forbidden love he encounters.  I was wary of reading it in the airport terminal because the cover has the movie poster on it which if you haven’t seen it, is a picture of Robert Pattinson embracing Reese Witherspoon.  I’m sure all the teen girls just thought I was reading twilight but who cares it is a good book!  It is a quick read though and I highly recommend it.   I also met a few Raider fans who liked my new hat.  Raider Nation really is everywhere!

       Above is a picture taken after finally getting seated on the plane for France.  As for the flight, it was LONG.  We finally took off around 8:30 p.m.   We were entertained by Glee and then served dinner.  Our choices were chicken and vegetables or a pasta dish, and I chose the pasta dish which was basically stover’s pasta nuked in a microwave.  It was good though and satisfied my palette (which is not an easy thing to do if you know me).  They showed the Green Hornet next which was a decent comedic action flick.  I decided to attempt to sleep after the movie was over, and slept on and off for the remainder of the flight.  

       We landed in France at 10:00a.m. on May 18th.  France is 6 hours ahead so that would be 4:00a.m. eastern time.  I was exhausted at this point but still had to go through customs and take the train and the metro to my sister’s place.  The following is a picture of the train’s route:  

       The airport is on the outside of Paris, similar to Fulton County Airport in Atlanta it seems.  We rode the train through the suburbs and upon entering the city we hopped off and onto the metro (France’s Subway System).  After riding on the metro we got off and this was the first advertisement I saw:  

Turns out that “Bad Trip” refers to a bad drug trip and I guess the French thought it was a better title, as after researching they do have a french word for Hangover.  My sister’s place is right next to the metro exit so we hopped off, walked past a couple restaurants and bam are at her place.  I can barely hold my eyes open at this point.

Also here is a picture of one of the view’s from her place.  I promptly passed out for 3 hours upon arrival at her place.  

       That sums up my arrival to France.  Stay tuned for stories about our trips to Notre Dame, The Louvre, Arc De Triomphe, Eiffell tower, comparisons of American Brands and their counterparts in Paris, and also Gracie’s Parisian Twin.