WE ARE DRENCHED, BUT WE EXPLORED!

The Golden Tulip
Roissy en France
August 14, 2015

We arrived safely at Charles de Gaulle Airport at about 5:50 a.m. EST/DST, after leaving Erie at about 5 p.m. Thursday. The Detroit-Paris flight of 275 passengers and at least 12 crew was smooth and as comfortable as one can be on a jet these days. Neither of us slept on the flight. We were served two meals, dinner and light breakfast. Navigating the way to go through Airport Customs and finding our checked luggage makes us grateful that we can walk easily because the people movers and some escalators were not working. It appears that CDG is very secure and very large.

We found the hotel shuttle area after passing five gendarmes with AK 47 like weapons. This made me think of a recent conversation in Erie -- the lady I was speaking with said she did not want to cruise in the Caribbean because some islands have armed security walking all around.  Here we are in France with heavily armed security. I believe it is a sign of the times.

We arrived at The Golden Tulip at 1 p.m. UTC/GMC +2---meaning the European Summer Time Zone sort of. In other words we are moving into French time, add 6 hours to DST in Erie.

The Golden Tulip is a pleasant hotel--we have a clean double room with modern furnishings. I admit the first thing we did was crash. When we awoke about 4 hours later we decided to explore the area. We found that Roissy is a pleasant little village about a ten minute walk from the hotel with cobbled streets, a mix of old and new. We used an ATM to get euros and found a small grocery store for water, Coke Zero, and two bananas--dinner!

Just as we accomplished this it began to rain. And rain. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were soaked!

Tomorrow we hope to take the train to Paris and spend the day before we meet our new friends, including Mike Hanlon, our tour guide. I reviewed several World War I books on the flight over, including the handbook that Archie was given at discharge from the U.S. Army. This handbook describes the action of  Archie's 357th Regiment, 90th Division. I have lots of questions.