To Paris, with Love

May 10, 2010, the time has finally come!

I normally fly standby, so I have flown 1st class for the last 10 years. Of course on THIS day, the ladies at the front desk checked in my bags, but did not check me in..???? So, I went from being the first person on the standby list to getting the last available seat on the flight. Barely made the flight! Then I end up on the last aisle seat on the last row of the plan. I have officially gone from first class to worst class. So now, my first time flying coach in 10 years, I'm on a 9 hour overnight flight....next to the bathroom.

Apparently the flight was so full that the flight attendants did not have anywhere to put there belongings, so they put them behind my seat...now I cannot even recline that .00001 of an inch.

For this flight, I guess everyone was SO excited that they used the bathroom all night. Or they would come by the bathroom to stretch their legs, taking the time to get extremely close to me trying to read my book over my shoulder....like privates on my shoulder close. Now, I'm being molested and disgusted by the smells coming from the bathroom.

Ok ok ok....I know this is not starting off good, but I'd rather be miserable going to Paris than comfortable going anywhere else.

FINALLY, the shitty flight is coming to an end. Didn't have window access on the plane, so did not see Paris upon our approach.

We disembark (YAY!). I'm the farthest I've ever been from my children and my mother and start to panic a little. Then of course my sprint phone doesn't work in France...of course it doesn't.

Immigration and Customs went smoothly and swiftly, then there we are, in the lobby of CDG.

**** I want to stop here for a little background *****

I work for the State of Texas....not a high paying employer and I also have too many food allergies to name. Oh, and I have only a limited amount of French in my vocabulary.

With my limited funds, I didn't have a lot of money to work with. Luckily, because it was a group trip, most of our fees were paid up front (i.e. hotel, museum passes, etc.) and we were only going to be there for 10 days. Because of my food allergies, I had one small suitcase with food items that I knew would not kill me, so started with a $400 US budget. I'm not a big shopper and really only needed money for incidentals, any food I could find that I could eat and souvenirs. I know it's low, but it worked! Kinda.

**** Back to the lobby ****

We were going to catch the RER to the city so we needed Euros. Now, I had read up on pickpockets and such and am I not succeptible to scams, so I was not prepared to be robbed at the Currency Exchange window.....ugh!!!! That took 1/3 of my limited budget, hence the kinda previously mentioned.