I’m sitting in the coffee shop attached to our hotel in Paris having my first latte of the trip and of the day.

Unfortunately there was no sleeping on the flight. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but sleep absolutely eluded me. Fortunately, there were cocktails, bubbly, dinner, snacks, more snacks, and finally breakfast of an egg sandwich and orange juice.

Getting through customs was an absolute breeze because they opened up a new line and I got in it. I’m not sure that France has any idea that I’m here though. I didn’t have to scan my passport or anything except hand it to an extremely bored man. I’m not entirely sure he even looked at it before giving it back and waving me through. Baggage claim was equally easy and I was in the arrivals area in nothing flat.

That’s where the adventure begins. My flight was 30 minutes early, but I dutifully looked for a person with a sign that had my name on it. No joy, but I wasn’t surprised because I was super early. So just to be sure, I went to the tourist help desk and asked them if I was in the right place. Yep. The shuttle just wasn’t there yet. This was at about 7:40 am. Flight was supposed to land at 7:55.

So I wait.

And I wait…

And start to get a little concerned around 8:20.

About 8:30 I spotted a man from the shuttle service, but his sign was for someone else. Nevertheless, he got my name and reservation number and called the main office. After a little while and some back and forth, it was determined that because I didn’t fly United, I was not in the correct terminal. The man was intent on taking care of me until the other driver came to pick me up. Grabbed my suitcase (that concerned me) and took me to a chair. Told me to wait 5 minutes and the other driver would be there to collect me. It was now getting closer to 9:00.

He stuck pretty close to me while watching for his passenger, and called the other driver at least 5 times. Eventually, around 9:30 the other driver finally got there! I tipped the first guy because I felt so much better after he started shepherding me around and making sure I got where I needed to go.

Got in the shuttle with 6 other ladies all in the same tour group. And then we saw this:

It took an hour and a half to drive to the hotel because of traffic!

And now I’m hanging out on the couch in the coffee shop waiting for mom and Joanna to get here. Probably will be around 1:00 pm. In the meantime, here is my current view:

I may have to get another coffee while I wait so I don’t fall asleep.