Arriving in Paris

Landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, outside of Paris, France. Charles de Gaulle is the 7th busiest airport in the world, and 2nd busiest in Europe, after London's Heathrow Airport.

Being from Tampa, I have to admit, Charles de Gaulle is not nearly as clean or organized as Tampa International Airport. But after a 7-hour flight from Philadelphia, I am not really complaining. The flight was pretty comfortable, mostly because the flight wasn't full and I was able to stretch out a little bit.

I was a little nervous when I got off the plane, because here I was alone in a foreign country, where I don't speak the language. To make matters worse, my poor old outdated BlackBerry does not work in France.

Jorge arrived before me, but he accidently went to the wrong terminal.

I decided to stay put, and he found me! We were so happy to see each other.

I know I kind of looked like I have slept on a plane, but at this point it didn't matter, I was so happy to finally be in Paris!

We have been planning this trip for months, and I have not seen Jorge since September because he has been working out of the country.

We took the train from the airport, into Paris. Parisians call their subway system the Metro. Paris has an excellent train and public transportation system.

This is the Gare du Nord train station, and it was completed in 1866. It is decorated in neo-Corinthian style. The 9 statues at the top signify the most important cities of France and Europe, where the trains lead from this station.

Here is Jorge lugging my suitcase across the street outside of the train station.

I was immediately in awe of the beautiful architectural style everywhere I looked.

I decided I could not go a step further until I had a proper cup of coffee. We stopped at the cafe around the corner from our hotel. I thought I ordered coffee, but I was brought espresso instead. Although it was great coffee, I seriously doubt this is going to get me through the day.