Map of CDG. I landed in 2A and had to get to 1.
I am actually in Paris with a group of students from school, however I flew by myself because I am leaving after them. Well I landed in terminal 2A but had to meet them in terminal 1. Needless to say it took me a long time to get there. First I misunderstood what one lady told me and walked past the CDGVAL (the airport's train between terminals). Then I misunderstood the second lady and ended up not walking far enough. Finally on the third lady I managed to find the train and get to terminal 1, but then it took me forever to find where the arrivals come out of customs because it took me a while to realize that the terminal was a big circle that just went up and each part was on a different floor. I suppose it could have been worse and I could have missed a flight or something like that but still, it made me quite unhappy that early in the morning and with no sleep.
Once we all finally met outside of customs we took a private van to Opera where we were going to meet our host families. Because our planes arrived earlier than expected, however, we ended up sitting on the steps of the Opera with all of our luggage for WAY too long. A little after 10:30 however, my host mom got there and we took a bus back to her house. It is on the 5th floor (the 4th floor in French) and is simply very Parisian. I love it and she is so nice and welcoming making things much easier for me.
After getting settled and eating lunch, my host had to work so she told me to explore the city some. I met up with my friend Blair and we ended up roaming around way more of the city than I thought we would. We met at the school we are attending and then we decided we wanted macaroons. I had never eaten any macaroon so Blair said that we had to go to Ladurée so we ended up taking the metro to the Champs-Élysées. By the way, the macaroons there are amazing.
The flavors of macaroons at Ladurée; I had Raspberry, Salted caramel, and Marie-Antoinette.
We ended up wandering around some more after than and eating crêpes at the Eiffel tower and overall it was a great first day in Paris and I survived the metro!
I know it's Tuesday and this was supposed to be a catch up, but I have class in the morning and its 11:30 now (I had to eat dinner) so I think I will write about my Monday and Tuesday a long with something short about tomorrow, tomorrow. I know I'll write a short post about the Centre-Pompidou as well, which took up most of my time Monday. Until tomorrow then, Paris and I wish you a bonne nuit.
