Fighting Jet Lag

When traveling from the US east to Europe, one needs a game plan.  Ours is always to stay awake as long as we can the first day. We had landed in Paris at 9:30am.
The Roussey Bus from the Charles du Gaulle airport is 60 minutes.  It is an express bus from the airport to the Paris Opera (what a magnificent bldg...more on that later). By the time arrived at the Opera building and walked the 5 minutes to the hotel (we didn't know where we were going so it took us 10 minutes) it was 11:30am. The best news was the hotel had upgraded the room and it was available.
After a shower and change of clothes, we hopped into a open air, double decker tour bus. We spent the afternoon watching Paris go by from the top deck. I snoozed as we drove the Avenue de Champs-Elleesy. The traffic was horrible...but I did catch a few needed minutes to stay going.
My first impression of Paris: "OK, now I get it." The archicture is so beautiful as it is impressive...the connection between archicture, art and artist is so strong one  senses it physically...like one feels the wetness on your skin on a foggy morning walk.
After a late afternoon lunch of great wine, French bread and cheese and French Union Soup just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower at a small sidewall cafe, we hopped on the tour bus and back to hotel...arriving just at dusk.
We had accomplished the mission. Our reward would be a good night's sleep.

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