Arrival at Charles de Gaulle was perfect - our AMA Waterways arranged driver was waiting when we exited baggage claim at 0730. Very smooth transition into a very nice and new BMW sedan. Driver was wonderfully calm during the almost 3 hour (yes 3 hour) drive into downtown Paris. Note to self - don't arrive in Paris on a weekday during rush hour. Traffic was really bad -- at least Valerie got a little bit of sleep.
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| Rush hour traffic |
Once we arrived, we were met just inside the door by Uwe, a member of the AmaLyra cruise staff. He gave us our Paris package and helped take our luggage over to check in where we were met by a surly hotel receptionist who informed us that our room wouldn't be ready before noon. Note to self - as we have watched at least three sets of aircrew arrive from the airport and immediately get rooms, don't stay at hotels where all of the available rooms are waiting for folks who just got off the same plane you did but are wearing polyester jackets and skirts with stripes and things. The hotel Pullman Montparnasse is not scoring points in our book; forget about check in and the clerk -- the lobby is completely non-descript and maybe a 3.5 star at best. Considering how much we paid for this hotel, we would get our own hotel next time and see about meeting AMA Waterways pre-tours in the hotel lobby. Maybe things will improve once we get into our room - we're hoping... Another piece of intel has to do with eating in Paris on weekdays -- before noon, you can get a croissant, orange juice, etc - lunch doesn't start until 12:00 - so after flying all night you are going to be pretty hungry by the time things open to eat a regular meal. We are definitely hoping things improve after we get into our room and something to eat. After all, it is Paris...
*** Addendum... We did get into our room only to find that the room assigned us - 1803 - had clearly hosted a smoker in the very recent past - including a burn on the carpet. In a non-smoking hotel with a 150Euro fine advertised - the nicfix must be worth it I guess... They moved us to 2101 - much better although for a hotel with a rack rate starting at 530 Euro's - I would consider the room underwhelming. The location is great - but this is definitely a businesspersons' hotel not a leisure traveler's first choice. Then we went to lunch just down the street - we'll eat there again and get pictures next time - fabulous is all we could say.
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Pullman Montparnasse Lobby with Aircrews checking in
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