Friday, 4 July

Believe it or not, our flight was an hour early getting to Paris! We went to the hotel to leave our luggage, but could not get a room until 3 pm.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe, and walked along the Champs-Elysees. There, we found macarons and ice cream. Lloyd says French Vanilla ice cream is grossly misnamed in the US. This was wonderful!


Our hotel room is on the 24th floor. We have a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Doesn’t get much better than this! The room, though, is only about half the size of a US hotel room, with no drawers and only two shelves for clothes – and a closet. Two bath towels, and those are not as fluffy as in the US. But everything is more than adequate.

Went to bed early, since we never did sleep on the plane.

On our way!

We're in Minneapolis, and our flight to Paris leaves in an hour and a half. So far, everything is on time. The weather is beautiful. Got a massage here in the airport, so I'll be feeling good!

Paris Itinerary

Here is our itinerary:

Thurs, 3 Jul
11:03 am depart Waterloo, NW flight 3023
12:17 pm arrive Minneapolis

3:30 pm depart Minneapolis, NW flight 62

Fri, 4 Jul
7:20 am arrive Paris (CDG)

Hotel Concorde LaFayette
3, Place du General Koenig
75017, Paris, France
www.concorde-lafayette.com
To Phone, dial 011 then 33 (0) 1 40 68 50 68


Sat, 5 Jul
7:00 am - 9:00 pm D-Day and Normandy Tour (Paris Vision tour company)

Mon, 7 Jul
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Lloyd to Conference
2008 SAE Biofuels: Specifications and Performance Symposium
Le Palais des Congres De Paris
2, Place de la Porte Maillot
CIP no 1-75853
Paris Cedex 17, France
www.palaisdescongres-paris.com

Tue, 8 Jul
7:30 am - 5:00 pm Lloyd to Conference

8:30 am - 5:30 pm Mary to Giverny (Monet's home) & Palace of Versailles (tentative)

Wed, 9 Jul
7:30 am - 3:00 pm

Thur, 10 Jul
12:50 pm depart Paris (CDG), NW flight 61
3:25 pm arrive Minneapolis

5:29 pm depart Minneapolis, NW flight 3024
6:45 pm arrive Waterloo

General
On days when nothing else is scheduled, we plan on touring Paris. Some thing we would like to do is go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, explore the treasures of the Louvre, cruise the Seine, spend some time on the Champs-Elysees, see the Arch de Triumph. We've both been to Notre Dame, but we may go again.

Paris is 7 hours ahead of CDT, 6 hours ahead of EDT
* noon in Iowa = 1 pm in Detroit = 7 pm in Paris

The high temps are expected to be in the low 70s, with lows in the high 50s. Some rain.

Let's see if I can post a photo.....Success - I think! This is obviously from Mary Beth's graduation. Let's hope it works from Lloyd's computer in France.

This is a practice posting to ensure I know how to do this before we leave on vacation. I'll have to practice adding photos at home. If this works, I'll be sending all of you the link.

This should be a fantastic vacation!