I set my phone alarm for 7:30 AM so I could drop off the BMW to the TT Transport shipping agency first thing in the morning. They are located in the CDG (Charles de Gaulle) airport area. I left the apartment at 10:45 AM.
BMW in front of the apartment before I turn it in.
I found them online and wrote down the address thinking I would just enter it into the navigation system and no problem. Wrong. Right when I left the apartment, the street sweeper stopped ahead of me and I was stuck. So I took this opportunity to enter it into the navigation system. I wrote it down just as it was displayed on the Internet. The navigation system did not find the street. The street sweeper guy noticed I was looking at my map and offered assistance. He did not speak any English but wanted to help. I tried to explain my problem to him. After several minutes, he noticed the street name I was using was wrong. In France, “Bid” really means “Boulevard”. I tried that in the BMW navigation system and it found the car wash. He was really proud of himself and I was on my way. I was grateful too.
American Car Wash.
The guy that greeted me at the car wash spoke a little English. The crew promptly washed the exterior and had me back on the road in about 30 minutes. They do not do as good of a job as they do at home but it was good enough to drop it off.
First car wash for my BMW.
When I arrived at the TT Transport facility I told them I was dropping off a European delivery BMW and they sent me to the back room. A nice man, Phillip, took care of all the paperwork and had me out of there in 20 minutes.
Good bye photo for the next 8 to 10 weeks....
Road trip stats:
The BMW will be trucked back to Germany and BMW will transport it to the USA like they do all other vehicles.
Overall in my opinion, the BMW European delivery experience was terrific and I would recommend it to anyone looking to buy a German vehicle. I’m already thinking about the next time that we do this again.
I was promptly shuttled to the train station at the airport and took the express train back to Paris. It took 40 minutes. On the sides of the railroad tracks there was graffiti everywhere! When I exited the train at the Bastille station, I entered the huge underworld of Paris. It was an incredible labyrinth of tunnels that allowed me to choose which way I wanted to go up. I was a little lost and just took the first way I could find to get out. All the while I was thinking “There is no way Audra would EVER want to come down here for a train ride to the airport”. I knew a shuttle or taxi was the only way we were getting to the airport tomorrow.
When I surfaced from the train station, I was about 20 minutes away from the apartment by foot and started walking. It was a very nice day. It was about 12:30PM and a lot of people were walking around eating baguette sandwiches. I stopped in to one of the many little bakery shops along the way and purchased a sandwich. It was awesome, fresh baguette, ham, cheese, tomato and a mayonnaise type spread, yum!
Our street by day.
I ate it as I walked to the apartment. I arrived back at 1:30 PM. We then all headed on foot to the nearby double-decker tour bus stop that is located at the traffic circle monument Bastille.
Graffiti is everywhere.
We rode “blue line” the tour bus all the way around and then decided to transfer at the Notre Dame stop.
During the day it rained from time to time for 5 minutes or so then the sun would shine again.
Cameron, Al and I went inside and it was spectacular. We wanted to go up to the tower. When we realized it was a 45 minute wait, we got a snack and them took the “green line” tour bus to the Eiffel tower and water boat tours.
We went by the Arc De Triumph and the Champs Elysees. I cannot believe we drove down this street, what was I thinking?
And the square where the guillotine was used.
Typical corners in Paris.
Fun on the bus.
"Tourist at work"
The Eiffel tower is awesome. There were thousands of tourists swarming around. We looked at taking the elevator to the top and found out it was another 45 to 60 minute wait. Cam, Al and I decided to take the stairs.
Across the street from the tower.
The weather had changed a bit and the sun was gone behind the clouds, the wind began to blow and it looked like the sky was going to let go any moment. We went up into the “second” floor. The views were great. It was really windy and the boys were not interested in going up to the very top.
Can you find Audra in the picture below? Here is a hint, she is sitting down and wearing pink.
Did I remember to tell you it was crowded?
When I got down, needless to say I was really tired after using the stairs to go up and down.
We then took a tour of the Seine River on a large tourist boat.
Learning something new!
After our boat trip I wanted to see the Eiffel tower at night. We walked around the local neighborhood and found a little place that had a menu in English. After dinner we went to look at the tower at night, it is really beautiful. Every hour it twinkles for a few minutes, very spectacular. I got a few moments of it on video.
We took a cab back to the apartment and once again, even worse than the night before, the street was packed with people partying. It was around 11:30PM and even the entrance to our apartment was blocked by a group of teenagers drinking and smoking. We had to ask them to move so we could get to the door.
I think old Paris has very beautiful buildings and landmarks. However, it seems a little dirty and there is a lot of homeless people around.
Before we placed Paris as a destination, we were a little concerned about how the Parisian people treated American tourists due to comments from family and friends that had visited before. I must say, everybody we came into contact with was very helpful and made our Paris experience great.
We go to Scotland tomorrow...yeah!
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