Anyhow: Our trip actually started the day before, when we went to Sweden in order to catch the early Air France flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was hot, in the middle of one of the not-so-frequent Swedish heat waves. We headed for Connect hotel in Arlanda City, a usually very nice hotel with good family rooms. (Two connecting doubles.) Their family rooms are situated on the west side of the building and have some kind of terrace with stairs to the ground level. Very nice indeed, unless during a heat wave since the only source for fresh air in one of the rooms is the door to the sunny terrace. After a short night with bad sleep we left for Arlanda Airport.
The flight went well, we found our luggage and headed for the RER station. I had planned to buy Mobilis cards for me and my husband and Tickets Jeunes for our two daughters. Apparently they had replaced the old ticket machines with rollers with new ones with touch screens. I did not manage to find the Mobilis alternative and when I asked one of the RATP informants she pointed towards the ticket office with one open desk out of five and a very long line. D'oh!
Eventually it was my turn and I was informed they didn't sell Mobilis. Double d'oh! I bought single tickets for Paris and left with a rather sour expression on my face. Since CDG is in zone 5 I really can't understand why a Mobilis card for zones 1 - 5 shouldn't be sold there?
By now we feel rather confident with the Paris Metro system and got to our hotel near the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterrand station without any further adventures. Next setback, our room would not be ready until three o' clock. We left our luggage and went for a walk in the area, including Decathlon and Monoprix.We went back to the hotel, got our room on the street side of the second floor. This didn't worry me much; we stayed in the same hotel last year so I know Rue de Tolbiac is a rather quiet street at night. What was way worse was that our room didn't have a coffee machine! A pure disaster for me, the born coffeeholic! The lady in the reception promised to "speak with the chamber maid" about the missing coffee machine, so my hopes for a quick solution wasn't too high but after a few minutes she delivered a coffee machine. Hooray!
This was when we should have made Paris by night but after a microwave dinner based on our nos achats from Monoprix the rest of the family seemed ready for a quiet evening. I didn't oppose.
Nice!
SvaraRadera