My daughter first moments in Paris were spent in the customs line which turned out to be a non-event. I remember the days when the French would ask you why you were traveling. Now they basically just stamp your passport. I must admit we were both was thrilled to have our passport stamped.
My daughter did ask why they were two separate lines, “All the people with European passports, go in the fast line because they live on the European continent and the rest of us are visitors so we go in the slow line.”
Just when I thought we would be whipping out of the airport, as I was trying to get money out of the ATM, the gendarme, yelled “Arrette (stop)!” At first, I was freaked out like I wasn’t allowed to get money out but then he started motioning us to go back towards the baggage carousel and leave from the other end.
That was a joke since there was no “sortie – exit.” So we were trapped at the baggage claim. Next thing we knew they were more police (with uzis no less, the French don’t play!) putting up barriers blocking the exit.
Apparently, there was an unattended bag. Now you would think that they would evacuate the building but no, there we sat for 45 minutes while they checked on the bag.
Finally, they let us go. And were off to our hotel, the Hyatt Paris Madeleine near the Place de la Concorde and the Madeleine Church.
LOL! Sounds like an interesting 45 min.
Cute outfit your daughter has on!
Sounds like the start to an amazing journey. When we travelled to Aruba, we were at the airport for an extra hour because we didn’t know the name of the villa community where we had rented. We had the address and knew where we were going, the phone number and the name, but forgot the actual name of the community….we had to wait until we could get the rental community owner on the phone to talk to customs. Fun first hour in Aruba!