Chapter I of the novel begins with Robert Langdon asleep in the Ritz Hotel. Our trip begins with ourselves just outside the Ritz Hotel. One of the posh hotels with a lot of high end luxury cars parked outside. Ritz Hotel, Paris Sitting up now, Langdon frowned at his bedside Guest Relations Handbook, whose cover boasted: SLEEP LIKE A BABY IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS. SLUMBER AT THE PARIS RITZ. In the beginning on his way to Louvre - The crisp April air whipped through the open window of the Citroën ZX as it skimmed south past the Opera House and crossed Place Vendôme . As the Citroën accelerated southward across the city, the illuminated profile of the Eiffel Tower appeared, shooting skyward in the distance to the right. Symbologists often remarked that France—a country renowned for machismo, womanizing, and diminutive insecure leaders like Napoleon and Pepin the Short—could not have chosen a more apt national emblem than a thous...