Our 2015 Trip to Paris (with a day in London)
This year we did something a little different. We have so many places we want to go and some bucket-list places that are more "check off the box" visits than earnest desires. Paris is one of those destinations that has never drawn us but seems a necessity to visit due to its rich history and unique culture. Additionally, my mother turned 70 in 2014 and it has been my childhood dream to take her to Paris. So - Paris for 2015.However - I wanted to make it a surprise for my mom. She has never traveled outside the U.S. (with the exception of an across-the-border visit to Nuevo Loredo from Texas in the 1960's), so I needed her to get a passport to go on a trip with me and Holly (and dad, of course). Another important piece was my mother is deathly afraid of flying. But she was a good sport, got her passport and endured the periodic "clues" I would send her. Finally, on her birthday in November we broke the news that Paris was the destination. They were to board their dog and be at our house the evening of April 13th (my wife's birthday and our anniversary, incidentally - you may notice we like to travel around our birth-a-versary).
Tuesday April 14, 2015
The creatures of habit that we are, we drove from Roseville to the San Francisco Airport, dropping the poodles at Francesca's in Dixon, parking in long-term (sort-of...it was full and we were re-routed to Lot D - but basically the same thing). We were driving the Navigator due to having my mom & dad and luggage (and poodles half the way). Like last year, I was offered an upgrade to Business Class and jumped at the chance. The great service of Air France was reinforced by another fabulous flight. We modified our normal habit of only bringing carry-on luggage for this trip. Since last year we had to check our larger carry-on (due to the weight restrictions) and since we were staying the entire time in one hotel, we decided to each bring a larger checked bag and one carry-on backpack. It worked great.Wednesday April 15, 2015
We arrived in Paris just before noon. Unlike last year, no connecting flight - just get the luggage, go through border patrol, and meet our transfer that should be holding a sign with our name on it. Luggage, check. Border Patrol, check. Transfer.....not so much. I must admit at this juncture that I did a lot of research on the best way to get from the airport to our hotel. Do a search online for transfer from Charles De Gaulle to downtown Paris and you will see volumes of posts (most on Trip Advisor) regarding this topic. Many people suggest skipping a pre-paid transfer and just getting a taxi. However, I was determined to make it work as we were four travelers, each with a large and small bag and we didn't want to negotiate with broken English regarding the fare, etc, etc. Been there. So - I'm looking at all of the drivers holding signs, looking for my name. There are lots of them. I review my email from Discovery Mundo which was good enough to tell me exactly where to meet after exiting the airport (I was there). Still no driver. I called the numbers given by Discovery Mundo (to their partner company in Paris) and neither worked. I emailed them hoping that someone might be watching the email. This, or fate, or just waiting did the trick. A frantic young man came running up with my name on a sign. Crisis averted. Sort of. We had to drag our bags quite a distance to where the driver had been relegated to park. He was pleasant and loaded us up. As we were navigating our of the airport, he stopped at one point to say "hello" to a fellow driver. Not a problem if it was a "bonjour" and move on. He talked for five minutes. Then, after we were on the way again he turned to me and asked if it was o.k. if he stopped for fuel (I was sitting in front). Really? I looked at the gauge and saw he wasn't joking. What could I say "no....you go without fuel"? So, we stop for gas. Eventually, we were back on the road and less than an hour later we were at our hotel.
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| Outside Hotel Ares |
We stayed at the Hotel Ares Paris. I have to start by saying what a wonderful hotel this ended up being. More about that later, but we would seek this place out in the unlikely event we went to Paris
again. We didn't have anything planned this evening (due to the travel) but settled in, wandered out for some dinner (had a burger at Les Burgers du Pere Claude), and went to bed.
Thursday April 16, 2015
We learned something very important on our first morning in Paris. Nothing opens until 7am (at the earliest). The only (and I mean ONLY) negative I had to report about our hotel was that c
offee was not available until 7am. I wrote a review (a glowing one) but mentioned the coffee. The management reminded me that I could have had the night desk person get us some. True....the first morning. Gorges was great. He got me some coffee and I sat waiting for the others (this is after I walked out to see if a cafe was open at 6am). More on the coffee later. We had breakfast at the hotel, but for the 18 Euro per person price tag it was the only time we ate here. Decent food, but nothing special for being 5 Euro more than the other regular cafes.
We had booked a walking tour at 9am with Wego Walking tours (ranked #1 on the travel site). It started at the Notre Dame Cathedral so we took the metro for the first time (nothing exciting). After
the Notre Dame, we walked along the river (La Seine) and saw the interesting bridges (pont neuf, etc) and made our way to the Louvre. We walked around it and then back to the river area. Next stop was the Invalides area (more on that later). We finally wound our way between the Eiffel Tower and the Military Academy. The tour was absolutely wonderful. The best way to start our visit in Paris and see the areas we wanted to focus on later.
We spent the afternoon wandering the city, finding the grocery store (Monoprix), and eating some great food (had dinner at La Gauloise.
Friday April 17, 2015
This morning is when the coffee thing really came home. Georges was off and another guy (honestly I didn't get his name and after a few nights didn't want it. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't as attentive as Georges. He literally slept on the floor behind the front desk). My dad and I went to Le Suffren for breakfast at 7am but they weren't ready to seat anyone at 7:10am. We went next door to Cafe le Piquet and ordered breakfast. Apparently they weren't serving eggs yet so we had the breakfast francais (as opposed to anglais which includes eggs). It was a lovely slice of baguette, buttered; a delicious croissant; some coffee and juice.
Eiffel Tower Day! Our tour on the previous day ended at the Eiffel Tower which was 5 minutes from our hotel. We had booked a "behind-the-scenes" tour of the tower and it worked very well. We met by Mr. Eiffel's statue and there were about a dozen in our group. The tour guide was o.k., nothing to write home about, but adequate. Our first stop was to walk away from the Tower and go into an underground bunker to learn more history about the Tower and its role since being built.
Coffee - solved! I went to the Starbucks (I know....) to see if they had those little freeze-dried, instant packets to make a cup of coffee. The did not. So, I went to the supermarket and voila! I bought an electric kettle, instant coffee, and individual creamers. We now had our own in-room coffee service. The kettle was only 30 Euros and I would have paid $100. My initial thought was to get a Verissimo from Starbucks like I have at home (they sold the pods) but they didn't have one and I couldn't find where to get it. The kettle worked just as well and was far cheaper.
Saturday April 18, 2015
Breakfast at Le Suffren at 7:30am. Best breakfast and only 13 Euros (just give them time to open up).
We had booked a tour of the Louvre and Orsay museums for Saturday. We met at the Louis 14th statue near the pyramid and met Belen. She was to be our tour guide, just for the four of us. She is an artist that does her own exhibits but just started being a tour guide recently to supplement her income. Lucky us! She was an Argentine-born Italian working in Paris.
Her knowledge was superb and while she took us to the famous exhibits, she made sure to tell us why they were famous (or shouldn't be - like the Mona Lisa) and showed us how to view the art. With sculpture, she showed us the best place to view certain pieces and showed us how the other views detracted from the artist's intended vision. She showed us how the painters used different colors to effectively bend the light to give perceptions at a certain viewing distance. After 3 hours at the Louvre, we were off to the Orsay. Of course, we had a stop at a wonderful patisserie for a snack. We ended up visiting here again later. The Orsay was also divine and not as overwhelming. We spent another 2 hours here before wrapping up the tour.Sunday April 19, 2015
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| Napoleon's Tomb |
lides (or the museum and living quarters for the military wounded/disabled). This is where Napoleon's Tomb is located. It was the largest collection of military artifacts that we have ever seen. The suits of armor, weapons, and everything in between were located in this sprawling museum. Very interesting but exhausting.
Monday April 20, 2015
London! We booked first-class tickets on the EuroStar from Paris to London. We left early and took the metro to the Paris train station. After navigating the station and going through U.K. passport control we boarded our train. It went very fast but we were able to enjoy the countryside of France. 
We went through the tunnel under the English Channel for about 30 minutes at 100 MPH. Once in England, we were at the London station in about 40 minutes from the channel. We had booked a private black taxi tour for 4 hours. The tour was perfect. He took us to all of the major sites, letting us out when we wanted and picking us back up later. We were able to see the 11am changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We were at the Big Ben tower when the clock struck 12 noon. The only part we could have skipped was the drive through the "posh" area where he pointed out nice cars. Other than that - great tour! He dropped us off in a shopping district (tourist trap) and we took the Tube back toward our train station. We had some fish and chips and headed back to Paris later that evening.Tuesday April 21, 2015
Last day in Paris. Our 2nd down-day with nothing planned. We wanted to tour the Notre Dame Cathedral and it was awesome. Then we went our separate ways and walked around the city a lot. We had our final Paris dinner at a great restaurant (La Casse Noix) and prepared to leave the next day.Wednesday April 22, 2015
Departure Day! I had confirmed our transport to the hotel (especially after our incident in arrival). Our flight leaves at 10:40 am and the company suggested picking us up at 7:40am (3 hours before departure). First mistake. Then, the driver was nearly 20 minutes late. Second mistake. Traffic was as I would expect on a Wednesday morning at 8am in a major metropolitan city - busy. But - we made it to the airport by 9am. So far, so good. We made our way to check our bags and the lines were long and the area was confusing. The Air France check in portion had a handful of areas and we were directed to go to areas 3 through 5. We went to 3. As we were in line, we saw the police cordoning off a piece of luggage that looked abandoned. A few minutes later as were were about to check our bags, a military man with a gun started shouting in French. I said "English, please". He said "we are evacuating this area. Move to area 4". We did. Got in line. Then that area was evacuated to area 5. Then to area 7 (apparently there is no area 6). But, area 7 is for priority customers. We weren't flying home business class, so we weren't a priority. Hundreds of us were crowded near area 7 waiting for about 30 minutes until they disposed of the bag. In the meantime I went to a kiosk to print the labels for our luggage. Once it opened back up we went to the self service check in and we were helped by a nice Air France lady. Of course, now we were passed the time to check bags but she overrode this and got our bags through and we rushed off to security. It wasn't bad but it took a bit. When we finally go through and got to our plane, we were the last to board at about 10:30am (yep - 10 minutes before departure - we were the last ones on). We breathed a sigh of relief, hoped our bags made it (they did) and settled in for the nearly 12 hour flight. The flight was uneventful and arrived in San Francisco on time. We picked up our luggage, headed to the shuttle and made our way back to the car.
Epilogue
Now that we've been to Paris, we are so glad we went. As I mentioned before we had never had a personal draw probably because of all of the myths and urban legends you hear from people that have never been. Bottom-line, we really liked it and could have spent a little more time there soaking up the culture. But - on to the next adventure. Where? Not sure yet. We'll keep you posted.
Au Revoir
VIDEO OF OUR TRIP
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