Jody and Guy picked us up at our house at 8 a.m. and we headed to the Nosh for breakfast. After breakfast we made our way to the airport . We took Guy’s truck and parked in the covered parking across from the terminal.
Security was pretty fast for Eric and I at the airport now that we have our Global Entry with TSA precheck—it is well worth the money. Of course we had to wait for Jody and Guy to make their way through the line at security, but it moved fairly quick.
We went to the United lounge and filled our water bottles for the first leg of our journey. We did not stick around in the lounge too long as it was packed and there was really nowhere to sit. We did not have too long to wait anyway before our flight departed for Chicago.
Three hours later we landed in Chicago. We had a pretty tight connection to our next flight to Paris so we grabbed some Pretzels to eat before we jumped on the plane and were off on our approximately 9 hour flight to Paris. Shortly after takeoff we were served dinner and then the lights were dimmed for people to sleep. I managed to sleep for a good amount of time, but I don’t think anyone else got much sleep.
We arrived in Paris around 9 a.m. in the morning Paris time. We had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to our apartment. The ride from the airport to the apartment was about 45 minutes—which is not bad because it was a Saturday. Apparently it would take even longer during a weekday.
We arrived at our 18th century apartment. The woman I had made the reservation with had to go to Louisiana for her daughter’s engagement party, so she had someone else standing in for her. Unfortunately, she was not at the apartment when we got there, but we managed to get in and get our bags up to the room, where we waited for her. Shortly thereafter she showed up and took our payment for the apartment and gave us the keys.
Since none of us had had much to eat all day, Eric and Guy ran downstairs (our apartment is on the fourth floor) and got some items at he grocery store, which is directly across the street from our apartment.
After they brought the groceries back to the apartment we all decided to go out and check out our neighborhood a little. Around the corner from our apartment we came across an open air market with fresh fruit, meat, wine, etc.
Guy and Jody bought some nuts and Eric and I bought some organic apple cider. We then wandered down the street, lined with cafes and shops, and came across one of the Velib locations. Since we all signed up before we left home so we could have 8 days’ access to the Velib bikes, we thought we would give it a try. It took us a while to figure out the system, but we finally succeeded in getting our four bikes checked out. Of course we had no idea where we were and no idea where we were going. The Notre Dame cathedral is only about a mile away, so we rode across the Seine River and checked our bikes back in near the Notre Dame. The line was crazy long to get into the cathedral so we just looked at the outside and then wandered our way back towards our apartment.
On our way back to the apartment we came across the cupcakery that Eric had read about online that was opened by an American couple who moved to France. Eric and I each had a cupcake. They were REALLY good cupcakes.
It seemed much shorter walking back from Notre Dame, but in reality it was only about a mile away. We decided to go back to the apartment and drop off our bike helmets and then head to one of the cafes to get some real food to eat for dinner. You don’t have to go far around here to find a café—they are everywhere.
We had a nice dinner of pizza and wine. Jody noticed Eric’s eyes rolling into the back of his head at dinner, so we decided before we had to carry him back to the apartment Eric and I had better head back. So Eric and I made the short trip back to the apartment and got cleaned up and Eric pretty much headed off to bed (with it only being about 5 p.m. Paris time). Jody and Guy came up to the apartment a short time later. After I type up the blog I think we are probably all going to bed. We are pooped. We have to be down at our front door tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. for our Vespa tour to Versailles.
P.S. Jody says it is frickin awesome here…and she has thanked me profusely for finding such an awesome apartment for her…
No comments:
Post a Comment