France 10/10-10/12

Our First Few Days in France :)

Friday 10/10/14

We got up on Friday and began our adventure to France.  We were packed and headed to Atlanta by 8:30 EST.   The ride to Atlanta was uneventful; I had a conference call for work and read, Jack listened to an audio book and drove, Mama slept.

We got to Atlanta Airport around 12:30 for our 2:30 flight and I have to say it was like the rolled out the red carpet just for us.  The traffic guy or gal – not really sure which she was – was very friendly.  Answered our questions, was patient while we unloaded, etc.   I’ve pulled up before and no more gotten out of the car and they were yelling for us to move, so pleasant surprise.   Then the United baggage agent was extremely nice, the security line was short and we were fast tracked.  We didn’t have to take off shoes or belts and no one dinged – bonus.  Even the food guy at Five Guys was nice, called Mama Sweetheart, it was cute.

Out flight was delayed about an hour, but we still got to Chicago in plenty of time to catch our connecting flight to Paris.   Even boarding the plane went well – they had the zones divided into lines so instead of standing around and then rushing forward when they called your name there was a line –awesome.   We then headed to Paris – flight was roughly 7 hours, Mama and Jack slept through most of it, I only slept a little bit.  Still though overall it was good - we all got to sit together and no one around us smelled bad, you know what I mean… J

We landed in Paris on Saturday 10/11/14 and the adventure officially began.

Saturday 10/11/14

After arriving in Paris we were picked up at the airport and brought to our hotel, Hotel Concorde Montparnasse.  The hotel did not have our rooms ready given how early we arrived so we stowed our bags with reception and went exploring a bit.   Mama got a sandwich at the little grocery shop around the way while Jack looked at the non-electronic map and tried to figure out where to go.  We ended up walking around the corner and having nice view of the Eiffel Tower.  We then strolled the little street and did some window shopping and generally just enjoyed our first taste of the city.   We got back to our hotel around 1:30 and the room was ready so we went upstairs and laid down to get a little rest before the welcome dinner that evening.

I should note we met one couple at the airport who is on our trip – Greg and JoAnne, they are from Chicago and seem nice.  I think she may have had a stroke at one point as she has a slight speech impediment and a limp but I admire her for not letting it stop her from coming and enjoying herself. 

So on with the story – we got up from our little nap and headed down to meet with the tour guide.   He gave us our luggage tags for the trip, introduced himself and off we went to the welcome dinner.   We sat with Deedee and her husband, Jim – DeeDee reminds me a lot of Jean and it appears she loves to travel and shop.  She is always late though. J  Her husband had a stroke 2 months ago and here he is enjoying life – love it.   We also sat with a lady who is traveling alone, her name escapes me at the moment [Name is Cathy, added 10/13/14] , but she is nice and Mama says she reminds her of Laverne.    She works for NBC as an accountant.

Jack talked a lot with Deedee and Jim, and Cathy (the NBC lady) floated between their conversation and the one Mamma and I had with the older couple next to us, Harold and  something… they were friendly and were from Ft. Lauderdale FL.    He is a Dr. 

Overall the dinner was nice (will tell you food details in a moment) and the company good.  The waiter liked to pick on me for ordering coke, not eating all my food, etc...  He made the meal a lot of fun – wish I would have gotten a picture with him.

As far as the food goes – I adventured:

I ate escargot – also known as snails, a beef dish and tiramisu.   Snails weren’t as bad as I imagined, I ate more than one, but I wouldn’t reorder. 
I also tried the pre-wine and the coffee, neither my style. J  

After dinner we took a brief drive around the city to see it while Phillip our tour guided pointed out things about the city.   We saw the Eiffel tower but didn’t get to stop so Jack and I went back after the tour was over given our visit the next day would be during the day and the tower is prettier at night, in my opinion.   We got a metro and went to see the Eiffel tower.  The hotel clerk was extremely helpful and told us how to get a better view than the map told us about and we were grateful… we walked down to the metro (roughly 3 blocks) and promptly got misplaced in the metro station as it is a combination of a train/taxi hub/subway station, similar to Grand Central but not as pretty.    However, we found a clerk to help us and worked our way down to the metro section, bought our tickets from the kiosk, hopped on the metro and worked our way to the Eiffel tower.

We got off on a stop above the Eiffel tower and got a great view of the tower from a distance, it was lit up and very pretty.   It was nice and despite how late it was the area was full of people – there was dancing in the street.   We didn't know but on the hour ever hour the tower glitters at night, like a dancing Christmas tree.    It glittered for about 5 minutes, it was pretty awesome – Jack got a video.   I loved it, the atmosphere, the evening crisp air, being with my husband, it was really a great moment.

We then headed to the tower itself and walked around, bought some souvenirs and then headed to the closest metro, which was not the one we came in due to the view we wanted to get... so we also got slightly misplaced on the way to the station :)  However, luckily I overheard a gentleman mention the metro in English so I asked him and they were going to the same place - Awesome Sauce.  We were  grateful to have met them.  He was a student traveling abroad and he was happy to hear someone speaking english, win for both :)

We took the metro back to the confusing train station and promptly went out of the wrong exit, LOL.  I found a security guard and asked him for help… he didn’t speak great English, I didn’t speak French so it was interesting.  That being said he was very nice and when he found out we were American – he smiled and said Obama, lol.  He took us then to the right exit and was extremely friendly.  We then walked back the hotel, I got a bath and then fell in the bed and slept soundly.  Awesome!

Sunday 10/12/14

We got up this morning, very early – had breakfast and we met with our group at 7 AM.   We then went to Versailles.  It was great because we were the first group in so it was like we had the gardens of Versailles all to ourselves.  It was so calm, quiet and pretty.  I was a little disappointed the fountains were not on and it is getting winter here so the gardens were not in bloom, but it was so quiet and you could still appreciate the grand gardens and the secret surprises it holds – truly awesome.

We then explored the public rooms of the castle. It was as I remember, it was grand, gaudy and gold.  All of the ceilings were painted, custom carvings on the walls, gold, and fabric walls – no word to describe other than grandeous.   I enjoyed it and was glad I get to let Mama and see Jack see the castle I got to see in my youth.

We then headed back to Paris and promptly got stuck in traffic because of a race they had going on.  This did allow for some much needed nap time though.   However, it did put us slightly behind and had to make up time.  We picked up the rest of the group because Versailles was optional and headed to Notre Dame.   The church was fabulous and I wish we would have gotten to spend more time, but we were a little crunched and they had a mass going on so the church was extremely packed.  I didn’t have a panic attack, but it was so crowded and easy to get lost.     The outside is still my favorite part of the church – I love the buttresses.
             

We then went to the Eiffel Tower as a group.   We went up in it and mama and I missed the elevator due to weight and had to wait on the second one by ourselves.  It was ok, but it took a few minutes to get up as the lift takes 10 or so minutes to load/unload so we had a limited amount of time on the top, but we did get to enjoy the view and had a good time.   We found Jack and headed back down to meet up with the group …

Once reconnected we went to catch our boat for the evening cruise, it was raining and the cruise was a little disappointing due to that.  We shut the door in the glass enclosed area and it was foggy so I was wiping the fog off so people could see out the front, kind of funny actually.   The cruise was still nice despite the rain and it stopped raining just in time for us to head up to Montmartre.  It is a little village inside of Paris.  Historically is the artsy area where artist go to paint to earn money doing portraits, etc… It was quaint and we enjoyed it.  We bought souvenirs, had dinner with some group members and generally had a good time, though I do have to admit the waiter was a little rude – ah well – we still had a good time.

We then headed back to the group, took the trolley car back down to the bus and called it an evening.

Overall our first few days have been great, we are all still recovering from the jet lag and I’m dealing with a slight cold, but all is well here in France.