Paris Trip!

As referenced in my last post, Brian and I just got back from an amazing trip to Paris! Our flight was scheduled to leave Thursday at 7:35pm, so we got to the airport around 4:30pm to get checked in and hang out in the WestJet lounge. We splurged a bit and upgraded to Business Class on the way there which was SUCH a nice treat and in my opinion, worth every penny. The lounge access was a nice touch - so nice to be able to relax in a lounge waiting for the flight instead of a crowded gate. The flight left a bit late because they were getting passengers to come up to the desk and show their vaccine cards. This seems like something that maybe could have been done at check in somehow (that's when we did it) but their system wasn't that great. Oh well, it left about an hour and a half late in the end but it left and that's something I'm grateful for! We really enjoyed flying Business Class with the comfy seats that lay down and all the good food and drinks. I didn't end up sleeping all that well because I never sleep very well in weird situations, but being able to lay down and be comfortable for the whole flight was invaluable. 

Friday we got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and it was less than ideal - they shuffled us to the next available taxi, which happened to be an old vehicle that had no A/C:-/. The windows were open which was nice for the air, but it made it so windy and loud in the car. Oh well - minor in the grand scheme of things! We got to our hotel and had a pretty nice first impression. The room was a bit smaller than I was expecting, but definitely not out of the norm for Europe. The bed was comfortable, and we did enjoy our Eiffel Tower view! We went for a walk to the Eiffel Towel which was nice, and had a very nice dinner just down the street from our hotel. The souffle for dessert was delicious! We crashed and slept so well that night - much needed good sleep!

Saturday we went out for a nice breakfast (had our first croissant!) and made our way to the train station to get our tickets to Versailles. The Palace of Versailles was quite spectacular. It was interesting to see how the French royals used to live, such opulence. No wonder they were kicked out at some point, the ordinary people must have realized that having a separate palace just to enjoy the evenings might be a bit much! We walked around the grounds, visited some of these "extra" palaces, took the train back to have dinner in Paris. We decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower and get tickets to go to the summit. There was a bit of a wait but it wasn't too bad! It was a bit crowded but nothing unexpected. Apparently people are completely over social distancing lol! The view was quite spectacular, worth the wait! A great day!

Sunday morning we had to get going relatively early because we had train tickets at 11:30 to to go Reims. We got some breakfast and found our way there, although not with a TON of time to spare! We really enjoyed our day at Reims. The train ride was really quick and the town was beautiful. The first thing was saw was a beautiful park that we wandered through. We made our way to their Notre Dame cathedral which was quite spectacular. There was a bit of a hiccup in getting to our Champagne cellar tour. We thought there was a ride share option available, but when it came time to book, it was not available. We didn't have time to figure out the taxi and public transit situation, so we had to walk - fast. We did make it with a few minutes to spare! 

The cellar tour and Champagne tasting was really fun. Learned a lot about Champagne that I never knew before! We went back into town after the tasting (apparently Uber IS available but not super reliable!) and had a light snack at a cafe outside the cathedral. Our train back to Paris got in around 8:30 and then we had to walk to our dinner reservation, lots of walking! The dinner was delicious, I really loved all the French food! By the time we got back to the room I was so ready for bed, a tiring but great day!

Monday we didn't have to set an alarm which was really nice, we slept in and found our way to the Louvre area via Metro. We wandered around until we found a cafe that looked good and I had my first crepe since arriving in Paris, a ham and cheese crepe that was delicious! We got to the Louvre and saw that even if you bought advance tickets (which we did) you had to wait in this line outside, so we did. It wasn't too terrible but it was pretty hot. Once we got inside we were free to roam around, what an incredible place! We made our way the the Mona Lisa room almost right away and that was an experience - sooo many people! We waited our turn in line and eventually got to the front for our obligatory selfie. We made our way through the museum, seeing most of it but probably not all. We are not big art buffs so we didn't really linger anywhere. We were done in about 3 hours. We walked around the gardens and got some ice cream, did a bit of shopping around our hotel and made our way back to the room to rest for a bit before dinner. Another delicious dinner, we had such good food while we were there!

After dinner we went for a walk by the river. So many people out and about, sitting along the river and in the parks. It was a fun atmosphere! Because of the time difference we stayed up quite late and got to be part of the action:-).

Tuesday - our last full day in Paris, and my 43rd birthday! We still had a few things left to see, so we started at the Arc de Triumph. After checking that out, we walked down the Champs D'elysee for a while, checked out a few shops and had a slushie to cool off. We decided to go back to the room to rest before heading out to Montmarte and the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur. Soooo many stairs, but it was worth it! We had a great view of Paris already, but then we saw that you could go up 293 stairs right to the top of one of the spires and get a panoramic view of Paris - so we did! It was hard work but definitely worth it, the view was amazing. We were hungry and thirsty after all that work, so we got a drink and a crepe - mine was Nutella and banana and so good! 

We made our way back to a transit station and ended up outside the Notre Dame Cathedral. We of course couldn't go in because of the fire, but we walked around it. We walked past the stunning city hall on the way to the transit station, so many incredible buildings in Paris! Brian wanted to see the Bastille (or where the Bastille used to be, there was a monument) so we did that and then called it sight seeing day. We were happy to get some time to relax in the room before our dinner cruise.

The dinner cruise was really fun. It started out a bit slow, our server seemed a bit overwhelmed so we didn't get any drinks for quite a while. Other people were getting their starters and we still didn't have our glasses of champagne! It did pick up and ended up being a great experience. The views were so spectacular! The food was pretty good, not the best we had while we were there. We had a really fun evening so I'm glad we did it! Great birthday treat:-). 

We walked past the Eiffel Tower one last time on the way back to our room. Once again we were struck by the night life, so many people out and about by the tower! Great last night to cap off a great vacation!

Wednesday we got some pastries to go for breakfast and packed up to head to the airport. We took a taxi there, and he took us through the Arc de Triumph roundabout - an experience in itself! Total free-for-all lol. We aimed to be there 3 hours before our flight, which is the recommended amount of time, and we achieved our goal. Well, we get there, and the line to check in at the WestJet counter is crazy long. I guess other people received a memo that you are supposed to be MORE than three hours early! They only open the check in counter 3 hours before the flight so it's questionable whether its valuable to be that early, but it turns out it would have saved us some stress. 

We finally get to the front of the line about an hour and 15 minutes later, so we are thinking we still have quite a lot of time. Apparently in the Paris airport, you have to go through some kind of border control passport check station before you even get to security. This line was probably close to an hour, I wasn't keeping exact track. I do know that we were supposed to start boarding at 2:20 for our 3:15 flight, and we were still in this line at 2:20. We finally get through this pointless line (all he did was stamp our passport, didn't seem vital) and of course our gate is a train ride away. We get there as quickly as possible and when we get there, the line for security is once again long and slow. All the flight boards were showing that our flight was boarding, but they would not rush us through because they claimed "all flights are late", "they have to wait for you". It was so stressful! We finally got to our gate at 3:30, a full 3 hours and 15 minutes after we arrived at the airport, and 15 minutes after it was supposed to leave. They were waiting for us, and we weren't the last ones there. They finally had all their passengers I think 25 minutes after we got there. Whew!

It took me a while to relax after that ordeal, but once I did, it was actually a pretty pleasant flight. We got the exit row seats and had so much leg room - so nice! We got to Calgary about an hour later than scheduled, but considering all the nightmares many people have endured traveling, not so bad at all. I guess our airport experience, while stressful, was par for the course at this airport and had we known that they would wait for us, need not have been stressful at all:-S. 

A memorable trip that we were so lucky to be able to take, thanks to Brian's parents! The kids did great while we were gone, which made the trip even more enjoyable:-). Onto the rest of our summer trip itinerary!