Our First Last Trip to Paris
French is a beautiful language which I started studying in
third grade and continuing through college. I even got a 1 on my AP exam (I am
sure my mom is glad I shared that with the world!) My husband also studied the
language for many years. This was one of
the places I definitely wanted to visit while living overseas. When the opportunity arose for Matt to go for
work, the baby and I decided we would tag along. It was all her idea!! We were SO excited to
go to Paris and practice the language and see the many wonderful things that
Paris has to offer and see who was better at the language! What? Aren’t all married couples competitive
about foreign languages?
Matt’s conference was Tuesday and Wednesday so we got an
early flight on Monday so we would have time to explore the city together. Matt checked in 24 hours prior to departure
but could not get the baby or I checked in.
He wanted to call the airline in Germany to find out the problem but I
told him it was not necessary. So, we
got up at 4:00 AM so we could leave at 4:30 to make our 6:40 flight. (We are
that amazing; we got all three of us ready in 30 minutes!) I got the baby undressed, and changed her
diaper before she even woke up! This
will probably never happen again!
As we were driving the airport and discussing how lucky we
are because we live in Italy and are going to Paris, it started to rain. This changes the game plan a little bit
because we now have to drop the luggage and the baby off at the airport before
parking the car on base. The final plan
was that Matt would run into the airport and check in quickly, while I watched
the car, then he would go park the car and run back to the airport while I
watched the bags. Plans. They never work
like you think. Because it was so early
and raining, there was no security so the car was not a big issue. This does
not mean that I worry less about “breaking the rules.” Matt walked the baby and
me into the airport and then went to get the bags. Then he went to stand in the long line to
check in while I stood and watched the car.
When he finally got to speak with an agent, we learned that there was a
problem with the tickets and we could not be checked it. Matt was going to have to speak with the
ticketing counter (a different counter on the other side of the airport) but he
couldn’t leave his bags at the desk and they couldn’t be tagged and checked in
because of the issue. And we still had
the car. So, Matt finally agreed to let
me park the car (he is a TRUE gentlemen) while he dealt with the tickets. On the way back from the parking garage, I
was trying to keep the umbrella from blowing inside out, trying to hurry, and
trying not to get wet, which meant of course that I slipped and almost feel
twice! For your knowledge, cross walks
in the rain are VERY slippery! I finally got back to the airport and go to the
counter where all our bags are left unattended!! Matt is not in view but I figured he is still
at the ticketing counter. The Lufthansa
agent gave me a speech about how with a baby we really must arrive 2 hours
prior to the flight and that they were doing everything they could for us but
if we had gotten there 2 hours before the flight, there would be more they
could do. While I am nervously waiting
for this situation to be resolved by my husband, I am watching all the other “late”
travels. One couple comes in at 6:20 for
a 6:40 flight but they don’t get a lecture about arriving 2 hours prior to the
flight! Then another man tries to check
in a UM 20 minutes before the flight departs.
I am standing there trying to figure out what a UM is and listening to
the ticketing agent yell about how much paperwork a UM requires and it is not
possible to check on in 20 minutes before the flight when the man drops to his
knees and puts his hands in a praying position and literally begs this woman to
let him do it. (This is when I figure out a UM is an unaccompanied minor). As this man is on his knees begging, the
agent just says “No. Stop it.” After
watching this spectacle, I decided I wanted to find Matt and find out what was
happening. I left our bags unattended
and headed towards the other side of the airport to find the ticketing counter.
When I got the Matt said “These ladies are working very hard to figure this out
but bottom line, Expedia sucks. Will you go back and wait with the bags?” In a couple of minutes, he comes rushing over
with boarding passes, the agents quickly print bag tags and then send us
running to the gate. We get to go
through the “fast track” of security, which of course with a baby and a
stroller is only so fast! We then
continue our run, me carrying the baby in my arms as she laughs
hysterically. We get to the gate and
make the last shuttle to the plane.
Phew! Then I get the story.
Matt called both Expedia and Lufthansa on Friday before our
Monday flight to confirm the baby was ticketed and ready to go. He was told her ticket cost 21 euro and
everything was taken care of. This was
a big lie. Expedia put the baby on the
reservation but never issued a ticket so Matt had to buy a ticket the day of
the flight which was 145 euro. Yep. The
baby cost $189 to sit in our laps. And
she didn’t even earn miles! We should
have seen this as a bad sign for the rest of the trip.
The baby required a lot more attention on this flight than
on the trip to Venezia but she eventually fell asleep for about 30
minutes. When we landed in Munich, we
had to go to the Lufthansa counter to get a boarding pass printed for me
(flashbacks to our trip over from America!).
While we were there, we tried to see if there was anything these agents
could do to help us since we weren’t rushing for a flight. Of course the first lady was super kind and
helpful and seemed like the kind of person who would figure out a way to give
us our money back but didn’t work in the right department to help us. The second lady was not nice and pretty much
told us we were stupid. And out
$189.
We were surprisingly in good spirits still, laughing about
how much this sucked but still excited about our trip to Paris. We had enough time before our next flight to
go and get a nice German breakfast (omelet for me and white sausage for
Matt). The second flight was uneventful
(thank goodness!) and the baby did better than the first one even though she
didn’t sleep. Matt asked the flight
attendant for a piece of bread and a cup; between those two things she was
entertained the entire flight!
We landed in Paris and started practicing our French! The airport in France is ridiculous!! We were on the way to baggage claim and we
came to an escalator and stairs so we started looking for the elevator and
couldn’t find out. After looking around
for a few minutes, clueless, there was someone to ask and he looked at us like
we were stupid! Apparently, what we
thought was an escalator was in fact a “rolling carpet” or people mover!! So we got on the first of several different
rolling carpets. At one point we were on
one and looked up to see 8 more going in all different directions, like a major
city freeway!! Baggage claim was
uneventful (thank goodness!) so it was on to car rental.
Now, you might think, why are they renting a car in
Paris?? Because of the business trip,
Matt gets a rental car to provide transportation to and from the airport and as
needed during the trip. He was told that he should get the rental car by others
who had made the trip before. The rental
car is booked by the Navy travel agents.
First problem, they have the dates of the entire trip, not just the
portion of business. Matt tries to
explain we only want it to the 17th and not the 19th. The lady says no problem. Then they do not have the size car that is
reserved so she has to put us in an upgrade.
Matt emphasizes that we cannot pay for the upgrade and the Hertz lady
says no problem. Then she says we have
to wait 30-45 minutes for the car to get here.
Finally, the car is here and the Hertz lady assures Matt we can return
the car on the 17th and we will not pay for the upgrade. She gives us the information to find the car
and get out of the parking deck. The
parking garage is very well planned with each spot labeled, each rental car
company clearly marked, so finding the car should be simple. For whatever reason, the identifying
information we are given is the license plate, not the parking spot! So after a
few minutes of wandering around and not finding the appropriate labels, we
realize we are looking for the wrong thing!
We find the car, which is a very nice car with a FULL moon roof (baby
loved this), navigation system, satellite radio, and a bunch of other things we
do not need!
We get to the hotel and park in the parking garage next door
(58 euro a day). We go and check in and
ask for a crib. He has cribs available
but he does not think it will fit in our room.
We tell him we will make it work.
Being the prepared mommy, I brought a pack and play sheet thinking pack
and plays are pretty standard. Ironically
enough, they are not. And surprisingly,
the European pack and plays are significantly larger than the American
ones! Everything else is smaller in
Europe but the portable cribs!
After all the drama it took to get here, we are finally in
our hotel room in Paris! We load up the
baby in the stroller and decide to go stroll the streets of Paris and find a
bite to eat. We walked for 30-45 minutes
enjoying the stroll, the sites, and people watching, and just being
together. Finally we decide to pick a
little sidewalk café and get a bite to eat.
I am SUPER excited because I have seen lots of people eating
salads. I am talking real salads, not
lettuce. I know what I am ordering
before we even find a place to eat. We
find a place and get tables moved out of the way to make room for the stroller
and get situated before I looked at the menu prices! WHOA! Paris is expensive. Matt says we can
just keep looking but I feel guilty because we made such as scene about getting
seated and I think it would be rude to just leave after all that. Silly I
know. So we order two waters and a salad
to share. After our 25ml waters are gone
(in pretty much one sip!), we see the table has a big one and we ask for
that. And Matt orders a glass of
wine. Our bill was 42 euro. WHAT!! Our salad was 16 euro, one of the
small bottles of water was 4,80. We
spent 18,60 on water alone! At this
point, we were not shocked that yet another thing did not go our way. Later, we learned that it is okay to drink
the tap water in Paris. After living in
Italy for six months where the water was not safe to drink, I just assumed!
After our snack, we “window shopped” some more and
eventually went back to the hotel to let the baby have a little time out of the
stroller. Matt’s co-worker was arriving
that evening as well so we made plans to go to dinner with him. When it was time to go to dinner, we loaded
the baby back into the stroller and met our dinner companion. Of course, no one wanted to pick the
restaurant or the type of food so we asked the front desk and the recommended a
restaurant around the corner, which had meals starting at 27 euro…we
passed! Next door to this fancy
restaurant was a Subway (I seriously wonder which has more locations, Subway or
Starbucks?) and a sushi restaurant. I of
course want sushi because I have been craving it for 17 months! It is definitely different than American
sushi, still good but different. There
was no crab in any of the rolls and there was no seaweed salad. Also, no spicy tuna. So I finally got sushi but it made me miss
American style sushi even more. After
dinner, we walked back to the hotel so we could put the baby to bed and Matt
could make sure everything in ready for his meeting the next day.
We have shared a hotel room with the baby a lot but now that
she is a little older she doesn’t seem to think she needs to go to bed until we
do! She was so tired (we got up at 4 AM,
she napped for 20 minutes on the first flight, and maybe an hour in the
car/stroller) but she would not settle down.
Eventually she fell asleep next to me in the bed while Matt was ironing
(cool press thing) and emailing.
The first full day in Paris!! It has to be better than the
trip getting here, right?? Matt had
arranged for free breakfast to be brought to the room (breads, jam, yogurt,
coffee, and juice) but of course it was late and he didn’t get any before his
meeting. He also decided that he would
return the rental car during his lunch break.
Oh, it was raining as well. Right
after Matt leaves for his meeting, breakfast is delivered and the baby and I
enjoy fresh squeezed orange juice (I do not usually like juice!) and
croissants. And café. It was quite pleasant. She took her morning nap while I showered and
checked my email. And guess what, more bad
news!! Monday was just a crummy day for Matt, the baby, and I and I found out on
Tuesday, that Monday was crummy for Lucy and our friends who were dog
sitting! The two dogs had a squabble of
food and Lucy was able to protect her food from the other dog but not her
face! So she had to go to the emergency
vet and get stitches. That dog is mine
first baby. She is so spoiled (by me and
EVERYONE else) and just the most awesome dog ever. So when she is hurt, I am a mess. When she tore her first ACL, I think I
probably cried more over that then the fact that Matt was leaving for
deployment (sorry honey!). When she tore
her second ACL, I was really worried because I wasn’t going to be able to carry
her to the bathroom or sleep on the floor next to her since I was
pregnant. Seriously, she is spoiled and
I love her. Most people probably think
that I would freak out when something like this happens to my dog (I was not a
happy camper when a stranger’s dog at the dog park bit her for NO reason and
then the lady took her dog and left without checking on my dog or giving me any
of her information to sue her!!). I did
not freak out. My friend sent me about
five emails updating me on every detail.
First when it happened, then that they were going to take her to the
vet, then how the vet trip went, then a picture, then how the wound was
infected, the second set of stitches, etc.
I was very relieved to know that the dog was being well cared for and I
was being kept informed! (In case you
were wondering, after the initial injury, Lucy still managed to eat all her
food while her face was bleeding and the dogs acted like nothing had happened
the rest of the week!) So Tuesday was
not looking much better than Monday for the Langley Clan.
After the baby woke up, I bundled her up in all her warm
clothes, loaded the stroller and set out to explore the city. Big round of applause!!! Despite what you may think since I moved to
Italy with a newborn, I am not an outgoing and adventurous person. I lived in North Carolina my whole life,
until I was engaged to Matt. I actually
went to college in the same town I grew up and after college moved two hours
away. Vacations (before Matt) were trips
to Litchfield beach and they were awesome.
Unfamiliar things make me nervous.
I always think of what could go wrong.
I like doing and seeing new things but I like to have other people with
me. It would not have surprised anyone
if I found some reason to just sit in the hotel and wait until Matt came home
instead of wandering around France. But
I did it! I walked out of the hotel and
it started to rain…great. I decided I
would still walk and find a little café for lunch and people watching. I put the rain cover on the stroller which is
the most awesome thing (Thanks Suzy and Doug!!) and got the umbrella out of my
diaper bag. Of course I didn’t wander
too far because of the rain. I found a
very cute little café with lots of different delicious treats! I even used my French to order!! Mrs. Caviness
would be so proud! I had a Quiche
Lorraine, l’eau, la salade, et crème brulee!
The value meals in France are way better than America (burger, fries,
and soda…I mean in France combo meals come with dessert!) After my delicious lunch, I decided I would
go back to the hotel and see if Matt was there and let the baby nap. She was a mess after the day of travel and
really needed to sleep, plus it was raining.
And my mommy code decided that to wander around in the rain was a bit
selfish. Matt had been in the room, I
got a nice little love letter from him, but he was on his way to return the
rental car.
The rental car return should be easy right? We are returning it early and should just pay
for 1.5 days. I do not think I can truly
explain what happened and maybe I can convince Matt to write the story for the
blog but I will give you a brief overview.
Matt asked the hotel for a Hertz rental car location and he was given
directions to les Champs Elysees, near the Louvre. After driving around for 20-30 minutes where
Hertz should be, in traffic for the new President’s speech, he returned to the
hotel to get better directions or a different location. He had to pay 4 euro just to park the car to
find the new location…which was 200 meters down the road. Yep, he spent an hour or so driving to the
other location to find out there was one literally down the street. As you can imagine, it just gets worse. Apparently the Hertz agent was not able to
work the computers. And he didn’t know
how to return a car early. And he
insisted the tax payers must pay for the entire reservation (if you remember we
explained at the airport that we only wanted it to the 17th not the 19th and we
wanted the basic car), and that we must pay the upgrade. After several hours, yep HOURS, of trying to
find someone who could work the computers, explaining why we didn’t want the
upgrade and therefore should not be charged for it, and why would shouldn’t pay
for the days we were not using the car, he finally gave up. At this point he just wanted a receipt saying
when he returned the car (which was surprisingly still too difficult for the
agent) and that he paid 458 euro for a ride from the airport and to get out of
that stupid place! As you can imagine,
we are not very impressed with Paris yet.
And Matt learned that for travel, Paris is a place you take the metro,
not rent a car. After all that crap, he
missed the entire afternoon of meetings.
He got home from Hertz Rental Car and found me in the
lobby. He shared the story over a glass
of wine and tried to get all his frustration out. Then he had to go and call the Navy travel
agency to give them a heads up about what happened to see if they could fix it
and to make sure we didn’t have to pay. And then I had to tell him about our dog. Tuesday was terrible too!
We decided we would salvage Tuesday by strolling on les
Champs Elysees and getting a nice dinner.
I got to see le Place de Concorde, l’Arc de Triomphe, and le tour Eiffel
(from a distance of course!), and le Louvre.
We stopped for a chocolate and banana crepe before going into the Jardin
des Tuileries. I loved walking through
all the different little gardens. They
were very beautiful and very well maintained.
People would literally sit in the garden and have a picnic lunch, read a
book, drink a glass of wine, or sketch.
I would say the French really know how to slow down and enjoy
things. And relax. But I guess they need stress relievers since
they people who work in all forms of travel seem to just be a big pain in the
rump! In the garden, we saw some
sculptures that I thought were beautiful and the baby had her first carousel
ride. Our mood was improving. We continued our stroll and ended up at the
smaller l’Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre.
Then we started to walk over then Seine, which was really really windy
to find something to eat. Things started
to deteriorate quickly (which happens with food and me!!). We were trying to find something to eat but
it was all too expensive for me. I went
from needing to eat, to starving, to grumpy witch; to I just wanted to go
home. Fun for Matt, huh? So we started walking back towards our hotel
and finally found a place to eat. I had
a bowl of French onion soup (YUMMERS!!), an escargot (not yummers), and a steak
with French fries (yum-I like French fries here way better. Maybe this means I will not want to eat fries
when I come home and I will magically be skinny and no longer have to work at
my weight-a girl can dream!). Matt had
salmon and a really good glass of wine and the rest of the snails! The baby had baguettes! We had a nice dinner and returned home.
Wednesday was the last day of Matt’s meetings and much
better weather day. We both had free
breakfast in the room and Matt said he would be home around 4. After the baby’s morning nap, we set out to
explore the streets of Paris again. I
found a place to eat (it was not memorable), and I got my husband a baguette,
an éclair, and I got meringue. We
explored for three hours or so and I think I saw 6 Starbucks, got asked for
directions, found a really cool park that had something to do with Marie
Antoinette, got lost once, and found the largest mall ever. I am not a shopper but after passing the 17th
entrance for this mall that took up a very long block, I decided I would go
in. All the stores were high end (Prada,
Chanel, Coach, Louis Vuitton, may others that I had never heard of because I am
not high end!). But they weren’t really
stores. It was more like a bunch of
counters and alcoves like a department store but each was a different
retailer. The mall was also 8
floors. And had a fancy restaurant in
the middle.
After “shopping” I decided to head back to the hotel to let
the baby have a nap and check email.
Matt actually got home early from his meeting which was AWESOME!! See,
something awesome did happen while we were in Paris. When we were planning the trip, I decided I
wanted to do the L’Arc de Triomphe at night and the Eiffel Tour during the day
so we could see the different views and get to see what Paris looked like at
night. This did not happen because it
does not get dark until 9:45. Instead we
went to the L’Arc on Wednesday. We strolled
down the street and watched all the street performers. We saw the world’s biggest Louis Vuitton
store and went in so my friend Anna didn’t defriend me!
To get to the L’Arc, you go under the street
(just like how you get to Groves Stadium for the Wake Forest football
games!!). The ticket counter is
underground and then you emerge by the l’Arc.
Which is pretty amazing. The Tomb
of the Unknown Solider is under the L’arc and details are just unreal. The elevator was broken (which we were not
going to take anyway!) so we climbed the spiral stairs. NOTHING like the spiral stairs of Pisa. I was a little nervous about how it would be
on the top with my fear of heights and after my mild meltdown on the top of the
Leaning Tower of Pisa. But there was a
nice big safe fence and it was perfectly level and the views were AMAZING! We probably spent an hour looking at Paris
from every angle. The city is
enormous. I don’t think you could see
open space at all, just city followed by more city. When we came down, the French Army was
setting up for some kind of assembly. So
of course we stuck around to see it. We
waited and watched. And waited some
more. It finally started and we couldn’t
really hear, or understand what was happening so we decided to find something
to eat. Repeat every other night, we
wandered and I said no to most restaurants because they were outrageously
priced until I was too hungry to care.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to put the baby to bed and pack
our stuff since we were doing the suitcase shuffle the next day!
Since the meetings were over, we had to pay for the hotel
ourselves we were moving to something cheaper.
While we were checking out, we found out that the free breakfast in our
room was actually 14 euro (times 5 breakfasts, 70 euro for bread and
coffee). Matt explained that one of the
employees told him it was free, even told them which person it was, and that we
would not have ordered it every day (it was 14 euro to eat in the dining room
with a MUCH better selection). The one
agent literally just said “no, it was not free, it was 14 euro.” Finally Matt found another hotel employee who
agreed to split the price since we were given false information (the girl
apparently was telling us it was free to bring it to the room). I have experienced that in Europe, if you are
told wrong information or something bad happens, the company does not really
care. You are still required to pay what
they think you should pay, not what you were told or what you think.
Our new hotel was the
French Officer’s Club which has discounted rates for military. The hotel was very nice and beautiful and we
had the exact same room number!! This
hotel room was much larger and had the crib already set up (pillow and blanket
and all!) but our bed was tiny. In this
room, we had a view of the Eiffel Tower.
Thursday was our day to go to the Eiffel Tower. After getting all the bags and stuff settled
in the cloak room, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The baby was in the ERGO, which was a good
thing because there was only one lift working.
And there were SOO many people.
The lines were out of control and wrapped back and forth under the
tower. I stood in line while Matt went
to figure out what I was actually standing in line for, how much it would cost,
and about the stairs. Now, I am not in
good shape but I am the type to take the stairs instead of the elevator (before
strollers) or park farther away. I had
told Matt that I wanted to walk the l’arc but use the elevator in the Eiffel
Tower before we got off the plane. I thought
the heights plus the stairs would be too scary for me (plus it’s a lot of
stairs). After accessing the situation,
Matt discovered that the shortest line by approximately 800 people was the one
for the stairs. You can only take the
stairs for the first two levels, to the top you must take an elevator. So of course, I choose the stairs. I changed lines and Matt went to find
food. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, we
finally were ready to start the climb.
For the first half, I carried the baby.
For the second set of stairs, Matt carried the baby. Now, I know I am
out of shape and overweight but I get so frustrated at things like this. I was seriously the only person who was
huffing and puffing at all. And even if
I was not overweight (there was a time!) I would have still been huffing and
puffing. I get so mad at myself because
of this and I just can’t seem to understand why things are always more
difficult for me. I do feel a sense of
accomplishment for climbing the 669 stairs. (No, I did not count, they were
numbered every ten steps and the last step said 669!). I just wish I didn’t
feel like the only person who gets out of breath.
At every level we stopped and took a picture or two and I
actually looked over the edge! So after
exploring the second level (and catching my breath) we got in line for the
lift. At the top of the Eiffel Tower,
there is a little wax museum which was a little apartment that was used for
entertaining during the World’s Fair.
When the tower was first built there were 10,000+ stairs. And they had many major cities and how many
kilometers to the city. It was really
very neat…but also very windy and cold!
After we finished with the Eiffel Tower, it was time to
eat. We of course tried to find
something that was reasonably priced, which was another fail! Eventually we found a cute café . While we were waiting to order, I started to
feel a little ill. I got a hot chocolate
to warm up and ordered a “French” chicken sandwich. I decided to be brave and try something that
was a bit more local and therefore more scary and weird. It was a chicken club sandwich but it had egg
on it. And it was not good. Matt got another sandwich and I think his was
better than mine.
After we left the
café, we wandered a little bit but I was feeling ill and needed to go back to
the hotel. When we got to the hotel, I
was going to sleep and hopefully wake up feeling rested. Which of course, I was not able to
sleep. After a few hours, Matt decided
to run to the grocery store to get some water and other snacks while I got the
baby settled for the evening and hopefully fell asleep. And Matt came back to the hotel with the best
meal of the trip. He apparently got a
sandwich from some street vendor or something like that. It was some kind of meat and had a good spice
to it. And delicious french fries! We split this sandwich and made plans to find
this sandwich shop again!
Friday was the day the weather was supposed to be the worst
so it was the day we planned to go to the Louvre. We took the metro, which has
a stop that is the Louvre. The
underneath part of the museum is UNREAL!
There was a mall and guess what else, Hertz Rental Car! Yep, the hotel guy sent Matt to find a Hertz
that was underground with no car access. Seriously. Also in the underground shopping area, there
were three Starbucks. You read that correctly,
three! There is also an entrance to the
museum.
I know the Louvre was
large, but I had NO IDEA!! This thing is enormous. My mother-in-law sent us a DVD of the Louvre
and told us we needed to map out what we wanted to see so we would be able to
manage. I of course never had time to
look at the DVD and didn’t really know what was in the Louvre besides the Mona
Lisa and Venus de Milo. My art history
teacher would be mortified! I wish I had done more research to see what things
were in the museum so I could have made a plan of attack. Matt and I both felt overwhelmed with the
size and quantity of art in this museum…oh and the stairs! I thought we were planning ahead to bring the
stroller because it was a museum and you could stroll between artwork casually. I didn’t realize that there were tons of stairs
and very little lifts. We actually
brought the Ergo as well and part of the time I ended up carrying her in the
Ergo and Matt carrying the stroller.
This was after about 10 sets of stairs of Matt carrying the front end of
the stroller and me the back end up endless marble stairs. So-if you are going to the Louvre with a
small child, use your baby carrier and leave the stroller at home.
Matt and I spent at least 5 hours in the Louvre and probably
saw 1/10 of it. We saw the Mona Lisa and
the Venus de Milo. We saw lots of other
different art and got lost a lot. The
most memorable thing we saw was the apartments of Napoleon. There was a set of magnificent stairs and
lots of beautiful furniture. He had
these really cool sofas that were like two chairs together but joined at the
arms with the chairs facing the opposite direction. You could sit next to a person and not have
to turn to see them. Other memorable
things from the Louvre, the café is expensive, there was a HUGE dust bunny on
the floor in one of the atrium type things, there were thousands of people, the
map is vague and unhelpful, the docents are helpful, the Venus de Milo was
cool, I would never want to take a class on a field trip here, the people
around the Mona Lisa are selfish and rude, it is easy to get lost, and you
could easily spend days in this museum.
If we were bigger lovers of art, I think we would have been disappointed
that we left at 5 PM.
While waiting to get tickets to the Louvre, we realized that
if we could do it all again *highly unlikely* that we would buy the three day
museum pass. It allows access into any
and all of the museums and costs about the same as going to three museums. There is no waiting in lines (which we waited
an hour or more at each spot). So tip to all those traveling to Paris, buy the
pass!
After the museum, we wandered around the streets and tried
to find the Metro. Instead, we found Thomas Jefferson. Matt, a lover of all things UVA, was excited
to see his man TJ. We even had the
baby’s UVA blanket with us so we took a picture to submit to the UVA alum
magazine (this is the second picture!).
Walking a bit further, we found a Metro and were going to go to the
Latin Quarter. Matt was told this was
the cheaper section of Paris and had really good food. When we got in the Metro and studied the map
and then asked some one for help, we realized it was two stops down the Metro
so we would walk it. Of course two stops
on the Metro is not necessarily two blocks, it was two miles. It was a good walk but I was a little hungry
and therefore grumpy. We found a cute café which was in front of a fountain
which I think was part of the Sorbonne.
My brother studied abroad at the Sorbonne so we took a picture of the baby
and I in front of the fountain and then the camera died!! For dinner, I had another “French” meal. I had a coquette, which is an open faced
turkey and cheese melt. And French onion
soup. We started talking to the table
next to us and this couple traveled every year.
Typically they go to Naples (every year, WHY??) and actually stayed in
the town we live (Pozzuoli). They
recommended a restaurant and if we ever get to go out to dinner, we are going
to try it!
Saturday was our last day in Paris. We packed everything and got ready for the day. After checking out and putting our stuff in
the cloak room, we decided to wander. We
had to be back by 1:30 to head to the airport for our 5:30 flight (yes, 4 hours
ahead of time). So we explored the
church across the street from our hotel.
And then we wandered back towards the Latin Quarter so we could see the
Jardin de Luxembourg. We stopped and
bought some meat, cheese, and a baguette and had a picnic in the park. There was soo much cool stuff in this
park. There were sailboats to race in
the fountain, there were pony rides, there were big wheel race tracks,
playgrounds, tennis courts, and great people watching! We hung out for a couple of hours and then
had to head back. I definitely enjoyed
the jardin.
 |
| Channeling my inner Clark |
The journey home, I did not enjoy so much. Getting here was a big pain in the tush and
we did not want to have the same issues getting home. We allowed four hours to get to the airport
and get checked in. The train ride took
about an hour. I had the baby in the
Ergo for the train ride and I was carrying the stroller and diaper bag. Matt was carrying both suitcases and the
backpack. The train station was supposed
to be a block away. Unfortunately, it
was more than a block and there was construction making the sidewalk very
narrow. This makes rolling two suitcases
very difficult so we backtracked and crossed the street. Also, one of the bags has a broken
handle. We finally get to the station
and have to go down escalators and through several different turnstiles. Luckily, there is a special turnstile with a
luggage space right next to it. And
there was a lift down to the actual train.
It was a very large train station with some many different trains and
levels it was a bit overwhelming. The
track we were supposed to use actually had at least 5 different trains running
on it. Luckily a man on the bench told
us the first train was not the one we wanted because instinct was to jump on
it!! After the first train left, we
realized how to read the sign and actually got on the right train! Problem was, we didn’t get off on the right
stop! There are two stops for the
airport but no signs on the train to tell you which airlines are at which stop. Matt’s instinct was to get off on the first
one and some stupid man on the train told us to get off on the second one. So then we had to figure out how to get from
terminal two back to terminal one. So we
got back on a tram and took about 20 minutes to get to the other terminal. I am getting nervous since things are not
going smoothly but we allowed lots of extra time. Time to check into our flight and guess
what?? It is STILL messed up. The agent is not able to print a boarding pass
for me (shocker) and we have to go to the ticketing counter. This agent is not able to print the boarding
passes for the baby and I even though we have the ticket and the boarding
passes from our first flights. She calls
her supervisor who can’t get it to work.
Apparently the agents in Naples did something incorrectly which was
messing up the system. I literally
looked at Matt and said “I am going to sit on the floor.” I am surprised to say I did not cry. I still have it together. The supervisor comes back and actually has
boarding passes and is going to help us get our bags checked. We are moved to the front of the line and
given to the world’s most annoying and hard-headed agent. We told her we wanted to make sure our seats
were together (which they were because Matt moved them the night before) and to
check the car seat. She told us we had
to take the car seat on the plane. We
tried to explain that we did not purchase a seat for the baby and therefore
would not have room for a car seat. She
insisted. Matt and I just bit our
tongue. She also gave us a ten minute
speech on ‘gate checking’ our stroller.
She gave us the slip of paper and said we must give this to the flight
attendant and a bunch other stupid directions.
Finally, she did give us the gate checking slip for the car seat as well
as the stroller, but we would have to bring the car seat to the gate, she would
not allow us to check it all the way through.
At this point, I don’t care. Give
me boarding passes and send me to the gate.
This airport almost had individual security, the security screening we
went to covered about 8 gates. We were those
slow people with lots of stuff because we had the car seat, the stroller, and
two carry ons. And the French TSA agents
do things a little differently. We
apparently we supposed to show our IDs again and our boarding passes. So I go through the metal detector and the
lady tells me to “Stand Here.” Then Matt
goes through he they tell him to stand next to me. Then they just stand there for a minute
looking at us, getting mad. Apparently,
the directions of “stand here” meant “I need to search you and I need you to
stand here until your husband is through the metal detector so he can hold your
baby while I make sure you are not a terrorist carrying weapons in your bra or
your pants.” The stupid Americans did not
understand. So after I was cleared by
security, we get to our gate. I put
myself back together and find a bathroom to change the baby. Then Matt goes to the bathroom. Then we get a sandwich to bring on the plane
and then the plane boards. Yep, we got
to the gate about 20 minutes before boarding, even though we allowed 4
hours!!
We get on the plane and find out our seats are the very last
row. This is the last straw for Matt and
the flight attendant asks him how his day is going and he tells her the whole
saga and how much the traveling has really stunk (he was not rude and did not
curse-mainly complained that we went from row 9 to row 35 because of the
stupidity). The one guy is speechless
and starts trying to look busy in the back of the plane. The lady tells us that we should contact
customer service and she is very kind about the whole situation. And she starts flirting with the baby. We fly
to Frankfurt and alternate trying to entertain a tired baby who wants to move. In Frankfurt, we have an actual
frankfurter!! And a pretzel. And I have about 8 mini cups of hot chocolate
because they are “free” and since we have gotten screwed on every other part of
the travel, I want to get my money’s worth.
The baby has her peaches and a few bites of pretzel (which she loved)
and we decided to get her in her pajamas so that when we get home around 10,
she will be ready to get in the crib.
All that separates us from home is one two hour flight. The plane starts boarding and we go to our
seat all the way in the back. Luckily
the flight is not full so we have an entire row to ourselves. We get settled in and the baby is snuggling
with me. I look out of the window and
see a few raindrops and I think nothing of it.
Matt looks out of the window and sees lightning. He tells me that we will be delayed at least
30 minutes if we can’t take off in the next five. And guess what, he was right. The plane seems like it is going to take off
but we are just going to the parking lot.
And then the storm is rolling in and we are told we will be delayed for
an undetermined amount of time. The
flight attendants start serving beverages (wine) to the passengers. The baby is still snuggled up and finally
sleeping on my chest. And we wait. And wait.
And wait. At 10:40 Matt tells me
that this airport has a curfew and that no planes can take off after 11. At this point, I start crying. I just want to get home. I don’t want to spend the night in
Frankfurt. Apparently, if your flight
gets cancelled for weather, the policies are not the same as in the US. All I know is I want to get to my home in
Naples. Matt starts texting with his
brother and tells him to start searching for hotels near the airport. At 10:50, the pilot comes on the air and
tells us the soccer scores. At 10:55,
the baby wakes up and I trying to soothe her.
And soothe myself. And then it is
11:00 and we are still on the ground.
The flight attendant tells the people in front of us that this airport
is really strict about the curfew because of political issues but he thinks
there is a chance they will let us go.
And THANK GOODNESS HE WAS RIGHT!
We finally were approved for take-off 3.5 hours after our original time. I have never been in a weather delay where
you have to just sit on the plane for hours and hours waiting with no idea if
you will get to leave. And the first
time I get to experience this lovely event is with a tired 8 month old. I will say, I must have done something right
because I have the world’s greatest baby who slept through most of the rain
delay and then slept most of the flight, I even got to take a little nap. While we are waiting for our luggage I am
thinking that it would not surprise me if our bags were lost. They finally both come out and we gather all
our stuff and start walking back to the base to our truck.
At 2 AM, we get home and this horrible trip is over.
