My Vacation Part I - Paris

Here is part one of my vacation.  Enjoy...

I woke up the morning of September 12 with a burst of energy.  I made a few phone calls and after what seemed like days, it was finally time to go to the airport. 

The weather was perfect for flying.  The weather was not as cooperative for my brother and sister-in-law (SIL) who were flying from Houston.  I was a little worried their flight to Philly might be delayed or cancelled because of rain but they arrived safely.  I already had my boarding passes, so I decided to check my luggage curb side.  As my bags were being checked, I saw the sign; they charged $2 per bag and that did not include gratuity!  If I knew that I would have brought them inside.   It’s not a lot of money but it’s the principle of the thing.

We met in Philadelphia and off to Paris we went.

We landed 15 minutes early.  We did not sleep much on the flight over.  We arrived at our hotel around 10:30.  Only one of our rooms was ready so we dropped our stuff, changed and off we went.  We hopped on a train and headed to the main train station to get our train tickets for Saturday to Beauvais France (more to come on the Beauvais experience).

After purchasing our tickets our first stop was the Sacre-Couer.  The first of many beautiful churches we visited while in Europe. 

We walked to the top of the dome which had a spectacular view and visited the crypt which was ok, nothing special.  The church is made of a white stone that glistens when it rains.  

We also walked the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre cemetery.

After leaving the cemetery we headed to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe.  We stopped for dinner at a little café.  We walked to the top of the Arc de Triomphe – another beautiful view of the city. 

From there, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, stopping at the Princess Diana Memorial on the way. 

By the time we got to the Eiffel Tower, my brother and SIL decided not to go to the top.  I didn’t walk all that way for nothing.  So I set out for the line.  The line was long and the tower closed in a couple of hours.  I decided not to go as I probably wouldn’t have been able to get on the elevator.   We took a few pictures of the tower and got on the Metro back to the hotel.

The next morning, we walked to the Pantheon. The Pantheon contains beautiful paintings and sculptures.  The mausoleum contains the tombs of Louis Braille, Victor Hugo and Marie Curie. 

We walked to Notre Dame and ascended more stairs to the dome.  The church is spectacular.  We walked a lot during this trip.

Our next stop was Sainte-Chapelle.   My SIL and I stopped for a crape with chocolate and bananas on the way.  It was delicious.  I ended up wearing some of the chocolate.  Luckily I decided not to wear the white shirt that day.  Sainte-Chapelle is located on the grounds of a federal building.  We had to wait in line to go through security.   Finally we made into the church.  The stained glass windows are beautiful.  Other than that, I wasn’t too impressed.

Our last stop for the day was the Louvre.  We arrived at the right time around 4:00.  We had a few specifics works of art we wanted to see – the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and Dying Slave (I’m a big fan of Michelangelo).  We were able to get as close to the Mona Lisa as you can get.  Even with signs all over the place saying “no photos”, cameras were going off left and right.  So we got a couple of shots of the old girl.   One of the exhibits we stopped at was Napoleon’s apartment.  The furniture he had was incredible.  We spent a few hours in the Louvre and went back to the hotel stopping at an Italian restaurant for dinner on the way.   

Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with the concierge.  We walked to the catacombs which my Paris tour book describes as a “Chamber of Horrors”.  The passage way through the catacombs contains the bones of over 6 million people displayed in very interesting patterns.  

After leaving the catacombs we walked through the Luxemburg Gardens, which are just beautiful, on our way to St. Sulpice church.  We didn’t say too long in the church as they were getting ready for a wedding and we needed to get back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and go to the train station.  

The trip to Beauvais was uneventful.  The real story is when was arrived.  My SIL printed off a map for directions to our hotel from the station.  We set out on foot, thinking it was only a mile to the hotel.  We walked about a mile along a heavily traveled road with no side walk, just a dirt path.  The end was nowhere in sight.  Out of the blue, a French girl pulls stops to give us a ride.  We checked in to the hotel and went to our room which was quite amusing.  The room contained one single bed and a set of bunk beds.  My brother took the top bunk.  The bathroom was slightly larger than the coat closet in my living room.  We had dinner at a nearby restaurant which had a country western theme. 

The next morning we boarded a bus to the Beauvais airport for our flight to Rome. 

Stayed tuned for part 2 of my vacation… Rome.