Author: rphbaker

It’s always hard for me to figure out how to close out a trip. These words are the hardest of all to find. It feels impossible to wrap up three amazing weeks succinctly. I’m grateful that Greg’s parents invited us to join them, I’m grateful that we were able to leave work behind, and I’m grateful that the kids managed the house and pets for us.

I’m going to use Gavin’s quote from Ernest Hemingway that he shared during one of his talks.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”-Ernest Hemingway

There was a male flight attendant on the plane who had the best vibes. I was thinking he was going to make the 8 hour flight a little more fun. Unfortunately, not for me. He was on Greg’s side of the plane.

We arrived slightly late and had no issues going through customs. Just had to wait a bit on our checked luggage.

I love waking up to texts from United.

It’s not the prettiest morning here.

We now have more time to repack and get ready to go.

The escalator to the tram we needed wasn’t working which left only the elevator. Greg assured me that all the escalators went to the same place despite the signs indicating otherwise.

We made it to the airport and rather than doing self check bags Greg wanted special treatment.

So the bathrooms were individual stalls with full doors that had sinks inside. I chose an unlocked door only to have it slammed in my face. Someone forgot to lock their door. How?

Taking off soon! Time to binge some Love is Blind.

Greg had researched dinner options including the French equivalent of door dash for McDonald’s and KFC. We are within walking distance to the airport but the Charles de Gaulle airport consists of numerous terminals separate trams to each one. We are in a transportation sort type of terminal with extremely limited options.

Greg saw that there was a Pret A Manger so we decided to eat there.

Greg also saw a cat running up ahead that I had missed.

There was a grocery store that sold sandwiches. I said I can eat that and Linda said we have no idea how old they are. My response was “I have low standards.” Guess what…we all had low standards for dinner.

Grocery store dinner it is!

I wanted one of everything but forgot I literally had no money or no card and that Carey was buying dinner. I utilized some self control for maybe the first time on this trip.

On our walk back we saw the cats again, only they weren’t cats. They were giant rats running everywhere. Needless to say we didn’t stick around looking for the green parakeets.

As has become our routine with every meal we did a cheers followed by tapping the glass on the table before we drink.

The airport looks pretty even at night. Love the lights in the French colors.

After assuring us that he had access, we made our way to the executive lounge for happy hour. I put our key up to the lock and we were denied. Twice.

Greg made his way to the front desk and got a key that gave us access. Maybe it was operator error.

Happy hour was meh but it took up some time since we don’t really have anything to do here aside from plane spot.

We walked down from Sacre Coeur and grabbed an Uber to head back. This is our first Uber with a starry ceiling.

We arrived back at the Airbnb right on time for our 3pm meet up with our host. Florence is a concert pianist and also an executive coach. She was extremely friendly (and flexible). She shared that the furniture is rearranged at times to host private concerts in the apartment holding up to 50 pre covid. Hard to imagine they can get 50 people in the living room and I also have no clue where they would move furniture.

We suggested she play something for us but she wasn’t interested in giving us a free concert it seems.

I took a pic of the apartment door just because it was several inches thick and solid as hell. You had to mostly slam it to get it to shut all the way even though the house info sheet asked you to not slam it. Ok Florence.

Traffic was insane so it took close to an hour to make our way to the Hilton. It’s going to be exciting to see what our room situation is.

Greg had booked two separate rooms on two separate confirmation numbers but booked the rooms for the wrong date (details.) He had called while we were at the Rodin museum and after a long chat with lots of time on hold she said she moved it to the right night. Turns out she only moved one of the rooms.

Another call back and lots of time on hold resulted only in frustration for Greg as they said they couldn’t change it because he’d booked a connecting room. Mind you….no. He hadn’t. They were two separate reservations. Also, we like each other a lot…but connecting rooms aren’t a necessity. They advised there was nothing they could do and that he needed to call back Monday at 3pm Paris time (which is basically when we would be heading to the hotel) or he could try calling or emailing the hotel directly. (He had tried calling directly and they would never answer.)

He was ready to eat the reservation and book a new room but I said we should email. Thankfully he did send an email.

After a long wait we got an email back that they had updated it. In the Hilton app it showed as one confirmation number with two rooms. We literally have no clue what we are getting and at this point I don’t think anyone cares.

We arrive at the hotel and Greg gets the keys. 841 and 842. Hmmm maybe we are connecting.

We ride the elevator up only to be greeted by this sign. Apparently the time changed overnight and not one of us realized it.

Greg’s parents took 842 since that room was smaller. Our room has a large desk which would be good if either of us had decided to work. (I actually did do some work but not from the desk. Preferred my airport views from the couch.)

Turns out their room had the nicer bathroom with a soaking tub and larger shower. Linda offered to let me take a bath but I declined. Will just wait for the shower tomorrow and hope it’s amazing.

Incoming lots of airport pics.

We have no clue what time it is anywhere as we are all thrown off by the time change. But what we do know is that we have made it to happy hour in the executive lounge.

Our Uber dropped us off at what I expected to be at the top of the hill. But I was clearly wrong. For those of you who may not know, Sacre Coeur is located at the top of a very high hill which gives you great views of the city but also a workout walking up steps.

We were lucky to not have to walk the entire way up but it’s still far.

We were greeted by a long line to get in. Thankfully it moved really fast.

The Church is very pretty inside with high ceilings and beautiful mosaics. There are offering candles burning everywhere.

Time to head back to the apartment to meet our host Florence and grab our things to head to the airport.

After hanging out in the gardens for a while we started walking to look for something for lunch. Highly likely it’s gonna be pizza, pasta, or a burger based on our history.

We walked right past a monument dedicated to a pharmacist. Linda was the one who noticed it.

After passing a few restaurants that didn’t float our boat we stopped at the next one that we came to because basically we were all tired of looking (or maybe that was just me.) You guess it…pizza and pasta.

Pretty sure we were there before they really started serving lunch as they were setting our table and the ones around us after we were seated.

I had the best pasta ever and I must come back and bring Logan.

But without further ado…

After lunch we called an Uber to head to Sacre Coeur. Our last stop before we leave Paris.

We have talked a few times on this trip about how people move furniture in the houses in Amsterdam or here with no elevators. We passed this moving truck in our Uber and partially got our question answered. They had a platform attached to the ladder that was pulling boxes up. Can barely see it in the next pic.

Greg walked us to Luxembourg Gardens and I’m so glad he did. We had walked up to the gates last time we were here but didn’t have time to go walk around.

I had forgotten how beautiful it was here. There were workers everywhere planting new flowers in beds everywhere.

Next up…another of my favorites…the sailboats! I forced my kids to do this years ago and I’m pretty sure I was the one most excited by it. I was so excited to see several boats in the pond and even more excited to see that kids were actually having fun that wasn’t forced.

We had somewhat of a slow start this morning. Our Airbnb host is allowing us to leave our luggage in the apartment until 3pm today but we needed to have it all packed and ready to go before we left.

We didn’t have any specific destination in mind but wanted to get out to walk a bit. We will head to the Hilton by the airport for tonight around 3pm.

We finally walked past a French bakery so I decided to pop in and grab a pastry. This time I got what I intended to get yesterday. It was delicious.