Day 10: French Holiday (Goodbye)

Our last day. We had some great experiences and saw some great sights. However, we are excited to go home, see the boys, and sleep in our own beds.

We woke early to finish packing, clean the apartment, and get on the road to do some last-minute souvenir shopping. Driving Paris City roads was quite the experience. It was the craziest traffic we have ever driven in. We got used to the various types of road signs to help us on our routes. An ambulance with sirens blaring had two police motorcyclists driving ahead, weaving through the traffic, and hand signaling drivers to move over. We felt like a mouse running around a maze, that’s for certain. We finally made it to the Notre Dame area and stopped at Les Maison Des Crepes. Russ ordered a ham, cheese, and egg and the girls split a ham, cheese, tomato, and lettuce savory crepe. Delicious and filling. We visited a few shops, happened upon a few more historic sites (such as the narrowest street in Paris), then it was off to ORLY Airport.

Google Maps was a lifesaver but didn’t really help much when trying to find our way through the airport parking to return the car rental. Thank goodness for a kind attendant who spoke enough English to get us headed in the right direction. After checking our bags, we noticed Brooklynn’s boarding pass didn’t include the second leg of our trip. That should have alerted us of things to come, but we were so focused on making sure she got from Iceland to the US we didn’t give it another thought. We went through security, arrived at our gate, and only had to wait a few minutes before boarding. We were off!

Arriving in Reykjavik, we stopped for a slice of pizza, then went through customs to get to our next connecting flight. As Brooklynn scanned her pass to go through the gate the light turned red and the doors wouldn’t open. She had been selected to go through extra security. If we hadn’t been in such a hurry adding her second leg of the trip, we might have noticed the SSSS code marked on her pass. If we had realized, we would have taken her backpack and carry-on with us.

Brooklynn was taken, along with a long line of other passengers, through an extra screening process. The sign said we needed to wait for her at the boarding gate as there are two exits from security. However, everyone seemed to be coming out of the exit near where we were standing, and what parent wants to leave their child behind, so we chose to wait by the door. A good 20 minutes pass, no Brooklynn. More time goes by and still, no B. Russ checked down by the gate but didn’t see her, so we continued to wait. Boarding time, still no B. Russ checked again, finally, there she was! At the same time, Alecia was making her way to the gate because she had a discussion with a guard who told her by law the plane could not leave without B but could leave without her. Fortunately, Russ was headed back at the same time and met up with her. He grabbed the luggage and we raced to the gate for departure. Alecia determined she has no desire to ever be in The Amazing Race. Haha!

Brooklynn made friends with two other women, also selected to go through Security, and flying out on the same plane. They shared that they were taken into a little white room by themselves with two Security Guards. One unpacked everything from all their bags, in front of them, then swabbed the luggage and random items. The other Security Guard checked their person for anything unusual and swabbed their bodies. Then they each had to repack everything and were sent down a back elevator. Good golly!

FYI: The women B made friends with had just spent a week in Iceland and they LOVED it!!! Hot springs, waterfalls, they are at a restaurant that was located in a greenhouse. Beautiful. They served them shark and whale and then had a good laugh because after they sampled it all they disclosed that the locals don’t eat any of it. We don’t watch Game of Thrones, but evidently, there are some mountains they were able to see and take photos of that are spectacular! A country to keep in mind. 🙂

After a total of 12 hours flying time, we finally arrived at Sea-Tac. Ryan picked us up and took us back to our car. By the time we got home, we had been up about 26 hours straight. Exhaustion kicked in and we collapsed in our own beds. We created some great memories and had a great time, however, it’s good to be home.

Helpful hint for those planning a trip to Paris, get a weekly Navigo pass. It was great for unlimited use of the Metro. We had one for use from a Wednesday afternoon through Sunday evening and it totally paid off.

Day 9: French Holiday (Château de Pierrefonds)

For our last full day in France, we drove ninety minutes to Château de Pierrefonds, one of many castles that inspired Walt Disney. The drive was very pleasant. France has roads similar to US freeways, but there were routes here that were very similar to that of Australia. You’ll be on what you think is a freeway, doing 110/kph, and then the road becomes a single lane and the speed changes to 30/kph.

Upon arrival at Pierrefonds, the castle is quite a sight to see. Designed for defense, it had a mote (no longer operational) and a drawbridge (pretty darn cool). The magnitude of the building is hard to describe. It is so large, and the walls are so thick and tall, that you wonder if the term “storm the castle walls” could ever apply.

We toured the courtyard of the castle and then walked through various halls and rooms. Lots of pictures taken, too many to fit in one post.

After returning, Brooklynn took a quiz for one of her classes. Now we are packing up so we can stop by a few places in the morning before heading for the airport. C’est la vie.

Day 8: French Holiday (Catacomes and Eiffel Tower After Dark)

The mornings are getting harder to get up and get going after days of walking, climbing stairs, and staying up late. We are enjoying it and not stressing out about having to be any particular place at any certain time. Today is the last day that our weekly Navigo metro passes are good, so we are taking full advantage of them and using them to pick up a rental car for the last two days of our trip. On our way to pick up the car at the Orly Airport, our transfer stop was right across the street from the catacombs. The line was already long, but we decided since we were there, let’s just do it. We overheard some folks say it was around a 2 hrs wait, and as they left, two sisters from Chicago heard us speaking English and asked if this was the line for the Catacombs. They got into line behind us and we all started talking; it made the time go by so much quicker.

Russ crossed the street at one point to pick up a baguette and some Macarons. The macarons were not as good as Ladurée, but we still enjoyed them. Periodically, people would drop by and say, “I heard you speaking English and I was wondering how long you’ve been in line?”

The catacombs is a place of burial for millions of Persians, and if you’re interested in learning about them you can click the link to read more: http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/les-…/un-voyage-hors-du-temps

The entrance is at the side of a building that looks like a house, but once you're in, you descend down a circular stairway flight of 130 stairs to tunnels below. They eventually take you to through hallway after hallway after hallway...filled with bones. You don’t have access to all the halls and it’s mind-bending to think of the living walking city streets built over the dead. We thought we had heard that these tunnels only represent 1/900th of all the tunnels that run under Paris.

At the end of the Catacombs, you ascend 83 steps back to the top and are now quite far away from the entrance. We took a picture with our Chicago friends, Natasha and Erica, who suggested we go see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. First, we caught a bus to Orly to pick up our car. Sacre bleu what a busy airport! Getting the car was simple enough and with Russ’s expert race driving skills we got out of their real fast.

We dropped the car off at the apartment, took the RER to the Place du Trocadéro, the best place they say to photograph the Eiffel Tower day and night. It sparkles every hour, on the hour, for five minutes. We got off the metro, walked around the corner, and there it was. Never mind that we’d already seen ET up close, there it was lit up against the dark night sky and what a sight to behold. We were mesmerized, along with thousands of others. More pictures were taken of the Eiffel Tower with our cameras than any other site we’ve been to.

After watching the beautiful show, we took a 20-minute stroll to find a trip advisor cafe to eat at, Spidori di Parma. When we arrived we found out it was no longer in business. We walked the side streets and found a cute little Italian place, Gusto Italia, and it did not disappoint. We had the Ravioli (Ricotta, spinach, prosciutto, mixed cheeses sauce) and Chipolina Pizza (Tomatoes, mozzarella, chorizo, salami, Italian cured meats). For dessert, we had the Lemon Meringue Pie and Chocolate Soufflé with ice cream. We have never had Italian food like we had that night.

***The girls are on a cooking mission to learn how to recreate the Ravioli and even 24 hours later, nobody can stop talking about or salivating over that meal.

After catching the Metro and RER back to our place, it was 11:30pm, extremely late, and we are exhausted. Au Revoir.