The French Dispatches - Part Une

Well, hello there, blog readers!  I know the site's been quiet for the past month or so, but as a reward for everyone waiting patiently for new posts, we've got some great content lined up for the next eight weeks or so - tons of incredible pictures and stories about our recent trip to France!  Let's get right to it!

Bonjour from Paris!

First, a bit of background - as many of you already know, we subscribe to a (free) travel aggregator website called Travelzoo.  While they don't provide any flights or hotels themselves, they send out a weekly email to users with all sorts of great travel deals.  You purchase a voucher with them, redeem it with the merchant directly, and off you go (Bob's your uncle, etc.)!  We've used them for years and have always been happy with their services, for travels near (summer staycations in Scottsdale) and far (a weeklong trip to Puerto Vallarta).  In January 2022, we saw a great deal come through for a stay in Bordeaux, France, and we snatched it up (Travelzoo also has a very generous post-COVID return policy, which helped us make the decision).  About a month later, we also found a Travelzoo deal on a Paris hotel, and we purchased that as well.  We tentatively picked early February for our travel dates (low season, cheaper flights and hotels, fewer fellow travelers, etc), and in April, we pulled the trigger on airline tickets, too.  After working with the hotels directly, we were able to lock in our preferred dates, and it was time to start planning!

And waiting - after all, we still had nine months to go (we stayed busy, though, as you've seen by reading the blog).  Eventually, February 1st rolled around, and after checking the monkey into doggie daycare for the next week, we grabbed our bags and headed to Sky Harbor!  We were flying Delta - first to Atlanta, then into Paris - so we'd be going through Terminal 3.  While that meant we couldn't eat at our normal vacation spots, the airport locations of Barrio Cafe or Le Grande Orange (both in Terminal 4), an early dinner at San Tan Brewing fit the bill just fine.

Because we followed the "get there 3 hours early for an international flight" rule, we had plenty of time to enjoy our meal and then wander the terminal, checking out the shops and in-house art gallery.  Eventually, the flight boarded, and we were on our way!

On the flight to ATL - 

excuse me, sir, this is a designated party foul

Aside from the personal space invasion shown above, the flight to Atlanta was uneventful.  We tried to sleep, per the advice of the Timeshifter app I'd downloaded for the trip (good app, by the way), but only succeeded in napping for a short while here and there.  We landed a bit early and had just the right amount of time to ride the underground train to the international terminal, use the restroom, and grab some water before loading up our second plane, this one for the hop across the pond.  We learned on our first international flight together (to London, many years back) that Chris doesn't fit well into standard, economy-sized seats for long hauls like this, so we always budget enough to bump up a class or two into the slightly roomier options.  For this adventure, that put us in the Comfort Plus section, which included perks like chairs with a larger reclining angle and automated footrests, bigger tv screens, and complimentary adult beverages.  We took advantage of all of those:

Woodford Reserve and ginger ale -

the midflight drink of champions

We were able to fall asleep on this flight, in between reading, watching the entertainment options on our seatback screens, and of course, eating and drinking as many goodies as the flight attendants chose to throw our way.

I'm ready!

Eventually, the plane made its way into European airspace, and with a quick jaunt over the Emerald Isle and Great Britain, we were in France!

C'est France!

Our plane landed around 1:30pm Central European Standard Time (which is 8 hours ahead of MST, here in Phoenix), which was really nice.  Many flights to Europe from the USA land early in the day; in theory, this gives you a full day to see the sights, but in reality, it's actually kind of awful.  You roll off a plane, totally jet lagged (since your body thinks it's midnight), and you're immediately forced to navigate an unfamiliar city, potentially in a language that's not yours, and when you finally do make it to your hotel, it's before check-in time.  You can't use the shower in your room, so you try to make the best of it and change into another set of clothes in the lobby bathroom, store your bags with the front desk, and drag yourself around the city until you're about to pass out while you're waiting for the magical hour of check-in to occur.  When that happens, you shower and fall asleep in your hotel bed at 3:30pm, waking up dazed and confused a few hours later, hungry for some sort of meal (it should be dinner, but your body is like, brunch?).  You put clothes back on and stumble outside for a few hours to find sustenance, until you can't hang any longer and you go back to your room, fall fast asleep, then wake up at 3am local time, annoyed about the whole situation.  

Landing in the early afternoon, by contrast, is great.  We went through the process of getting our metro passes (easier this time than in 2018, as we knew what to expect), hopped on the RER train into the city, and within an hour and a half, we were in our room at Hotel Le Six, all checked in, unpacked, showered, and ready to go back out and hit the town.  Our stay at Hotel Le Six was the other Travelzoo voucher we purchased many months ago, and it worked out great.  While the room itself was on the smaller side by American standards, it was pretty big for Europe, and the bed and bathroom were fantastic.  We'd never stayed on the left bank of Paris before (in the sixth arrondissement), so it was neat to be in a different location, and we were super close to all of the amenities in the Montparnasse area of town (including the Gare Montparnasse, the train station where we'd be catching our ride to Bordeaux in a few days).

Our first stop was at a local creperie, Les Cormorans, to grab some grub and celebrate La Chandeleur, held every February 2nd in France; it's mainly a day dedicated to eating crepes, so we were right on schedule!  According to the article linked above, February 2nd is exactly 40 days after Christmas, and it also commemorates an older celebration of the midway point of winter.  The round shape of the crepe represents the sun and the circle of life, and it's just plain delicious.

Our pitcher of cidre

Noms!

Fortified, we jumped aboard the metro and took it toward the Champ de Mars to see the Iron Lady herself, La Tour Eiffel.  Emerging from the station in the arrondissement nearby, we were surrounded by medium-sized buildings, so it took a hot minute to see the Tower; however, we eventually found it!

Ta da!

As we strolled closer, the taking of several dozen pictures commenced:

It really is cool, particularly at night

We headed across the Pont d'Iena bridge (pont = bridge in French) to the right bank of the Seine and took some shots from the other side.

The Tower and Pont d'Iena from the right bank

We strolled along the right bank until we made it to the Pont de l'Alma, where the most famous of the Seine River cruise companies, the Bateaux Mouches, has their home base.  When we visited Paris in 2018, we loved the river journey we took aboard the Bateaux, and we thought about going on one again.  However, the timing didn't quite work out, and we were getting tired, so we passed on this occasion (also, sitting on a river boat in the 30 degree weather wasn't super enticing).  

Still took a picture, though!

Even though it was only 7:30pm Paris time, and we'd napped aboard the plane, we were ready to end our day, so we walked a bit farther, crossing the Pont Alexandre III to the left bank and grabbing the Metro to the Hotel Le Six.  I was still a bit hungry, so I found a ham and cheese panini from a roadside stand, and we took it back to the hotel to eat in their lounge (Chris also enjoyed a local beer).  Before too long, we were done, and it was time for bed!

Coming up on future blogs, we wander through some incredible museums in the City of Light, and we take a train south to Bordeaux to drink oh so much great wine!  Also, tons of eating amazing food!  Lots of pictures and tales to come!

Au revoir!

Amy

PS - Like in the 2018 France blogs, I'll be putting our step count for the day at the end of each post.  Paris is a walking city (and so was Bordeaux, as it turns out), and although we didn't log quite as many steps as a few years back, we still did pretty well.  The step count for Thursday, February 2nd ended up being 17,294 (2,000 steps is roughly 1 mile, so we did around 8.5 miles on this day).

PPS - While we're gone, Zoe boards at JetPet, a local daycare/overnight spot.  She's been going there since we moved back to Arizona in 2019, and she LOVES it.  They take amazing care of their guests, and they post pictures of the kids each day on Facebook and Instagram.  Here are a few of Zoe's first day adventures:

"Hi guys, I'm having fun!"

Making friends!