And now, ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion of our Anniversary Trip to France. By doing this blog, I feel like I've been able to relive the trip over the past month, so thanks for indulging me. Let's get to it.
Tuesday, June 12
This morning, we left Cannes and faced all the logistical nonsense of trying to find out where to drop off our rental car, get to the train station, find the right track and get on the right train. Even though I believe the upstairs cars are nicer, it is really difficult to climb up a narrow staircase with about 120 lbs of luggage. Anyway, we are now relaxing on the train (about a 5 hour ride) through the French countryside on our way back to Paris.
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Unfortunately, this trip quickly devolved into a nightmare, as the guys sitting across from us were clearly sick and coughing constantly (without attempting to cover their mouths in any way) as well as blowing their noses. Glenn said to me, "We are on the death train." We wore our masks for the final half of the trip, which was unpleasant. Additionally, there was some delay and we ended up arriving over an hour late. There was a 2-hour line at the Taxi stand at the station, but we walked a bit down the street and had an Uber in 3 minutes (hooray!).
We got to our hotel, the Cinq Codet (which has a view of the Eiffel Tower on one side and the Invalides on the other). It is a five-star hotel with rave reviews and is known as the most contemporary hotel on the left bank. We were told we had been upgraded to one of their premium suites (the Rodan Suite) for our anniversary and it was gorgeous! It had a huge private deck where we could have, if we were so inclined, invited 25 people up to hang out. They also gave us free champagne. Glenn did a great job picking locations.
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| Check out the double sized shower in the back with dual rainheads. This hotel room had two bathrooms! |
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| One side of the deck |
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| And the other |
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| Our view off the deck - the spire for Les Invalides. |
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| We also had some kind of fruit tree on our deck (apricots?) and enjoyed watching the pigeons tussel over the fruit. Kind of like a partridge in a pear tree. |
And here was the view from the other side of the hotel.
Here's a little courtyard outside where we had our champagne, and the place in the hotel where Glenn had breakfast.
Wednesday, June 13th
Today, we walked to a little GF bakery where I had chocolate marble cake for breakfast and bought some cookies for later. We went over to the Eiffel Tower again but were unwilling to wait for hours in line to see the view from up top.
Then we took an Uber over to Saint Chapelle. There was a long line there, so we sat at a café across the street and had some lunch first (Glenn had onion soup again!) and I had a ham and cheese omlette (I had a lot of omlettes in France).
By the time we were done eating, the line to get into Saint Chapelle was much shorter, so we only had to wait a little while to get in. I know that this was one of Mom's favorite places in Paris and it was ours too. So I apologize...we took a million pictures and it felt almost sacreligious to delete any of them, so...here we go!
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| Not all gargoyles are scary |
So, let's go inside, shall we?
Just awe-inspiring. These windows are from the 13th century and we heard that during the war, the Parisians actually removed them and put them in safe storage so they wouldn't be damaged. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to remove all of these windows and then put them back up!
Here's a video if you want a 360-degree tour.
Later we napped, showered, read out on the deck for a bit and then went to Tasca again for a delicious dinner.
Thursday, June 14th
Today, after breakfast in a nearby café, we walked over to the Invalides, but didn’t want to pay for tickets to go inside, so we just walked around the public areas.
If you don't know (I didn't), according to Wikipedia: "The Hôtel des Invalides, commonly called Les Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose."
Here are some other random photos from walking around Paris.
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| Giant statue of a painter flinging paint onto a building. |
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| And Glenn... |
After the Invalides, Glenn said he was going to take me somewhere nice for lunch and got us an Uber. However, while we were on a highway, Glenn told the driver we were close enough, and had the driver drop us off near an interpass. Like in the middle of nowhere.
We walked along the road for a few minutes and Glenn had us following Google maps through a PATH IN THE WOODS. I saw a dead mole, lots of graffiti and what looked like a homeless encampment, and was pretty sure this was where Glenn was planning to kill me.
Fortunately, we emerged at a lovely lake, where there was a boat to shuttle you over to Paris’ only island. The island had a beautiful restaurant called Le Chalet des Iles. We had an incredible lunch there.
We were seated on the upstairs porch, but the inside of the restaurant was pretty too.
I got two plates "for sharing" – jambon (ham) and a burrata cheese and tomato dish. The burrata cheese was the size of a football, and the waiter teased me for not finishing a dish that was meant for four people.
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| Glenn had the burrata pasta, so you can see how much bigger my cheese was! |
Also, it was quite hot outside, and the waiter brought us a spray bottle of Evian so we could mist our faces with cool water. Tres chic!
After lunch, we walked around the island park along the lake and read on a bench for a while before heading back to the hotel.
Later that day, we had dinner at a little sidewalk café near our hotel (steak frites) and watched all the people go by. We couldn't believe what a lovely trip we had had, how fast it had gone, or that we'd be headed home in the morning.
By now, you've all heard about our unpleasant return travel experience (8-hour flight, 10-hour layover, 3-hour flight to Tampa) and our pure hatred for JFK airport, so let's skip over all that and leave on a positive note. Au revoire, France! Nous vous aimons! (We love you!)
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| A repost, but c'est la vie! |
