We arrived in Paris after a 3 hour comfortable train ride from Bordeaux. The cab ride from the train station was about 1/2 hour through the busy streets of Paris. It was early afternoon when we arrived at Hotel Lennox. Nice hotel in a good location but the rooms were very small, which was the rule rather than the exception. I'm talking cruise ship small, at 5'6" my wingspan is short but I was only a couple of inches shy of reaching the walls on the longest part of the bathroom. If you bent down in the shower to pick up the soap you are likely to bump the faucet and turning it to scaling. That'll get you dancing but it won't be a happy dance.
After settling in we went out to grab some lunch at a creperia around the corner. It was our first meal in Paris and it was very good. We walked around town taking in a few local sites and checked out the metro which we anticipating buying a 2-day pass, thankfully it was just down the street and seemed like it would be simple enough to use.
Tom had a few recommendations for restaurants provided by a colleague that lived in Paris so we decided that we would go to La Coupole. As it turns out only 3 of us were able to go out that night, Ann could not attend because she had a back spasm and stayed in the hotel. We were greeted at La couple by a Maharaja, which was odd because we didn't get the connection, but it was memorable. It was a big place and we had an excellent meal there. They even brought out a birthday dessert for someone and the entire wait staff joined in signing Happy Birthday in French.
The next day everyone was feeling great so got a 2-day pass on the metro a spent the entire day visiting many places including The Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Seine river, etc. While we were navigating around Paris we occasionally got lost but we found the local French people to be very helpful & friendly. On Thursday we took the train to Versailles to see the palace, which was included in our 2-day metro pass. We had been told it would take 40 minutes to get to Versailles but when we arrived in about 20 minutes this caused us a little concern. I asked the French gentleman seated across from me if this was the right stop for the palace and he said we were on the wrong train but we should get off here since it is only a 10 minute walk from here. Thankfully I asked, it could of been bad if we stayed on the train. We got to Versailles around 9:30am because we needed to be back in Paris in the afternoon. We had reservations for the Eiffel Tower at 5:00pm so it would be another busy day. Versailles was opulent, gold was on everything, seemed overdone to me, but the gardens were amazing. We stopped at a little Irish restaurant on the way back to the train station and had a really tasty quiche. We arrived back in Paris after a short train ride, relaxed and ready to visit the Eiffel Tower. The tower was awesome, amazing view, truly unbelievable how they completed this in 1889 without today's technology.
This is one of the reasons we travel to see these amazing sites, the other which is just as important is the interesting people we've met, not that you don't meet interesting people at home but when you're visiting new places it seems to happens more often. We met a guy from Palestine at the Eiffel Tower that was in Paris just for a couple of days on business an decided he would see the tower but he found out he was afraid of heights and in his words "I bought a ticket to the top but I could not do it, I did not know this about myself." He nervously laughed as he rode the elevator down with us. We stopped on the first level to stand on the new plexiglass floor looking at the people below. This was officially opened about a week after we arrived home. We went to a little bistro afterwards to relax with a glass of wine before dinner, this is when Mimi stared feeling bad (we believe it was vertigo) and it lasted for almost 2 days. We headed over to dinner but she got worse so Mimi & I headed back to the hotel. She was in bed until we left for the airport on Friday.
Thursday was a relaxed day for us with Mimi staying in bed at the hotel, we didn't stray too far away but we visited a park that the Parisians frequent, this is supposedly where you can see them relaxing and enjoying life. Some were reading, listening to music, others playing board games or tennis, many just engaged in casual conversation. That night we chose to go back to have dinner at La Coupole since Ann had not eaten there the 1st time. Mimi stayed at the hotel still feeling ill. As we were seated at the restraurant our waiter arrived, we knew this was going to be a good night because he was funny and engaging right from the get go which makes for a great evening immediately giving us a hard time about only having 3 people dining and offered to eat with us. He had a great personality and at one point I asked him what his name was when he exclaimed as he tugged on his bow tie "James Bond" (see photo insert) we laughed and from then on we called him James Bond never asking again about his name. It was a fun night right up to the end when he handed Ann the bill, she laughed and handed it to Tom. It's great to meet funny people and it seems they are all around us if you just take notice. If you ever get to Paris and dine at La Coupole ask to be seated at one of James Bonds tables, you won't regret it.
We left for the airport Friday morning, Mimi still feeling sick but she struggled through and after we checked in Tom & Ann tried to get a wheelchair so we could push her to the gate but while they were waiting, security found an unattended bag and shut a portion of the airport down. So Mimi ended up using a luggage cart to lean on as we walked to the gate and luckily she quickly started feeling better. The flight home was uneventful, what a great trip but good to be home.
After settling in we went out to grab some lunch at a creperia around the corner. It was our first meal in Paris and it was very good. We walked around town taking in a few local sites and checked out the metro which we anticipating buying a 2-day pass, thankfully it was just down the street and seemed like it would be simple enough to use.
Tom had a few recommendations for restaurants provided by a colleague that lived in Paris so we decided that we would go to La Coupole. As it turns out only 3 of us were able to go out that night, Ann could not attend because she had a back spasm and stayed in the hotel. We were greeted at La couple by a Maharaja, which was odd because we didn't get the connection, but it was memorable. It was a big place and we had an excellent meal there. They even brought out a birthday dessert for someone and the entire wait staff joined in signing Happy Birthday in French.
The next day everyone was feeling great so got a 2-day pass on the metro a spent the entire day visiting many places including The Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Seine river, etc. While we were navigating around Paris we occasionally got lost but we found the local French people to be very helpful & friendly. On Thursday we took the train to Versailles to see the palace, which was included in our 2-day metro pass. We had been told it would take 40 minutes to get to Versailles but when we arrived in about 20 minutes this caused us a little concern. I asked the French gentleman seated across from me if this was the right stop for the palace and he said we were on the wrong train but we should get off here since it is only a 10 minute walk from here. Thankfully I asked, it could of been bad if we stayed on the train. We got to Versailles around 9:30am because we needed to be back in Paris in the afternoon. We had reservations for the Eiffel Tower at 5:00pm so it would be another busy day. Versailles was opulent, gold was on everything, seemed overdone to me, but the gardens were amazing. We stopped at a little Irish restaurant on the way back to the train station and had a really tasty quiche. We arrived back in Paris after a short train ride, relaxed and ready to visit the Eiffel Tower. The tower was awesome, amazing view, truly unbelievable how they completed this in 1889 without today's technology.
This is one of the reasons we travel to see these amazing sites, the other which is just as important is the interesting people we've met, not that you don't meet interesting people at home but when you're visiting new places it seems to happens more often. We met a guy from Palestine at the Eiffel Tower that was in Paris just for a couple of days on business an decided he would see the tower but he found out he was afraid of heights and in his words "I bought a ticket to the top but I could not do it, I did not know this about myself." He nervously laughed as he rode the elevator down with us. We stopped on the first level to stand on the new plexiglass floor looking at the people below. This was officially opened about a week after we arrived home. We went to a little bistro afterwards to relax with a glass of wine before dinner, this is when Mimi stared feeling bad (we believe it was vertigo) and it lasted for almost 2 days. We headed over to dinner but she got worse so Mimi & I headed back to the hotel. She was in bed until we left for the airport on Friday.
Thursday was a relaxed day for us with Mimi staying in bed at the hotel, we didn't stray too far away but we visited a park that the Parisians frequent, this is supposedly where you can see them relaxing and enjoying life. Some were reading, listening to music, others playing board games or tennis, many just engaged in casual conversation. That night we chose to go back to have dinner at La Coupole since Ann had not eaten there the 1st time. Mimi stayed at the hotel still feeling ill. As we were seated at the restraurant our waiter arrived, we knew this was going to be a good night because he was funny and engaging right from the get go which makes for a great evening immediately giving us a hard time about only having 3 people dining and offered to eat with us. He had a great personality and at one point I asked him what his name was when he exclaimed as he tugged on his bow tie "James Bond" (see photo insert) we laughed and from then on we called him James Bond never asking again about his name. It was a fun night right up to the end when he handed Ann the bill, she laughed and handed it to Tom. It's great to meet funny people and it seems they are all around us if you just take notice. If you ever get to Paris and dine at La Coupole ask to be seated at one of James Bonds tables, you won't regret it.We left for the airport Friday morning, Mimi still feeling sick but she struggled through and after we checked in Tom & Ann tried to get a wheelchair so we could push her to the gate but while they were waiting, security found an unattended bag and shut a portion of the airport down. So Mimi ended up using a luggage cart to lean on as we walked to the gate and luckily she quickly started feeling better. The flight home was uneventful, what a great trip but good to be home.
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