One modest annoyance with the cruise is that they told us really late when we would be back to the city of Bordeaux, so to be safe when setting up our flights to Croatia and then home from France is that we flew Sunday afternoon to Paris and then Monday early afternoon back to the U.S.
Well, it was, to paraphrase Monopoly, it worked out to be an Inspirato error in favor.
Other than Monopoly, I've never had
a bank error in my favor. Have you?
The best I could come up with was to land in Paris mid-afternoon, and then take a flight home less than 24 hours later on Labor Day.
Then I was able to book a free Inspirato hotel room. Right after I did that months ago, I booked us a 9:00 am entry ticket to Saint-Chapelle, which I believe has the most beautiful stained glass in the world. Carol prefers Chartres, which is impressive.
Glen's top four stained glass he's ever seen:
1. Saint-Chapelle, Paris
2. Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
3. Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France
4. Leon Cathedral, Leon, Spain
Anyhow, our flight to Paris was delayed, and traffic from the airport to the hotel was grim.
Turns out our hotel room had a standing-room only balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic flame/balloon (the Paralympics were still going on).
View from our balcony.
The streets looked like a festival was going on. With many streets closed for the Olympics, and stunning weather, the place felt like a party.
I felt indescribable joy at being in Paris for the first time since 2013. There are plenty of places we've been to that are great but we don't need to visit again. However, cities like Barcelona, Sevilla, London, and Paris can never be overdone.
We set out with a goal to walk to the Eiffel Tower. First we went by the Tuilieries Gardens to have a closer look at the Olympic flame. Even with having watched a decent amount of the Olympics, I hadn't seen the flame. Didn't know where it was (until we saw it from our room) and didn't realize it would rise into the sky at night.
Then we crossed a bridge to the Left Bank, taking in a view of the still closed Notre Dame. Then we headed of to the Eiffel Tower, taking in the sights and sounds of Paris and the paralympic stadiums.
We were still a long ways from the Tower (objects in your eye are further than they appear) when we realized if we kept going, we'd be late for dinner. So we headed over towards the restaurant for our 8:30 pm reservation. We took a couple of "short cuts" which ended up being closed to everyone, including pedestrians.
It allowed us a great view of the Arc d'Triomphe up the Champs d'Elysee, and we walked past the Plaza Concorde.
I finished with a perfect dinner of Escargot and Oysters from Utah Beach. They had multiple sites for the oysters, but I had to do my patriotic duty and slurp mine from a D-Day landing beach. When I ordered, the waiter looked incredulous -- "oysters and escargot? Nothing else?" I said, "What else do I need?" He nodded appreciatively.
I can't not include my favorite snail joke here:
A snail goes to buy a car. The salesman is surprised when the snail picks out a fast, expensive sports car. He’s even more surprised when the snail requires that a big red “S” be painted on both sides.
“Why would you want such a thing?” asked the salesman.
The snail replied, “I want people to say, ‘Look at that S car go!’”
(Editor: You cut and pasted that joke off the internet.
Writer: Yeah, but I've been telling it since before the internet.
Editor: You also led into the joke with a double negative.
Writer: That wouldn't not be true!)
Watching the Olympic flame/balloon rise as we walked back to our hotel capped off a special evening.
Warning -- the next post will have a ton of photos because, well, it's Paris. I have no choice!
No comments:
Post a Comment