We Made It To Paris!

Bonjour, Tout!  

 

Wow!  We’re here, and it’s absolutely FREEZING!  I know … what do you expect from Paris in January? Duh???  So, before you have to listen to me whine about the weather, let me recount how we got here in the first place!

 

So, up this morning … or yesterday morning … or some morning … about 4 am.  Into the tub for a quick wash (I always like to start clean on a trip!) and we were ready to leave for Phoenix Airport about 5:50 am.  Tucson (or at least our part of town) had had our first hard freeze of the year, and as it had rained on Sunday afternoon, there was actually ice on the car!  Oh!  The car!  When I picked up the car on Sunday from Budget, I was given the choice (as it was a “one way” rental and drop off at Phoenix Airport) between a Camaro and a Mustang.  Wow!  So, being as my younger older brother, Tom, bought a first-year light-blue Mustang in the 1960s, I have always had a soft spot for them – so that was my choice.  Well…interesting vehicle, to stay the least.  First of all, new vehicles (and this only had about 5,000 miles on it) don’t want you to drive them – they want to drive you!  It was like driving a box car!  If you wanted to change lanes, and you didn’t put on your turn indicator, it resisted.  If you had your brights on, and it sensed an oncoming vehicle, it instantly turned them off – and sometimes it turned them on again, and sometimes it didn’t!  We were actually only about 40 miles from the Phoenix Airport before we found out how to work the radio – or actually that it even HAD a radio!  It was incredible!  Even finding the heat (which was definitely needed for 28 degrees outside!) was a challenge, which Robert managed to meet.  And then, of course, there’s always … the fob … as a true old-timer (manual transmissions only) – WHAT’S WRONG WITH A KEY, for heaven’s sake?!  So … there’s my rant number one!

 

Suffice to say that we made it through the incredible construction zone that they’re doing at the Phoenix Airport, and arrive by 8:30 am.  Checked in on American and were through TSA by about 9:10 am.  Then, because of R’s ever advancing age (he turns 83 at the end of the month!) we were able to pre-board, which was nice, as it gave us some time to get settled in our seats.  It was about 2 hours 20 minutes from Phoenix to Dallas/Fort Worth.  Our flight, though, was actually delayed something like half an hour due to the fact that the catering truck couldn’t UN-connect from the aircraft!!  Have never heard of that one before, but that’s what they said!  Considering how little “catering” is done on a short domestic flight … oh well!  Nice, smooth flight into Dallas, to arrive to a very dreary day there.  There is some sort of storm that is working its way across the U.S. right now, and it was very gloomy, with a bit of turbulence on the way in.  

 

We found our way to the Dallas Airport Skylink, connecting Terminal A (where we landed) with Terminal D (where our next flight was leaving) with no problem, and got to our gate with plenty of time (about an hour and a half) to spare.  Again, pre-boarded – R was the first passenger on the plane, and Dallas has this really neat facial-recognition system!  We’ve never seen anything quite like it before!  You look into a camera, and it somehow checks you out and verifies it with your passport and your seat assignment, and says you’re good to go!  Took seconds!  Unreal!  Like something out of science fiction! 

We were in Premium Economy bulkhead, two seats across, and it was absolutely wonderful!  Two bathrooms very conveniently located in the section, and lots of space for luggage, carryon and people!  American had a fabulous selection of movies, both fairly current (Barbie but not Oppenheimer) and I thought the food was great!  I had their Korean chicken dish, which was excellent – although possibly since I hadn’t really had anything to eat since some cereal about 5 am, I might just have been ravenous!  The flight got off on time and was relatively smooth and uneventful; took about 9 and a half hours, and voila! Paris – at about 30 degrees!  Brrrr…..

 

Interestingly enough, while we exited the plane through an absolutely frigid jetway into the airport, we were immediately moved down a flight of steps and out onto buses!  Very surprising!  From there, we drove for what seemed miles (Charles de Gaulle is a very big airport!) and admitted into a separate building for processing.  We were divided up into groups – and the one for U.S. passports moved very quickly.  In fact, again, like at Dallas, it was basically all automated!  Our line came to a row of machines.  We scanned our passports and our photos were taken.  The passports were somehow processed and a gate was opened.  Then, we waited a few more seconds, and a second gate was opened – not sure exactly what gate 2 was about, but then we just went to a window and got your passport stamped and we were in!  Incredibly efficient!  And now, at long last, Rhas a stamp in his new passport!  He got a new passport last year before our England/Scotland trip, but since then, even though we’ve been to both the U.K. and Mexico, nobody has stamped it; everything seems to be done by scanning these days!  He has felt so left out!  So now, at last … his virgin passport is virgin no longer!  Yay!!

 

From there, we headed to baggage claim to pick up the one suitcase that we checked.  (I insist that we carry-on at least one suitcase, and pack clothes for each of us inside it … that way, if something goes wrong, we’ll both have clothes!)  But this time, we had Airtags in both suitcases, and suitcase number 2 was quickly reunited with us, and all is well!  Again, yay!

 

We are renting an Airbnb for four nights in Paris, and I was hoping that we could at least leave the bags at the apartment and go have lunch somewhere.  So, at the recommendation of our friends Tommy and Jay, we requested BOLT (similar to UBER) to pick us up at CDG and deliver us into town.  I believe our driver was Russian, but he not only was able to find us (not an easy task at CDG) but he delivered us directly to our front door in good order and without scaring us to death!  As it turned out, Arnaud, our landlord, was just entering the building, and the folks who had been in the Airbnb were just leaving it!  So, we were able to pick up the key as well as leave all the baggage in the apartment.  It’s nothing fancy.  Ground floor, nice windows, but the heat and hot water work well.

 

From the apartment, we walked a short block to Café Gay Lussac for lunch.  We both had their beef – R with scalloped potatoes and mine with pureed.  I did include a chocolate mousse for dessert as well, washed down with a couple of glasses of Merlot.  

R's steak

Chocolate Mousse!

Then, back to the apartment to see if by chance the cleaning had been completed – and fortunately for us, it had!  It has been a very stressful week or so leading up to our trip.  My very oldest friend – we met when I was 3 and she was 1 – lost a valiant year-long battle with cancer on Saturday.  I will miss her very, very much.  At any rate, emotionally, this has been a difficult week, and we were both needing naps … which we were then able to get!  Up about 4 and out.  I wanted to renew our Navigo Decouverte Cards – transport cards that will be good for the time we are here – very convenient, as we just have to scan them whenever we get on the bus or metro, and don’t have to worry about individual tickets every time.  Got that accomplished at the Luxembourg Metro station, and then immediately took the 27 bus down St. Michel to Les Ecoles to Monoprix, as I had forgotten in my packing to include Robert’s sweater, and it is definitely needed for this trip!  Fortunately, Monoprix came through as they almost always do, and we were able to find a wonderful navy blue sweater (a bit more stylish than the navy blue sweater he now has at home, but then, we are in Paris after all!) to keep him warm!  Back on a 21 bus to Luxembourg, and, with some snowflakes coming down, we are now in for the night!!

 

As if traveling isn’t stressful enough, R raised the level first by thinking he lost his wallet at the Dallas airport and then losing the GPS somewhere along the way.  Both false alarms.  He had zipped his wallet into one of his jacket pockets but that jacket has a lot of zipped pockets and it took him about a minute of pure panic to find the right one.  As for the GPS, it too got lost in one of the many compartments of his backpack.  All’s well that ends well, so they say, but it would be much better to begin well in the first place.  So much for adrenaline…

 

More tomorrow!

m

xxx