Monday: October 14, 2019: Going Home

We had arranged to have a cab pick us up at the hotel at 9:00am. Our flight out of CDG does not leave until 12:25 pm. Stephen requested that the cab swing by the Arch de Triumph so he could jump out in Monday morning traffic to take a photo? What could go wrong? We allowed for a one hour drive to the airport. It took 30 minutes to get to the Arch, but we did and Stephen jumped out out and got his photo. I was satisfied to just take a couple of shots as we navigated the round about.

We arrived at CDG in good time, quickly checked our luggage, passed through passport control and found the Star Lounge. We were there for only enough time for a couple of drinks as we still needed to go through security. Being in First Class meant we avoided the longest of the lines! We arrived at our gate about 20 minutes before boarding began.

We are on a 777-200. I’m in seat 1L and Stephen is in 2L, window seats on starboard side. Despite the poor showing on my last flight, I decided to try their WiFi again. It work not too well, but better.

The flight is just over 8 hours in duration. At the half way mark (4 hours or 2000 miles), I pulled up the flight status display and noticed that we were just passing the southern tip of Greenland.

I opened to the window shade, much to the chagrin of my fellow travelers, and sure enough, there was Greenland!

Despite my previous experience with the WiFi reliability on these long flights, I don't believe I ever lost connection during this flight. I was even able to update my blog!

We arrived at IAD on time. This was Stephen's final destination while I still had to get to STL. We bid each other farewell and went our separate ways. Stephen got to use his Global Entry for the first time and he said it was great!

Our transatlantic flight was on United. My flights to STL was on Delta. I went to collect my luggage, expecting to retrieving the bag, going through customs and checking it again at the Delta desk. I had 2.5 hours between my flights so there was plenty of time. I waited for my bag to arrive for 45 minutes. When bags stopped coming out completely, I asked and was told that all the bags from the Paris flight had arrived! Ooops!

I was directed to the lost baggage counter where I was told that, for some reason, my bag was sent somewhere else. Why? I never got an explanation. Anyway, they filled out some forms and made some calls. I was told my bag would show up in about 30 minutes. In fact, it did show up in 30 minutes. The United agent put a different tag on it and told me to just drop it off at the United recheck point just outside of Customs. I was a bit leery, but did what I was told. I also had to take the train from Terminal C to Terminal B. I finally got to my gate with about 20 minutes to spare.

The next leg on Delta was to Atlanta where I had another 2 hour layover. There I visited TGIF and had a Cobb salad and a REAL Moscow Mule in a copper mug.

The last leg was a 90 minute from ATL to STL, as yes, my bag showed up in STL!! Lastly, the 45 minute cab to the house. I walked in at 10:30 pm and was asleep before 11:00 pm. A 23 hour day, but, overall, it went well.

So ends my trip.

Sunday, October 13, 2019: Paris, Notre Dame, Bastille, Hard Rock

No schedules to meet today. Today was completely open and it turned out to be one of the nicest days of the trip, weather wise. While yesterday we put in 8.75 miles, today we logged 12.2 miles. I had popped all my blisters from yesterday so my walking was a bit less painful today.

The plan was to walk over to Notre Dame to see how the reconstruction is going, then on to the memorial of the Bastille, then, if we were up to it, over to the Hard Rock Cafe. We got all of that accomplished and were back at the hotel by 1:30 pm.

For breakfast, we again went to the dungeon and had a good hot meal. I did a bit more exploring and found there is a bar and some lounge areas. For breakfast, they use the bar for the juice table.

We left the hotel about 9:00 am and walked toward Notre Dame. On the way, we swung by the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens). The gardens were beautiful and the flowers were amazing.

Dahlias, a favorite of Maria's

We then continued on toward Notre Dame, passing one of the few MacDonald's along the way.



We stopped briefly at the Saint-Severin Church and lit a candle for Terri.

Then we were at Notre Dame. It was difficult to recognize it without the steeple. We could see the wooden supports beneath the flying buttresses. We assume so that they can repair the buttresses.

Next we were off to the Place de la Bastille. This is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison stood until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the prison remains. Now there is a memorial.

We were feeling pretty good, so we ventured on to find the Hard Rock.

We both had burgers, of course and I got some tee shirts for the kids. Then we headed back to the hotel.

There was a half marathon going on as we walked by.

When we returned to the hotel, we around 1:30 pm, our room had not yet been "refreshed", so we sat down on the patio for the next three hours or so. They were extremely busy with guests checking out.

We decided to take in the Eiffel Tower after dark. They turn on the lights at sunset every day and they stay on until 1:00 am. Today, sunset is at 7:04 pm so we headed that direction about 6:30 pm. We stopped at a sushi place for dinner.

We ordered a boat to share. It was OK.

When we got to the tower, around 7:30 pm, it was lit. For five minutes every hour on the hour, they have a light show so we hung around until to see the one at 8:00 pm. During our wait, we walked the whole perimeter of the tower to see where the best observation point would be.

We finally settled here.

At 8:00 pm the show started.

This little hike back over to the tower added about 4 miles to today's total mileage. My feet are sore now.

Our flight leaves CDG at 12:25 pm tomorrow so we should be able to have a good breakfast at the hotel and leave for the airport around 9:00 am. Stephen wants to see if we can get the driver to stop at the Arc de Triomphe for a quick photo.