We’re two days back from our trip, and man…we had a hell of good time despite a few self-inflicted fuck ups.
Wife got her wallet lifted and lost her cash/cards/license on day 3. She got silly on the metro we think, and someone grabbed it. Shit happens…didn’t let it ruin our trip and just rolled with it. I had all of our required/important stuff (passports, whew!) tucked away.
We never felt unsafe as we traversed the city, so I don’t really put this on ‘Paris’ and would just say strap in / zip in your shit and keep it close (obvious stuff).
We spent the first half of our trip over by the Louvre at Hotel da Vinci. It was tight but nice…the staff were phenomenal.
It was rainy most days of our trip, but it wasn’t that bad. We hit the Mark Rothko exhibit at the Louis Vuitton Foundation and did a Louvre guided tour (worth it). Got to see the highlights there but didn’t see a fraction of the place. We intended to go back, but never made it.
Took the train up to Versailles and was in awe at the size of the place and the beauty of it all. Every room decked out floor to ceiling and just massive. That’s one thing that I wasn’t expecting, I guess…the size of the various places you come across. Not to mention the age of it all. The golf carts were awesome to traverse the gardens, but most of it was still winterized or being prepped. Can only imagine what it would be like in the spring/summer.
Went to a couple of cabaret shows, ballet and had a couple of good meals…went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and a few other touristy sights. Nice benefit of suspect weather and time of year meant there weren’t really a ton of lines or huge crowds to fight anywhere.
we moved to the InterContinental Le Grand for the last 4 nights and holy shit at the change in square footage. Pricy step up but worked out great for my wife’s photoshoot.
I took the day trip to Normandy on Sunday while she did her thing. That was probably the highlight of my trip. The weather turned beautiful that day and I had a great tour guide and co-passengers.
tour stopped at Point du Hoc to see the bunkers and get the story of the Rangers who captured it, a ‘cider tasting’ and an old farmhouse/orchard (picked up a bottle of Calvados), Omaha Beach and the Operation Overload Museum, and ended at the Normandy American Cemetery. Watched the flag lowering and Taps then rolled back to Paris.
We spent our last day wondering around a few areas and finally got up to Montmartre. Weather was perfect and that area was exactly what I had in mind when I through about a Paris neighborhood. The artists were all out and the area was hopping. Stairs fucking sucked though…saw the elevator thing after we’d made it up to the top. All in all a great last day.
we didn’t get to do everything we thought we wanted to do, but that’s ok. Now we have a reason to go back!