After unpacking and unwinding a bit at our hotel, we headed out for our first meal in Paris.

Ever since booking this hotel, I’d had my eye on a place around the corner called Au Trappiste that specializes in moules frites (mussels and French fries) and Belgian beer. The outside patio was crowded with smokers, so we grabbed a table inside. The food was OK (I had their signature shellfish while Maureen opted for the watermelon salad) and the beer was good, but we had our first taste of Parisian brusqueness when I asked (in French) if the bartender could make change for a €20 note.

I took out my frustration at the bartender by skimping on our tip for our waiter, and we spent the next several hours walking from the Châtelet neighborhood where our hotel is to the
Arc de Triomphe and back. We covered 8 miles and stumbled home at 1:00am with tired feet.

I think we managed to see all the interesting sites in Paris in just our first night here, so I have no idea what we’ll do with the next 6 days.

It took planes, trains, and a whole lotta walking (most of it underground at the airport and then the Metro station). But we made it to Paris.

Thanks Mom & Dad for the screen grab!

Our room at Hotel Britannique is tres adorable, which is a good thing because it is also tres petit and sans vue—our window (French, of course) opens onto a beige stucco wall and and alleyway. But who wants to spend their days sitting in the hotel room anyway? This is Paris!

Au revoir for now,

M & M

Well, that was nice while it lasted.

We had boarded, stowed our bags, and were just getting settled when an announcement came over the PA ordering everyone to grab their belongings and get off the plane.

The official excuse is a special security review requested by the pilot, but I’m guessing the strike has something to do with it. Right now they’re saying we’ll re-board in 20 minutes or so. Fingers crossed.

Update: back on the plane after our re-bonsoirs with the flight attendants. Hoping for plus de chance this time.

Here we come!

Made it to SFO, and enjoying a little pizza (and yes, soup for Maureen) before we start 3 weeks of French food.

Track our flight here.

Maureen is really looking forward to eating here while we’re in France.

Perfect timing. French aviation unions have reportedly called for a three day strike next week that could shut down half the flights into Paris. Of course, the strike is scheduled to start the same day we’re supposed to fly out of San Francisco.

UPDATE: There’s reason to hope we won’t be affected.

Two weeks from tomorrow night we’ll be wheels-up for Paris. Got an e-mail from Air France this morning with a bunch of links to set up flight alerts, order custom meals, etc. Alas, many of the links didn’t work properly and just brought up the error page below.

Hope the pilots are more technically proficient than the web designers!

We did finally order a couple custom meals for our return flight from Paris. No such option for the outbound flight—I guess Air France doesn’t trust the chefs in San Francisco to prepare anything other than the standard menu.