When I first started planning our itinerary, this was the day I planned to visit Notre Dame and use my museum pass for free access to climb up the towers.  Unfortunately, the horrible fire in April changed those plans, so all I could hope is that I would be allowed close enough to see the beautiful gothic church from the outside.  I still stuck with my original plan to also visit Sainte Chapelle and explore Ile de la Cite, then cross over the Seine to the right bank to visit the Holocaust Museum and wonder around the Marais neighborhood.  This being a Sunday meant that many restaurants and shops around the city would be closed today, making it the perfect day to explore the Jewish Quarter!  I was originally planning to do a self-guided walking tour from the Rick Steves guide book, but then I discovered a free 1.5 hour walking tour with Discover Walks that would cover many of the same sites.  I always get more out of the experience when I have a tour guide explaining things to me as opposed to reading from a guide book, so it was a no-brainer to sign us up for the walking tour on their website.  As of when we left California, that was all I had on the agenda for today, but we added in a few extra things as the day progressed.

After a mere 5 hours of sleep, I woke up at 6am and couldn’t fall back asleep.  I got up as quietly as I could because I didn’t want to wake DH, and I snuck into the bathroom to take a shower.  There was no outlet in the bathroom for the hair dryer, so I had to do that in the main part of the room.  Sorry, DH!  Oh, that reminds me, ladies: I bought the greatest gadget for this vacation!  I was worried about plugging my hair straightener into the wall in France and England because the voltage difference is notorious for frying hair appliances.  I found a flat iron on Amazon that is charged by USB so there is no need to plug it into the wall!  I charged it using a USB power brick, and it worked perfectly!  This flat iron is life changing for international travel haha

Ok, back to talking about Sunday… DH eventually woke up and got ready, and we left the hotel in search of breakfast.  The M&S market didn’t open until 11am on Sundays so we had to find somewhere new for breakfast.  We walked out to Grands Boulevards, and on the next side street, we saw a cute café called La Crème de Paris.  They had an extensive menu of crepes and waffles with all sorts of toppings, but we just wanted something quick so we did a repeat of our breakfast from yesterday and just got some croissants to go.  Wow those croissants were delicious!  I could seriously eat that for breakfast every single day!  Sorry but I didn’t think to take any photos of the restaurant or the croissants… blame it on the 5 hours of sleep hehe

I thought it would be super easy to get to our first destination today because it was the same metro station we went to yesterday on Ile de la Cite.  Yesterday, when we came out of the metro station, I saw Sainte Chapelle right there and made a mental note that at least now I knew where to go for today (and that I should take the elevator instead of climbing all those stairs!).  I’m not sure if it was because it was Sunday or what happened, but when we tried to transfer from the 9 to the 4 metro line, the station was closed and it looked like they were doing construction on the tracks.  Ummmm, now what?!  We quickly found a system map and figured out how we could get to Sainte Chapelle without using the Cite stop, and realized we could get to the Hotel de Ville stop instead.  The Cite stop is literally steps from Sainte Chapelle, and now we had to walk 10 minutes out of our way.  It wasn’t ideal, but we worked it out.  On the bright side, we were treated to this beautiful sight when we exited the metro station…

The sun was just peaking out from behind the roof of Hotel de Ville, casting the building in an eerie shadow.  Since it was only 9am, there was no one here and we could finally take a photo with out other people in the way (so I guess that’s the silver lining to our detour!).

We continued walking towards Pont d’Arcole to cross over onto Ile de la Cite.

Since this was our first time using the Museum Pass, we weren’t exactly sure what to do.  We entered the doorway labeled for Sainte Chapelle, and that led us into a back alley.  We weren’t exactly sure where to go so we just kept walking and eventually saw another sign pointing us around the corner and then we could see the church from the outside.  There was a sign separating two lines- one for people who needed to buy tickets, and the other for people with a list of options, including the Museum Pass.  It was actually surprisingly clear and obvious, and we found that many of the museums had similar signage so we always knew where to go (except for Versailles, but more on that later!).  There were only a handful of people waiting in line to buy tickets, but the agent waved us to come forward, quickly glanced at the date written on the back of our Museum Pass, and said we were free to enter.  Easy, peasy!

When you enter the church, there is a visitor center on the ground floor.  We walked up the extremely narrow spiral staircase to enter the main room of the church.  Honestly, I wasn’t blown away by this church.  It was much smaller than I expected, so it was a good thing we arrived so early in the morning when hardly anyone was there because I imagine it gets extremely crowded in there later in the day.  The stained glass was pretty and very impressive with its details and intricacy, but it was impossible to focus on each panel and interpret the biblical stories which are said to be depicted.  Perhaps I was hoping for something as grand as Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but this was no where near that size.  I’m glad we took the time to visit here and see it in person, but I don’t think I would have been happy had it not been included on my Museum Pass and I paid for it out of pocket.

One thing I did really enjoy was that they had a small TV monitor playing a video to explain how the church was built and the process to restore the stained glass windows.  It was helpful to better appreciate what we were looking at, but somehow I still left wanting to see more.  We stayed for about 20 minutes, then carefully walked back down the stairs.  These things were a fall waiting to happen!

As we exited the grounds, we walked through the courtyard of the Palace of Justice which is right next door.  Turning back, we had a good view of the chapel from the outside where you can better see the overall size and know that it is not very big…

We retraced our steps from yesterday’s tour in reverse to get back to Notre Dame.  It would have been an incredible experience to walk inside of this historic church and marvel at the Gothic architecture, and our museum pass would have paid for our admission to climb to the top of the towers, but we just had to settle for a view from the sidewalk.  It was great to see how much of the original exterior was preserved and most of the original façade is still intact.  I look forward to planning another visit to Paris sometime in the distant future when renovations are complete and we can finally go inside.  I don’t think it will ever look exactly as it did before the fire, but I have high hopes that the engineers will work some magic to restore as much as possible.

Right next door to Notre Dame is Hotel Dieu, the oldest hospital in the city of Paris.

Since it is still functioning as a hospital, we were free to enter the building, walk through the lobby, and check out the interior courtyard.  This is one of those hidden gems in Paris that not many tourists know about, so there were only two or three other people in there with us.  The building itself looks nothing like any hospital I have ever seen as it more closely resembles a museum, and the interior courtyard contains a beautiful garden.  It is definitely worth a few minutes to walk around and explore.

Notice the armed guards hanging out in the far right corner?  We noticed a large presence of heavily armed police and guards at many of the major tourist attractions.  They were always carrying really scary looking guns that hopefully just served as a crime deterrent and rarely actually had to be used!  We first noticed it within hours of arriving in Paris when we visited Sacre Coeur on Friday night, and it really shocked us, but as the days passed, we weren’t as bothered by it.

This sign made us chuckle… what do you think is on display in this gallery??

Back outside, we were able to walk along the north side of Notre Dame.  Prior to arriving in Paris, I did not know how close we could get to the church, so I was pleasantly surprised that they let us walk along the sidewalk immediately beside the building and we had a decent view looking up to the exterior façade.

We kept walking along that street until we reached Pont Saint-Louis, the bridge connecting the two islands in the Seine.  As we were walking across, I looked back towards Ile de la Cite for a beautiful view of one of the Haussmann-style buildings.  I just loved the look of these buildings and couldn’t help but take a photo every time I saw one framed nicely by trees or a bright blue sky!

Ile Saint Louis is the smaller of the two islands in the Seine and is known for it’s beautiful (read: expensive) apartment buildings and quaint narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants.  It was only 10:15am on Sunday when we arrived so the island was still quite sleepy with many of the stores still closed or just starting to open for the day, but we enjoyed our time wandering around and taking it all in.

A very tempting sweets shop

We crossed the Seine via Pont Marie to get back over to the Right Bank, looking back to the lovely tree-lined Ile Saint Louis…

Our next destination was Memorial de la Shoah, a small Holocaust museum with free entry.  They do not allow photos inside the museum, but I was able to capture these photos from the outside…

This plaque was displayed on the side wall of the museum, explaining a fascinating bit of history that I knew nothing about!  The second photo shows the list of names, running the full length of the outside wall of the museum.

We both agreed this museum was very well done and offered a huge amount of information.  We have both been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, so this museum in Paris was much smaller and didn’t quite compare to those museums, but that was okay.  We didn’t expect it to.  They had exhibits on two floors, both with information written in French and English so we were able to follow along.  If anything, there was almost too much information to read and we started to feel overwhelmed.  Throughout the exhibits, they had screens showing videos and interviews, but those were all in French.  I wish they put in subtitles because those were probably interesting and worth watching, but we didn’t watch them with the language barrier.  The very last section of the exhibit was perhaps the most powerful, featuring photos of 3,000 Jewish children from France who passed during the Holocaust.  We spent an hour and a half exploring all of the exhibits, which not surprisingly, left us in a fog of depression.  After we left, we spent some time walking through the Marais neighborhood, reflecting on what we’d just seen.

Our next stop was the old Jewish Quarter to find something to eat for lunch.  We walked towards Rue des Rosiers, which was once home to the largest Jewish community in Europe.

This restaurant receives great reviews on Trip Advisor, but that also means it is very popular and usually has a huge line running down the street. 

They form two lines outside- one to be seated inside the restaurant with waiter service, and another line for take away orders prepared in a window outside.  We had good timing and arrived when there were only 5 people in line for the take away food, perhaps because it was a little early for Sunday lunch.  There was a man walking up and down the line that handed us a menu, took our order, and then gave us a slip of paper to bring inside the restaurant to pay for our food.

After I paid for the food inside, they gave me a receipt to and to the guys in the window so they would know what we ordered.  DH waited in line while I went inside, so by the time I returned, we were next to order.  They really do have the logistics here down to a science.  We had both ordered the falafel, so it was fun to watch them make it and pick out the toppings we wanted.

They filled the soft pita bread with coleslaw, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and of course, falafel balls, then poured a ton of tzatiki sauce on top, making for a very messy meal to eat while we were walking around.  I’ve never really loved falafel, but I must say, this stuff was really delicious!  I usually think the balls are dry and crumbly, but this falafel was moist and had great flavor too.

After lunch, we continued exploring some of the shops on Rue des Rosiers.

When we walked back past L’as du Fallafel, there were a ton of people lined up and waiting to order, so we hit it at the right time when we arrived.  You can see them along the right side of the road in this photo…

This kosher bakery was calling our name so we went inside to pick out a pastry for dessert…. Yum!

Bellies full, we continued wandering around the Marais.  This band was playing on the sidewalk so we stopped to listen for a bit.

We had about an hour and a half of unexpected spare time before our walking tour.  For the sake of full disclosure, I admit that I view this time as a rare moment of planning failure.  I had it in my mind that we should spend this time in the Marais, so I wasn’t looking at the bigger picture.  What we really should have done with this hour and a half was walk west for less than 10 minutes and go to the Pompidou Center.  At the time, I didn’t realize we were so close to there, and it would have been the perfect time to go, especially since it was free using our museum pass.  In the end, we never got to see that museum.  I only realized how close we were to it after returning home and looking at my Google Map to write this review, but when you are roaming the streets of Paris without a real plan of what to do, it’s hard to know what other landmarks are nearby.

Instead, we followed some of the Rick Steves self-guided tour of the Marais neighborhood and walked over to Place des Vosges.  This pretty park featured a large square with fountains and statues and plenty of grass to spread out a blanket and have a picnic.  It was surrounded by brick buildings, making a pretty backdrop and keeping the park closed off from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding streets.

Even the walkway under the brick buildings was beautiful!

Around the corner from the park, we saw this beautiful, old synagogue called Synagogue des Tournelles.  We wanted to go inside and look around, but there was an event going on so we just admired from the outside.

Our tour with Discover Walks started at 2:30pm.  This must be a very popular tour because there were about 50 people at the meeting spot, but luckily, they had two tour guides so we only about 25 people in our group.  Our guide’s name was Florent, and he did a decent job, but honestly, this was probably my least favorite free walking tour that we’ve ever done.  Partly, that was because we had just walked past most of these places while we were killing time before the tour (which is why I view that time as a failure because we should have been doing something in a different neighborhood, knowing we were about to take a tour of the Marais!  Oops!) 

We take free walking tours quite often when we travel and have always been lucky to have fabulous guides who were really engaging and their love for their city oozed out of them during the tour.  Maybe we’ve been spoiled in the past, but Florent was just kind of blah.  Also, I was anticipating a tour of the Jewish Quarter given that this what Marais is known for, but Florent only spent about 5 minutes grazing over it when he pointed out the oldest synagogue in Paris:

The tour wasn’t all bad though and we did learn some interesting tidbits.  This statue of King Louis XIII in Place des Vosges looks majestic and regal, but Florent explained that it is actually artistically and historically inaccurate.  The proportions of the horse are too small compared to the size of the King (unless the King was some kind of giant, which he wasn’t!).  Also, the position of the horse’s legs actually means something specific and this statue got it wrong.  If all 4 legs of the horse are on the ground, it means the soldier was not wounded in battle.  If one leg is raised, the soldier was wounded in battle.  If the two front legs are both raised, then the soldier died in battle.  King Louis XIII was never wounded in battle, but the horse’s front leg is raised, so this is historically inaccurate.  It was funny to learn those details about this prominently displayed statue in the middle of this huge park!

Another interesting tidbit was about the blue, white, and red marked on the bottom of this sign.  Florent explained that the “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” contest is a competition between several French craftsmen to become the best French craftsman in his category.  They include 230 trades from pastry chefs, butchers, and coffee roasters, to jewelers, to florists, and even boilermakers.  The award is very prestigious and awarded annually so if you see that sign hanging over a business, you know you are getting the best of the best in France.  Of course, we never did see a sign like this at any point after finishing our walking tour haha

We walked past this huge gorgeous church, but Florent never mentioned anything about it.

We spent a great deal of time talking about this church and walking through it from the back to the front.  This is Eglise Saint-Gervais, a Gothic Catholic church, located just a block from Hotel de Ville. 

I think there were 3 different organs inside this church.

The tour ended a little after 4pm at the back side of Hotel de Ville.  It was nice getting to delve a little deeper into the Marais neighborhood, but I’m not sure that I would recommend this particular tour. 

After saying our goodbyes to Florent, we walked around the Hotel de Ville to take a few more photos in the mid-day light.

Down along the banks of the Seine River, there is a pedestrian walking path along what used to be a road for cars.  There are several bars along this path so we walked down to check it out and enjoy a drink while resting our feet.  The pricing was pretty much the same at all of the bars, and they all had enough options on the menu to satisfy both of us, so we picked one that had an open table along the water and a band setting up to play some live music.  The vibe was very chill, and there were lots of locals enjoying their Sunday afternoon.

We relaxed there for about an hour, discussing our time thus far in Paris and what we should do next.  I had originally planned for us to spend the evening getting dinner somewhere in Marais, but we had already spent most of the day in this neighborhood and we wanted to see something else.  I had a lightbulb go off and realized that we should go to the Arc de Triomphe!  It was now around 5:30pm so we wanted something we could do fairly quickly, knowing we would be hungry for dinner in an hour or two, so the Arc seemed like the perfect thing. 

I used my apps to figure out the best way to get there on the metro, and luckily, there was a station right next to Hotel de Ville that would get us straight to the Champs Elysees via metro line 1.  We decided to get off at the George V station so we could walk a little ways along the famous avenue before reaching the Arc de Triomphe.  When I think of the Champs Elysees, it conjures up images of a tree-lined street, quaint Parisian shops, and couples walking hand in hand enjoying a romantic stroll.  As is often the case, that is not really the reality.  The Champs Elysees is really a very busy avenue with 4 lanes of traffic in each direction.  Not exactly the quaint Parisian street I had in mind, but it was still cool to be there and walk along such a well known street.  I liked how the trees were trimmed so perfectly so they did not overhang the traffic lanes at all.  It reminded me of an urban version of the gardens at Versailles.

Since the Arc is located in the center of a gigantic traffic circle, you can’t stand on the sidewalk and take a good photo with it centered behind you.  You have to be a bit daring if you want to take the perfect photo, and since we all know where my travel priorities lie, you can guess what I was willing to do!  There is a narrow median painted onto the cobblestones in the middle of the Champs Elysees.  We made sure to stay within white lines and hoped no vehicle would swerve and hit us while we took this photo.  There were other people standing out there doing the same thing so at least we had people to take the photo for us.

The sun was behind us when we took this photo, so I didn’t love how it came out.  We decided to walk around to the other side of the Arc to hopefully get a better photo in the light.  Because there are 12 streets that all merge together at the traffic circle, we needed to cross 6 side streets to get to the opposite side of the Arc.  Luckily, there were crosswalks at each intersection, and there weren’t many cars on the smaller streets.

Halfway there!

We made it! 

There was a similar median on this side of the Arc so we found a safe place to stand, but since this was kind of the “back” of the Arc, there weren’t as many tourists so it took a minute before someone approached to take a photo with us in it.

It was definitely worth the effort to get this photo with the sun shining brightly on the Arc de Triomphe behind us!

With our mission accomplished, we walked one more block over around the circle to a set of stairs leading down under ground.  This passage allowed us to safely get to the Arc in the center of the circle without having to run Frogger-style, dodging cars and praying we wouldn’t get hit!  There is also an entrance to this passage from the Champs Elysees if you are coming from that direction.

Walking through the tunnel…

When we climbed the steps back up to ground level, we saw this ceremony under the Arc.  It was now nearly 6:30pm, so we timed our arrival perfectly for the nightly ceremony where veterans lay wreaths and rekindle the torch for the Unknown Soldier.

What a beautiful monument!

We went through a security check point, then showed the guard our museum passes to cover our price of admission.  He quickly ushered us through a door, and before I had a chance to realize what was happening, we were climbing up the narrow spiral stairs to the top of the Arc.  They do have an elevator here and I had hoped to use it, but I never even had the chance to ask where it was!  Oye!  This was quite a hike as there were 284 steps to climb, and it was such a hot day today that we were both already over-heated. 

Of course, there is no air conditioning in the stairwell so about halfway up, I started to question if I could even make it to the top.  There was no where to stop and rest because it was so narrow and there were other people coming up the steps behind us.  We surged ahead and soon enough, we made it to the top.  When you exit the stairs, there is a large indoor space which has restrooms, a gift shop, and a display with a video explaining the history of the Arc.  Thank goodness for that video!  I sat down on one of the benches and watched the video as I caught my breath and tried to cool off.  It was moments like this when I really wish our luck was better and that we did not visit Paris during a massive heat wave!!

Once my legs stopped shaking and my heart rate returned to somewhat normal, I was able to get up and walk over to the display in the floor which looked down on the flame under the Arc.  That was a pretty cool view to see how high up we were!

There are a few more stairs to climb to reach the outside viewing deck on the roof of the Arc.  From here, we had incredible 360 degree views of the city, so it was definitely worth the effort to get up here! 

Looking straight down the Champs Elysees

I spy Sacre Coeur in the distance!

The views from up here were different from what we could see at the top of the Eiffel Tower, so I was glad we did both attractions.  The Eiffel Tower is much taller and positioned so you can see the Louvre, the boats along the Seine, and all of the West Bank.  We couldn’t see those things from the Arc de Triomphe, but we COULD see the Eiffel Tower!  (You can’t really get a photo of the Eiffel Tower when you are in it!)

Hello, Beautiful!

Continuing around the perimeter, we could see lots of high-rise buildings off in the distance.  If you look closely, you can see a giant hollow square in the middle of those buildings.  That is the Grande Arche de la Defense monument.

This photo makes me laugh… there doesn’t appear to be any lanes drawn on the traffic circle, and the cars all seem like they are just randomly driving wherever they want!  I am so glad there was no need for us to attempt driving in Paris because it seems like a nightmare! Haha

After we completed a full loop around the terrace and had our fill of enjoying the views, we went back down to the indoor level and asked someone to point us towards the elevator.  That was definitely an easier way to get back downstairs!

One last view looking up at the Arc

We made our way back to the underground passage, but this time we went towards Champs Elysees for the metro back towards our hotel.  It was now 7:30pm and we were both ready for dinner.  We didn’t have anywhere specific planned to eat, so we figured we would walk around the neighborhood near our hotel and pick a restaurant that looked good. 

Bouillon Chartier is located just around the corner from our hotel.  They are highly rated on Trip Advisor and known for having good French cuisine at affordable prices.  It shouldn’t surprise me that when we approached the restaurant, there was a HUGE line outside and the hostess said it would be at least a 30 minute wait to be seated.  With the time it took to get back to this side of the city from the Arc de Triomphe, it was already 8:30pm so we did not want to wait another 30 minutes (likely longer, judging from the length of the line!) just to be seated, let along waiting to be served some food. 

Instead, we went a few stores down to Café H.  They had a sandwich board out on the sidewalk listing two specials for dinner, and one appealed to DH and the other appealed to me, so we decided to eat here.  Now came a dilemma that we encountered many times in Paris… where should we sit?  We could sit outside on the patio to enjoy some people watching and a slight breeze in the evening air to keep us somewhat comfortable, but restaurants in Paris allow smoking on their patios and there were always multiple parties smoking cigarettes at every restaurant we visited.  We don’t tolerate the smoke, and it makes for an unpleasant dining experience.  The problem was that our only other option was to sit indoors where smoking is not permitted, but it was very hot inside because most restaurants do not have air conditioning.  Over the days we were in Paris, this dilemma got kind of irritating, especially coming from California where no smoking is allowed anywhere in a restaurant, inside or out.  Tonight, we were very over heated from all of our walking and the unusually hot temperatures, so we opted to sit outside.

We had a lovely dining experience at Café H, despite the smoke.  DH ordered the steak kebab with seasoned potatoes, and I ordered the moules frites.  We also each ordered a glass of wine because it was happy hour, so why not?  The food arrived quickly, and the portions were huge (which was not a bad thing considering how hungry we were!). 

Each of the entrees were €14, and the glasses of wine were €5, so it was a good deal for a Sunday evening dinner.  We crawled back to the hotel by 10pm and promptly crashed on the bed, exhausted after another full day in Paris.

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 26,088,  Miles: 10.8,  Flights of Stairs: 20

After 8 hours on the plane and not nearly enough sleep, I wasn’t complaining when the cabin lights turned on and the flight attendants came around to serve breakfast.  I was kind of expecting eggs or pancakes or something, but the chefs at Norwegian thought cheese and salami made for a better breakfast.  To be fair, it was now 2pm in Paris, so if we were trying to adjust to Paris timing, this did make for a good lunch.  We got a small container of fruit, a small salad, and cheese and salami.  After I took the photo, they served the same rolls we had for dinner so I made a little sandwich with the cheese and salami.

The windows on the 787 Dreamliner are huge and offered great views as we approached the coast of Ireland.

These windows were actually really unique.  Instead of a shade that you can pull down to block the light, they have a button to dim the window.  In theory, you can control the brightness of your own window, but the flight attendants took control of the windows during the overnight part of the flight so everyone’s window was on the dimmest setting.  You could still see out the window, but it was very dark and hard to really see anything.

Soon enough, we passed England and were flying over the English Channel.  I am not sure exactly what we were seeing along the shore… it was either a huge beach, or the White Cliffs of Dover!

I loved the effect of the dark shadows below the white fluffy clouds…

Looking back at the IFE map, we have come a long way!

Flying over the French countryside as we approached CDG airport…

Our flight landed at 3:45pm, Paris time.  Being in the premium section meant we were first off the plane which meant we were among the first people to go through passport control.  Several planes arrived at the same time as us so there were about 100 people online ahead of us.  There were a few agents working so the line moved quickly, but while DH waited in line, I ran over to the ATM machine to withdraw $100 in Euros.  I considered buying Euros from my bank at home but decided to just wait until we arrived in Paris in hopes of getting a better exchange rate.  I use a Charles Schwab ATM card that reimburses all ATM fees so I was able to use the first machine I found, and luckily it had a button to translate everything into English.  Mission accomplished, I rejoined DH in the passport control line, and about 20 minutes later, we had new stamps in our passports and could proceed to collect our luggage. 

I had read online that there was a tourism information desk near gate 4 on the arrivals level of the airport, and I planned to buy our museum pass from that desk.  The problem was, CDG had a major lack of signage so I had no idea where this mystery “gate 4” was located!  DH waited by the baggage carousel for our luggage while I went to ask someone where the tourist desk was located, hoping to multitask a bit.  After asking 2 or 3 people, I finally learned that we had to first collect our luggage, and then exit that part of the airport to the lobby area where people wait to pick you up.  After passing all the private drivers holding signs for their pick ups, we kept walking and finally spotted the desk.  There were 3 or 4 parties already on line (all of them were in the premium section on our plane, so I imagine the line would get much longer as the passengers in coach arrived), and there was only 1 person working, so it was about a 20 minute wait for our turn.  My original plan was to buy 2 carnets for the metro since I wasn’t sure if my credit card would work in the ticket machines at the metro stations.  Surprisingly, the tourism desk charges an extra €2 per carnet so I decided to wait until we got to the metro station to buy our carnets.  The 4-day museum pass cost €62 each, as expected, so I bought 2 of them on my credit card, and then we were free to head into Central Paris and get this vacation started!

There are several ways to get from CDG airport into Central Paris, which I will review below from least to most expensive:

1. The local buses 350 and 351 cost €6, take 60-90 minutes depending on traffic and time of day, and run every 15-30 minutes.  They make frequent stops and are just regular city buses (ie: no place to store your luggage and uncomfortable seats).  If you are looking to save every penny, then this may be a good option for you, but after getting off a redeye flight, it sounded like a nightmare to me.  No thanks!
2. The RER B train costs €10.30 and takes approximately 30 minutes to reach Paris.  The best part of this option was timing as the train runs on a schedule and avoids traffic on the roads.  We would be traveling during Friday afternoon rush hour, so the train was likely to be very crowded, and it is notorious for pick pockets who prey on exhausted and disoriented tourists.  The closest RER B station to our hotel was Gare du Nord, so it would have involved many flights of stairs and transferring to two different metro lines to reach our hotel.  Had we taken the train, I considered taking a taxi from Gare du Nord to our hotel because while it is a little over a mile away, there is no direct metro line to get us there.  Not ideal, and again, probably not a fun start to our time in Europe, so I eliminated this option.
3. The Roissy Bus is an air conditioned shuttle that runs between Central Paris and CDG for €12 per person, with a travel time of 60 to 75 minutes (likely closer to 75 for us as we would be sitting in rush hour traffic).  The seats are padded, there is free WiFi on the bus, and they have a luggage storage rack.  There is only one drop off location in Central Paris, so after picking passengers up at all the terminals in CDG, it is an express ride straight to the city.  The drop off spot at the Opera is about a 10 minute walk to our hotel (again, no easy way to get there via metro), so we could probably manage that walk with our luggage, even knowing the sidewalks would be crowded with the Friday afternoon rush.  This bus was a strong contender until I read a lot of negative reviews on TripAdvisor stating that people waited a long time for the next bus to come (it is supposed to depart every 15 to 20 minutes, but perhaps their schedule isn’t as reliable as the train?).  It also occurred to me that the fare is paid per person, so the bus would cost the two of us €24.  That led me to consider other options…
4. Private car services offer to drive you and your luggage from CDG to your hotel for a wide range of prices.  The idea of door to door service was very appealing, and not needing to schlep our luggage on public transit sounded great.  Most of these car services require advance payment at the time of booking, and that’s where trouble starts.  There are countless reviews stating that these car services do not follow through and pick you up at the airport as arranged.  Once they have your money, they have zero motivation to complete the service you paid for (since apparently getting bad reviews on the internet is not a motivator!), and you have little recourse besides fighting it out with your credit card company.  Even though I could find some good prices for car services online, this sounded like too much risk and it was probably not worth the hassle.
5. The final option is to take a taxi.  Paris regulates the taxi fares such that it is a flat rate for up to 4 passengers and their luggage to ride from CDG to their hotel on the right bank for €50, or on the left bank for €55.  Lucky for us, we were staying on the right bank.  It is not customary to tip taxi drivers (or anyone else, for that matter!) in Paris, so there should be no question about how much money we owe when we get in our taxi.  The language barrier did scare me a bit, but I could always write out the name and address of our hotel and “€50” on a piece of paper to hand the driver and it should work out okay.  Most taxis take credit card so we wouldn’t need to worry about finding an ATM before leaving the airport (unlike the public transit options where US credit cards often do not work).  The taxi would cost us double what the Roissy Bus costs, but it would drop us off right in front of our hotel, and we wouldn’t need to wait as long for a taxi at the taxi stand as we might need to wait for the bus to arrive.  For an extra €26, we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi and start our vacation off on the right foot!

Noting how poor the signage was thus far in the airport, we asked the lady at the tourism desk to point us towards the official taxi stand.  When we got there, there was only 1 party ahead of us, and 5 or 6 taxis parked and waiting for passengers.  The dispatcher asked where we were going, so I told him Hotel Chopin on the right bank and he confirmed the price of €50 and pointed us towards the first taxi.  I handed the driver a piece of paper where I had written down the name and address of our hotel to make sure he knew where it was located, and we reconfirmed the €50 price with him.  He said we could pay with credit card which sounded like a good idea to save the cash for other purchases, so we loaded our bags in his trunk and set off for the ride into Paris. 

I honestly think this was the most terrifying taxi ride of my entire life.  I lived in Manhattan for 6 years, so I have been in my fair share of scary taxi rides but this was on a completely different level!  Being around 5pm on a Friday afternoon, we hit a predictable amount of traffic, but this driver had his own method of dealing with it.  He would speed down the exit lane to bypass all the traffic, and then quickly cut off a car at the last minute to merge back onto the highway… at every single exit!  At one point, he was so quick to hop back into the exit lane that he narrowly missed getting hit by a huge truck who was safely changing into that lane because he legitimately wanted to use that exit.  After we got off the highway and onto the surface roads in the city, I literally had to close my eyes because I was so afraid he was going to hit a car or bicyclist.  My heart rate is elevated right now as I type this just thinking about that car ride!  It took close to an hour to reach our hotel from CDG.  I have never been so happy to get out of a car in my life!  On the bright side, he charged us the €50 we were quoted, so I paid with credit card and got as far away from his car as I could before he drove away!

One of the things I liked about Hotel Chopin was that it was located within Passage Jouffroy.  In the first half of the 19^th century, glass-ceiling covered pedestrian passages were built around Paris as shopping arcades.  By the 1850s, there were nearly 150 passages containing small shops and restaurants, and used as a way to walk between two side streets without going outside.  Many of these passages were removed during Haussmann’s renovations of Paris, but Passage Jouffroy is one of the 20 that still remain.  Here is the description of Passage Jouffroy from the Paris tourism website:

Since it was built in 1836, Passage Jouffroy has been one of the most visited covered arcades in the capital. Situated on the Grands Boulevards and in the continuation of Passage des Panoramas, it owes its charm to its beautiful iron and glass architecture (the ogive glass roof immediately catches the eye) and its marble paving, renovated in 1987. The other asset to the Passage Jouffroy is the variety and originality of the establishments which it houses. The children and adults visiting the Musée Grévin and its famous waxwork models. The Salon des Miroirs is a former 19th century brasserie which, today, is only used for private hire and transforms into a club on Saturday nights. The Hôtel Chopin is an original place to spend the night. Some of the most original shops add a special touch to the visit: old canes and walking sticks, old books, paper specialists and many others. It’s worth a visit for the window displays alone! Gourmets can take a break at Valentin, the unmissable tea room.

Our crazy taxi driver dropped us off at one of the entrances to the passage, so we had to walk through the passage towing our luggage.  It was such a quaint and charming way to approach our hotel!

The receptionist easily found our booking reservation and checked us into the hotel.  She handed me a 4-inch-long heavy brass keychain with a key to our hotel room.  At the time, we laughed about it because it was the most ridiculous keychain and there was no chance we would carry that heavy thing around in my purse for the whole week!  We took it up to our room and removed the key from the keychain so I just kept the key on its own in my purse and we hoped for the best that I wouldn’t misplace it!  It wasn’t until several days later that we learned we aren’t intended to take that keychain out of the hotel.  There is someone at the front desk 24 hours a day, so we were supposed to leave the key with the front desk when we left each morning and they would return it to us each evening when we came back.  I’m not sure if this is common in French hotels, but no one explained it to us and we only figured it out when we saw someone else handing in their key one morning. 

We knew Hotel Chopin had an elevator when I booked it.  What they didn’t tell me was that you need to walk up 3 steps to enter the hotel lobby, then another 5 steps from the lobby to the main floor where they have a breakfast room and a few offices, then another 2 or 3 steps to the vestibule where the elevator is located.  It’s a good thing none of our suitcases were overly heavy!  We could have prepaid for breakfast at the hotel, but they charged €10 per person, per day, so we opted to skip their breakfast, knowing we would be happy eating fresh croissants from a bakery for a fraction of that price.  It looked like they served fresh orange juice for breakfast…

I wish I thought to take a photo of the elevator as it was very quirky.  The elevator was so small that we had to stack our 2 smaller rolling bags on top of each other, then put the bigger bag on one side and I squeezed in on the other side with my backpack resting on top of the big bag.  DH had to walk up the 5 flights of stairs to our room because he could not fit in the elevator with me and the luggage!  He could have just waited for me to send the elevator back down to him after I unloaded everything, but you needed to hold a heavy door open while unloading the bags from the elevator, and that was a bit tricky to do all on my own so it worked better for him to meet me upstairs where one of us held the door open and the other rolled out all the bags.

Our room was located on the top floor, towards the back of the hotel.  It was a good size for the two of us, with a king sized bed, a desk, 2 chairs, a luggage rack, and a closet.  If you look closely, you can see the heavy keychain on the left side of the desk.

The bathroom was clean and modern, but a bit small.  DH hit his head on the fixture in the shower on the first day of the trip (you can see the bruise on his forehead if you look closely at our photos for Saturday and Sunday!).  I did like that there were 2 drawers that pulled out from below the sink, providing lots of storage in a small space.

Our windows opened out into a courtyard between the buildings, so it was very quiet at night.  We did not have air conditioning in our hotel so we slept with the windows open, but we never heard any noise from the busy Grands Boulevards nearby.

Having gotten limited sleep on our redeye flight last night, it was tempting to curl up in bed and take a nap.  However, we have enough travel experience to know that would be a huge mistake and we’d never adjust to the time difference if we gave into our fatigue.  Instead, we decided to wake a walk up to the Montmarte neighborhood to see a few sights and stay awake as long as possible.  Our first stop was to find the nearest metro station so we could buy our carnets of metro tickets.  This proved a little more complicated than I anticipated because I used the Citymapper app to find the Le Peletier metro station.  When we got to the spot where the app said the metro station was located, there was tons of constructions and we could not find where to enter the station!  After a bit of walking back and forth, we did finally find the stairs leading down into the station, but that was just a sign of things to come when dealing with the metro in Paris.  More on that later.  There was an agent at the booth in the station so we asked him to buy 2 carnets of metro tickets for €14.90 each.  I knew we would need the metro tickets for one of our stops this evening so it was important to buy the carnets first before continuing on our path. 

As a little side note… a carnet is really just a fancy name for a pack of 10 individual metro tickets.  In Paris, they call the metro tickets “t+”, so a carnet includes 10 of these t+ tickets.  They are loose and not bound together in anyway, so I brought a little pouch from home to keep these tickets together so none would get lost considering we now had 20 small t+ tickets to keep track of!  These tickets can demagnetize easily, so I kept that pouch in a separate pocket of my purse, far away from my wallet and phone to make sure it didn’t demagnetize.  Each time we approached a metro station, I took out one ticket for each of us, and we kept that ticket in our pants pocket after going through the turnstile.  Metro agents can ask for proof that you paid your fare at any time while you are in the station or on the metro, so make sure not to lose that little ticket.  If you can’t show your ticket or if your ticket demagnetized after you used it to enter the metro station, they will demand you pay a €50 fine on the spot!  I read several threads about this prior to arriving in Paris, so I was prepared, and we did encounter these agents one time during our week in Paris.  Luckily for us, we were ready for it and happily handed them our tickets to be scanned.  This is the t+ ticket:

After about 20 minutes of walking, we found this huge tile mural which says “I Love You” in every language.

As we walked around, we kept seeing live musicians performing in the streets.  Today was June 21, the Summer Solstice, and I later learned that there is a huge celebration in Paris on this date each year called Fete de la Musique.  Since 1982, music takes over the city’s streets, with live bands, singers, amateur musicians, drummers, DJs and so on scattered throughout the city, expressing themselves through music and inviting the crowd to enjoy themselves.  It definitely made for an exciting night for an evening stroll as we saw several singers, bands, and even a marching band!

We continued walking until we came to a plaza with a carousel and a great view looking up at Sacre Coeur.  This was the first “take my breath away”/”OMG! I’m in Paris” moment of the vacation.  I had that moment several other times during the trip, but seeing Sacre Coeur was the first major landmark that I saw in person, and it made this vacation that I had been planning via internet research finally come alive!

There are two ways to get from here up to Sacre Coeur.  We could walk up a bunch of stairs, or we could take the funicular.  It was an obvious decision to take the funicular and save some energy.  You can pay your fare on the funicular with a metro ticket, which is why I wanted to buy our carnets prior to arriving here.  What I did not realize was there is a ticket booth right there where we could have bought our tickets so there was no need to buy them in advance.  Oh well, no biggie.  There are two tracks so there was only a short wait for the next car to arrive.

The cars are small, but they are standing room only so they cram a lot of people inside the car.  There were signs everywhere warning tourists to protect their belongings from possible pickpockets.  The steps in front of Sacre Coeur are notorious from scam artists and pickpockets, so we knew to have our guard up while we were here. 

Being that it was a Friday night, it was no surprise to see how crowded it was up here, but that was just part of the experience!

Aside from the Eiffel Tower, this was probably the most crowded attraction we visited in Paris.  It was basically impossible to get a photo of us without someone else getting in the shot lol

Notice how I have my purse swung in front of me for the photo.  It would have been a better photo if I pushed my purse behind my back to hide it from the shot, but I made it a habit to always keep it in front of my body when taking photos, especially in crowded places, because I did not want to be a target. 

Looking out in the other direction, there is a great view over Paris. 

As we made our way up the steps, I caught sight of this building sinking down into the grass…

Just kidding!  It was an optical illusion from the steep hills of Montmarte!

It reminded me some photos I have taken in San Francisco.  We continued up the steps and towards the left to enter the church.  There was no charge to enter, and they were about to start the 8pm service so the church was filling up.  We decided not to stay for the service because if we sat down, there was a good chance we would fall asleep haha  Instead, we just walked around the perimeter of the church and took a few photos. 

We hadn’t eaten anything since the airplane earlier this afternoon, so we were both getting hungry and only stayed at inside Sacre Coeur for about 10 minutes so we could go in search of dinner.  I originally planned for us to eat somewhere around Place du Tertre, a park located two blocks behind Sacre Coeur, but it was extremely crowded and we didn’t want to deal with that mess.  I really wanted to find a crepe stand so we could eat dinner while we continued our walk, but most of these restaurants were sit down with table service, so we just kept walking and figured we’d find some crepes soon enough. 

As we kept walking, we found a few other points of interest, like this statue of a man coming out of the wall…

We were walking in the direction of Moulin Rouge, which literally translates to “red windmill”.  In the early days of the city in the 17^th century, Montmarte was out in the country and not part of the city center.  There were 15 windmills up on the hill in this area which were used to grind wheat, press grapes, and crush materials needed in factories.  Today, only two of the original windmills remain.  The first was converted into a restaurant, but you can still see the original windmill peaking out from behind the tree:

The second windmill was a bit harder to see, located one block away, up on the hill in this park.  You can’t really see it in the photo, but trust me, it was there!  It was very cool to see these little bits of Paris history that most people never know about.

We continued walking along the narrow streets, making our way back down the hill towards Moulin Rouge.  That was another benefit of doing this walk in the direction we went: it was mostly downhill!  We did have a slight uphill climb in the very beginning, but once we reached the funicular to take us up the steepest part of the hill, it was all downhill after that! 

DH and I have a thing for hot air balloon because he proposed to me in one, so I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the painting on the side of this building.  As I was taking the photo, I noticed the super cute building below it: Le Petit Moulin (the little windmill) with giant flamingos painted on the side!  So cute!

As we were walking down this street, we could see a crepe stand up ahead.  We were starving so we decided to order some chicken and cheese crepes for our first dinner in Paris.

You can’t see it in the photo because it was bleached out from the sun, but when we were there, we could see the second windmill up on the hill at the end of the street behind me.  The crepe was delicious and made for the perfect dinner as we continued walking around Montmarte.  When we finally reached the main road, we could tell it was a busier part of town, with taller buildings and many more cars on the road.  I just loved seeing the Haussmann-style buildings all over the city!

One of the original metro station entrances:

We finally reached the final destination of our walk… The Moulin Rouge!  I know it is super touristy, but how could I not take a photo outside of this iconic place?  Now all I needed was to see Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor singing from the rooftop haha just kidding!

After all that walking, we decided to stop at a bar for a drink on the way home.  We were totally exhausted, but we needed to toast to a great start to our European vacation!

We got back to the hotel around 9:30pm and quickly unpacked so we could finally get some sleep.

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 13,310,  Miles: 6.44,  Flights of Stairs: 3 (remember, that was all in just 6 hours because we were on the plane until 3:30pm!)

After 8 months of waiting, and after thousands of hours of planning, the day finally arrived… we’re going to Europe! 

DH and I both worked today, but luckily I was able to shift my schedule a few hours earlier so I could get off at 3pm.  I wanted to call our Uber at 3:30pm in case we had trouble with Uber drivers canceling on us once they found out we were going all the way up to Oakland.  The last thing we wanted was to spend a ton of time finding a driver willing to take us to the airport, and then getting stuck in lots of traffic, and possibly missing our flight!  As luck would have it, I requested the Uber at 3:30pm, and he pulled up to our house a few minutes later driving a brand new SUV and more than happy to drive us to Oakland!  Somehow, we were very lucky today because we didn’t hit any traffic, despite driving during rush hour, and we arrived at Oakland Airport at 4:30pm.  Winning! 

Back in December, Norwegian changed their policy regarding access to the priority lounge so that it is only included in the ticket price of the refundable seats in the premium section.  Those tickets are much more expensive than the nonrefundable premium seats we purchased, but luckily, since this policy change occurred after we bought our tickets, they grandfathered us in to the amenities associated with our tickets at the time we bought them.  Anyone who purchased nonrefundable premium seats on our flight after the mid-December policy change would not have access to the lounge, so it paid off that we bought our tickets so far in advance back in October!

When we got to the airport, we quickly found the priority check in line for passengers in the premium seats.  There was one group ahead of us, but it was a short wait for our turn.  The lady checking us in gave us paper passes to access the lounge and stamped our boarding passes so we could use the expedited security line.  With the strict luggage weight restrictions, we packed in two 22” rolling bags which we would check in under the plane for the Norwegian flights, and carry onto the plane for the Jetblue flight.  We also had one slightly larger 25” rolling bag which would be checked in for all 3 flights.  The lady had us weigh our 3 checked bags, but did not ask to weigh our carry on back packs.  Since the bags weren’t that big, I knew they would all be under the 44 pound weight limit for checked bags, and they were.  When we got to the security line, there was no one there so we zipped through within minutes and continued through the airport to find the premium lounge.

OAK is a fairly small airport and only has one terminal, so the premium lounge is shared by everyone flying through that airport.  When we got there around 5pm, it was very crowded and we got the last available table.  After we arrived, we saw multiple parties be turned away because the lounge was full and they had to wait for people to leave before they could enter, so it worked out great that we arrived at the airport so early for our flight.  We wasted no time and immediately took advantage of the free snacks and open bar in the lounge.

The black pot in that photo contained mac and cheese, and they also had little sandwiches, soup, and cookies for dessert.  We spent about 2 hours in the lounge, so it was a nice place to pass the time as opposed to sitting in the crowded area near the gate.  Norwegian starts boarding their planes an hour prior to departure, so we went to our gate around 7:15pm.  They boarded “priority” passengers first, which was people who paid for that service and were mostly seated in the coach section, and then they boarded us with the “premium” passengers. 

Walking down the jet bridge to the plane…

Our home for the next 10 hours:

I was very happy with the amount of leg room in our seats.  With my feet flat on the floor, there was more than enough space, even when the person in front of me had the seat reclined.  With the seat in front of me straight up, I could fully extend my legs and still not touch that seat!

While we waited for the coach section to board and get settled, our flight attendant came around with a tray of water, orange juice, and apple juice.  I wish I could remember his name because he was the best flight attendant I’ve ever had!  He was so much fun the whole flight, and always there to give me whatever I needed, be it ear phones, something to eat, or a refill of my complimentary glass of wine!

The plane pulled away from the gate right on time at 8:20pm, and soon we were in the air with a beautiful view of the sunset over San Francisco.

Looking out to the Golden Gate Bridge

The in-flight entertainment (IFE) system is pretty impressive. In the coach seats, the screen is mounted on the back of the seat in front of you.  In the premium seats, the seat in front of you reclines so far down that you wouldn’t be able to see your screen if it was on the back of that seat.  Instead, the monitors pop up out of the arm rests.  These screens are interactive so you can use them to order food and drinks during the flight, pick from about 30 different movies and TV shows to watch, or observe the flight map from a few different angles. 

Knowing how the screens were designed, I brought some rubber bands in my carry on bag so I could mount my iPad to the IFE screen.  It worked perfectly and was much more comfortable than having my iPad propped up on the tray table for the whole flight.  The IFE screen also has a USB port so I could keep my iPad plugged in while I watched my movies.  There was also an outlet under the seat so I used an adapter to keep my phone plugged in too.

Sitting in the premium seats meant we had 2 meals and free wine and beer served throughout the flight.  I had a choice of chicken, salmon, or a veggie dish so I picked the chicken.  It was served in a little box, which was cute for presentation but not very practical for eating.  It would have worked better if they served the food on a tray.

Inside the box was a piece of bread, a salad with prosciutto, an entrée with chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and some kind of red sauce, and a little container with dessert.  The food was edible, but honestly not very good.  This was supposed to be a “premium” meal.  I don’t know what kind of food was served in coach, but I can’t imagine it was lower quality than this because this food was mediocre at best.  I didn’t expect a fine dining experience on an airplane, but I guess I was hoping for something a little better than what we got.

After they cleared our dinner boxes, the flight attendants dimmed the cabin lights so we could get some sleep.  I’ve never been able to sleep on airplanes, but as I was watching movies on my iPad, I felt my eyes get heavy and I started drifting in and out of sleep.  I didn’t get quality sleep, but I did get a few rounds of 30 minute naps, so I took that as a win as compared to most redeyes when I am awake for the entire flight.  I will end this post here and pick up again on Friday when breakfast was served an hour before landing in Paris!

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 5,605,  Miles: 2.71,  Flights of Stairs: 2