October 13, 2009
Flying from Vancouver and arriving in Paris
October 13/14
We arrived at the airport about 14:15 for our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. We had never flown business class before and quite enjoyed the complimentary snacks, wine and espresso in the Air Canada lounge (after going through fast track security). The flight was delayed about a half hour which made us a bit worried about our close connection in Frankfurt. Our seats in Executive class were large and comfortable with many options for position, including practically flat for sleeping. Dinner was served on real china with several choices for each course and a good wine selection. After dinner we both managed to sleep for a few hours.
Shortly before landing at Frankfurt we were woken up and served a nice hot breakfast, again with tablecloths and cloth napkins. Upon landing, we were whisked from the tarmac into a special bus, which zipped us to the terminal for our connecting flight. Went through security again, then into another bus which took us right to the appropriate gate with five minutes to spare. During a pleasant one hour flight to Charles DeGaulle airport we were served a lovely cold lunch tray with wine. Upon landing, our luggage arrived promptly, and the shuttle driver was waiting for us. The weather was completely sunny and warmish.
The drive from the airport to our chambre d'hote took about 35 minutes through ugly industrial areas and past box stores, before reaching central Paris. Rue Maitre Albert was a tiny picturesque street, just off the Seine, and right across the river from Notre Dame. The apartment building dated from the 17th century with a huge wooden street door opening into a dark entry area and then a grille door into a tiny courtyard. We rang the bell and our host, Mme Chatignoux, greeted us and led us up four long flights of stairs to our little room with a big window and a nice view over a courtyard and rooftops. We had our own bathroom and coffee and tea making facilities--completely adequate, cute and comfy.
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Al wedged the bike cases into the tiny basement, and we set out to explore the area on foot. This Left Bank neighbourhood is quite near the Sorbonne, so there were lots of book stores, patisseries and restaurants with many pedestrians on the wide sidewalks and bicycles threading their way through the heavy traffic--nobody wears helmets! We walked to the nearby Gare Austerlitz to make train reservations for Saturday to Saumur in the Loire Valley. After waiting in line for some time we discovered that using our Eurail pass was more complicated than we had anticipated. Our fare was theoretically covered by the pass, but only the lowest cost fares were included, and reservations for these needed to be made far in advance. All available seats for TGV trains on Saturday were already taken. Instead of paying a premium to ride on a TGV, we booked an alternate route on a slower train. We walked back through small streets and tried to decide what we wanted to eat—our stomachs were not yet adjusted to the time zone. We had an undistinguished bowl of onion soup in a small restaurant and were in bed by 9:00.
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