Day 1 - Getting There and Settling In

When we were planning our honeymoon, the top 2 choices were Ireland and France. We chose Ireland, which was beautiful and memorable with the goal of seeing Paris on one of our milestone anniversaries. Life didn't go exactly as planned as raising a family with the challenges we had with autism, especially in the last 5 or 6 years with COVID and Elliot hitting puberty at the same time, made the goal of going to Paris seemingly unachievable. We thought we might be able to go for our 20th anniversary but COVID hit just before that making it impossible - we couldn't even go out for dinner on our 20th anniversary much less fly to another continent. Anyway, with Elliot now in great care in a group home and life becoming much more manageable, we finally were able to head to Paris for a week. We thought about doing a French countryside trip like we did in Ireland with only a couple of days in Paris but after looking at all the things we wanted to see and do in Paris, we decided to do a full 7 day trip there and it was a good decision as there is so much to see and do. 

We left on Tuesday, April 22nd with a direct flight from Ottawa to Charles de Gaulle airport. The flight was very reasonably priced and you get far nicer service than Air Canada or other domestic airlines. Two meal services were included with complementary wine and drinks - these are all upsells on other airlines. The flight left around 5pm with an expected arrival time of 6am local Paris time. We figured we'd get some sleep on the plane and tried to help that along with melatonin but neither of us got more than a couple of winks. We arrived pretty tired but excited. Charles de Gaulle airport is massive and strangely you have to take a train to another part of the terminal to pick up your bags and clear customs and immigration. As some foreshadowing for the trip, there was lots of walking through the airport to finally get to RER B to start our train/metro rides to our hotel. The Paris transport system is complicated but Google or the Bonjour RATP app make it fairly easy to get around and pay and use your phone as a ticket. The Châtelet–Les Halles station where we made our first train transfer is unbelievably huge and there is lots of walking between train connections. Three trains later and we emerge within a block of our hotel - but it's raining pretty hard. It's about 9am by now and we've been awake for about 18 hours but we can't check into the hotel just yet. Our hotel, the Rayz Eiffel on Avenue Bosquet in the 7th arrondissement, is about a block or so away and we navigate there reasonably and are able to drop our bags off (after getting out umbrellas since we are going to have to walk around until our room is ready). They tell us it will be about 2 hours before the room is ready so we set out to explore around the Eiffel tower. We pop into Kozy, a cafe right next door to the hotel - which seems to be part of a popular chain of restaurants in Paris and get a café allongé and a cappucino. Though I was told we don't have to tip, the server asked us if we wanted to so we gave a 10% tip. This was one of the few occasions where we did that though - they must have sensed we were newbies.

It's pretty quiet around the Eiffel tower probably because it's pouring rain and because it's fairly early in the morning. We walk the Champ de Mars park toward the tower and see that there is indeed still crowds - we were just on the other side of a fence where there is security checks. The crowd did seem relatively light today though. We then walk around the area around the Eiffel tower and head back to check into our room around 11:30.  Lots of nice flower shops, fromagerie's and bakeries along the way.  Every door to apartments seems grand.

Even the street signs are nice

After paying the French tourist tax of about €65 we get to our hotel room which is quite nice. By now the rain had stopped so we checkout the rooftop terrace which has a great view of the Eiffel tower.  We make a lot of use of this throughout the week.

We're pretty exhausted by this point so we decide to take a "nap". That nap lasted until about 5pm (when the above pictures were taken) - so I guess we needed it. We freshen up and head out to find dinner near the hotel. We find a nice market area on Rue Cler and I have a French onion soup and Carrie has a salad at Cafe du Marche. Seems like there is a mix of tourists and locals as we see lot of doggies (without leashes) out with their owners and people picking up fresh baked goods and fruit at the market shops (yes, the baguette stereotype is real - we saw more than one person just gnawing on a baguette they just purchased from a bakery). On another day we had to make ourselves look like locals:

The food was good but the dining experience in the little market area was the highlight. We round out the first evening with a walk up to the Seine, walking over Passerelle Debilly, and happen to catch the twinkling lights on the tower (though it wasn't really dark enough to see them well) - not realizing that they don't twinkle all night - just for a few minutes when they first light the tower.  Locks on bridges and pretty much anything else are a big deal here - I imagine they have to clean them up regularly.

A great first day and a pretty positive impression of the city. It's beautiful everwhere you look and so far the people have generally been quite nice and most have spoken English. We try with our French at times - my pronunciation is far worse than Carrie's but after repeating myself a couple of times people seem to understand me. I think I got away with a few interactions where it wasn't painfully obvious I didn't know French very well.  A final cigar and a wine on the terrace before heading off to bed.