20230510 Paris Day 7 - Pre-dawn pastries and Publix

Paris Day 7 - Pre-dawn pastries

Trip day: 21 / 21

 Wow, 4:45AM comes early, especially when you're on Paris time, six hours ahead of the US east coast.  That's when the alarm went off this morning.  We had our morning routine stuff to do, toss the last items into the suitcases, and meet our Uber driver at 5:30AM.

We made it downstairs at about 5:10AM.  The aroma in the elevator was intoxicating.  The Mercure hotel offers a rate that includes breakfast and that's what we had for the last week.  Every morning, they pick up fresh croissants, pain au chocolate, and other amazing pastries, and the smell wafts throughout the first floor as well as sneaking into the elevator.

Lucky for us, the manager said we should help ourselves even though breakfast didn't open until 6AM.  Woo!  One last melt-in-your-mouth French pastry!

Our Uber driver arrived at about 5:15AM and we were quickly on our way to Charles DeGaulle Airport for our 9AM flight. Traffic was light at that hour and we arrived in plenty of time.  We whisked through the multiple security and passport checks and arrived at our gate.

We were treated to a nice sunrise at our gate.

The boarding process went smoothly and we pushed back right on time for our 8.5-hour ride in the sky.

The flight was uneventful which is always a good thing.  During the flight, we took advantage of Delta's in-flight entertainment.  Arlona watched A Man Called Otto and The Man from Toronto.   She also finished the book she was reading on her Kindle.  I took in A Man Called Otto, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and The Fablemans.  We both enjoyed A Man Called Otto.  I had already seen The Man from Toronto. Arlona and I both thought it was a predictable but light and enjoyable mismatched buddy movie. The Fablemans was interesting, but I didn't think it was as amazing as the Oscar voters did.  Speaking of not amazing, Everywhere, All at Once was odd, offbeat, and borderline confusing.  I don't understand the best picture Oscar.  Different strokes, I guess.

We landed in Atlanta more than 30 minutes early.  That's always a great thing when you have to clear Customs and make a connection. We are big fans of Global Entry.  We bypassed the Customs line and waited for perhaps three people in the Global Entry line.  You walk up to the terminal, it scans your face, does some facial recognition, and then a green light illuminates and the screen tells you to proceed to an agent.

When you walk up, they greet you by name, since they have your photo on their screen.  They do a quick perusal of your passport, wish you a good day, and then you head to luggage pickup.  Once you grab your luggage, Here's the part I don't understand.  Once we have our luggage, we walk a couple of hundred feet, and then check it right back in.  Why?  I don't know.

Once we dropped our luggage, we had to go through TSA - again, why?  Still, Global Entry comes with TSA Precheck, so it wasn't a big deal.  We got to our gate with an hour to spare.

Once again, we launched right on time, and actually made up a little time in the air, arriving a few minutes early.

Approaching Orlando International Airport by flying over The Villages

After retrieving our checked bags, we met our driver and hit the road for home.  About 1:15 later, we were home at the Kastle. As we reflect back on the last three weeks, it was another enjoyable trip.  We saw new places and visited some repeats. We added one country, Ireland, to our list.  This brings our total to 51 countries visited.  We have 12 more scheduled later this year.

With nothing much in the house, Arlona took the golf cart to Publix and picked up some of their terrific fried chicken for dinner. Ahh, the taste of home.

I'll wrap up this adventure with our last two photos from Paris, taken by our friends Kathy & Steve after our lunch yesterday.

Next up, our 105-day adventure coming in September.  We'll be cruising from Vancouver throughout Asia and ending in Sydney. We'll add a stay in Sydney, a stay in Dubai, and another cruise around the U.A.E., Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain.

So for now, I'm signing off and we'll see you all again in September.

20230509 Paris Day 6 - Thinking and drinking

Paris Day 6 - Rain, rain...

Trip day: 20 / 21

Well, the weather gods did their best, but eventually, Mother Nature won out and we had a washout day.  It rained all day until about 5pm. That didn't inspire us to get going this morning as the temps were in the mid-50s, and did I mention that it was raining?

Still, it was our last day in Paris and we didn’t want to waste it, so we gathered our enthusiasm, donned our rain gear, and headed for the #9 train.  After a packed ride and a transfer to a packed #13 train, we worked our way to the Rodin Museum.  Auguste Rodin is probably best known for his sculpture, The Thinker.  A version of it is on display in the gardens at the museum and greets visitors as they approach the museum house.

Inside the house, we found a large number of Rodin sculptures as well as some works from other artists including Van Gogh.

More the original size

Far and away, my favorite piece

Hey, look - it's the social media selfie pose

I like this one a lot too

Yes, that's the Parthenon on her head

A Van Gogh

It was interesting to see these works up close and personal with no barriers.

After touring the house, we dodged the raindrops (and numerous puddles) and wandered around the gardens before working our way to the exit.

This was impressive and contained small versions of many of Rodin's works

The back of the house that is the museum

Next up was a return trip on the #13 subway to #9, but on the #9, we headed away from the hotel to our lunch destination.  As I mentioned yesterday, we planned to meet our world cruise buddies, Kathy & Steve at  Mokus l'Écureuil.  I was able to capture a few more images of this wonderfully interesting eatery.

Steve & Kathy arrived and we enjoyed catching up and sharing travel stories while enjoying a wonderful lunch.

After too much food and drink, we wandered the short distance to the overlook for the obligatory photo of the four of us and the Eiffel Tower.  

All too soon, it was time for us all to grab our respective subway lines and head to our respective hotels.  It is time to pack as we all head home tomorrow.  

We liked stopping at this station on our subway travels.  

Besides having the great name, Bonne Nouvelle (Good News), the signs have a little bouncy flair to the writing rather than just plain type.  Nice job, Bonne Nouvelle. You made us smile.

Now it is time to pack.  Our Uber will be here at 5:30AM, about 45 minutes before the crack of dawn. So while you all reading this in the US are sawing logs tonight, we’ll be jetting our way across the pond.  Tomorrow will be a long travel day.