travels, races, and other musings

As we all know, I’m a big planner and researcher and before leaving, I carefully researched what time the RER B trains would start running to get to the airport. They began leaving at 5:30 so I figured if we left our place between 5:00-5:10 to take the M1 to the closest station that transfers to the RER B, we’d be good. What I didn’t count on was the fact that the metro itself doesn’t start running until 5:30. That would mean we wouldn’t get to the airport until 6:30 at the earliest which, with an 8:00 AM international flight wasn’t early enough. When did we learn this? When we were already at the M1 station with all our baggage. I ordered us an Uber and would try to get a refund for our transit tickets when we got home (I still haven’t heard back from the French public transit customer service).  Our travel back was smoother than our travel out. We did have some delay into and out of Heathrow because Heathrow, but we had enough buffer. Always give yourself at least two hours betwe...

Our last day in Paris was set to be a busy one. We had multiple things we wanted to do and we needed to pack and get our AirBnB sorted out before leaving early the following day. We got up and got ready, got a little packing done and left at 9:30 to rope drop the Arc de Triomphe for their 10 AM opening. With our Paris Museum Pass we could skip the line and go right in. Not only did we save money with the pass, but the ability to skip the line was great. With the pass we visited: the Arc de Triomphe, Musée de Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie, the Pantheon, and Versailles. Purchased individually that’s 133 Euros and the pass was 108 Euros so we save 25 Euros/person with the pass! For some of the museums, we still had to make a reservation (Louve, Orsay, l’Orangerie, Versaille) but did didn’t cost anything.  So we skipped the line and climbed up all the stairs to go to the top of the monument where they have some information in a top room, then you climb some more to get al...

Our first activity for the day was a 10 AM timed entry reservation for the Musée d’Orsay. This absolutely stunning museum is housed in a former train station and is home to a large collection of impressionist artwork. There’s also a cool photo op in front of one of the clock faces of the former station. We went throughout the entire upper floor of impressionist art and then took a super quick spin through some of the other galleries. We left the museum and got some lunch nearby before taking the metro back to our apartment to relax before our afternoon activity. While at the apartment I noticed my Islander bag was having a little issue with the strap. All is well though because I reached out to Islander and they are shipping a new bag base to me so I can swap it out - what great customer service! After relaxing for a bit, we took the metro to Montmartre and had my favorite coffee we had in Paris. After coffee it was time to meet our guide for our afternoon activity: a walking tour of M...

We were finally able to sleep in a bit and get a good night’s sleep. Roger and Emmaline got a little extra because I went ahead with Dru to take her bags to a luggage locker near Notre Dame before our day’s activities. That way she wouldn’t have to go all the way back to the AirBnB (which was slightly west of the city) before taking her train which would depart from a station slightly east of the city.  After securing the luggage, we met up with Emmaline and Roger for our 10 AM boat tour of the Canal Saint Martin and the Seine. This two hour took us through some of the older canals in the city, parts of them in underground tunnels, through several locks southward until we reached the level of the Seine, then we traveled west for awhile before turning back east and landing near Notre Dame. We all really enjoyed the tour, learning about the landmarks along the way. If you watched the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics you may have seen some of the boats that transported some of...