The Professor Errant

Hotel

I announced myself at our hotel, Maison Astor Paris, by pratfalling into the vestibule. Why are steps UP into establishments allowed? Luckily, only my dignity was hurt (ok, there were a FEW bruises) and the staff at the hotel were very kind about it.

Our room was tiny but we are used to that. I just wish hotels would consider that tiny room means no room to open huge suitcases. Of course, maybe that’s a me problem. The pillows were VERY comfortable (I almost always hate hotel pillows).

We stuck to the hotel restaurant for our dinners; they had great drinks and food. (We do need to work on being more adventurous in that department.) They had a yummy French toast with chocolate mousse dessert that we ordered more than once. The breakfast buffet (yay for Hilton gold status!) was very good too.

Paris Tours and Sights

Paris Catacombs

After a stop at McDonald’s (yes, we can’t help ourselves), we made our way via Metro to our first tour: the Paris Catacombs. I booked us a cut-the-line guided tour via Viator. Sometimes tours like that can be a bit of a rip-off but I was pretty happy with how this one turned out.

The Catacombs…well, it’s a lot of bones. Very creepy bones. And this is right up our alley, of course. We had a great French-American tour guide, Jonny, who got us through security quickly. Our Scott-E vests caused a problem with the metal detectors though. Love the vests but now we know to not ever wear them through detectors.

We went down a long spiral staircase to the old quarry corridors that lead to the bones. SO MANY BONES! It was dark, dank, drippy, and so, so cool! Rob hit his head on the low ceilings a couple of times (his own fault for being tall!) but he didn’t let it get him down.

River Cruise

The next day we did a lunch cruise on the Seine with Bateaux Parisiens, also through Viator. The dock was near the Eiffel Tower. We got a few background pics with the Tower before embarking but that was as close as we got on this trip. (We’ve both been to it before.)

The views from the boat were awesome, of both the Tower and the mini-Statue of Liberty that sits in the middle of the river down there (which I wasn’t aware of before this!).

The food was, of course, yummy! We started with marinated shrimp and then I had duck fillet for the main course and Rob had beef. We had Raspberry Chocolate Squares for dessert (seemed to be a brownie type of thing).

The boat went up past Notre-Dame and then turned around and came back. Despite not having window seats, we had great views of everything.

Musee de l’Orangerie

We paired a visit to this museum with our river cruise. It’s famous for having a bunch of Monet’s Water Lilies paintings. That’s what we went for and they were exquisite. Nothing else on exhibit caught my fancy. Sue me, I’m just all about the Impressionists!

The Place de la Concorde was right near the museum so, of course, we had to go recreate one of the photos taken there from his high school Paris trip!

Mont Saint-Michel

Through Viator, we took a day trip to Mont Saint-Michel. I’d never been; Rob went on his previous trip to France. It was definitely a bucket list destination for me.

Getting to the bus was arduous (see below), but, in the end, we were fine. Rob says he’s a little sick of long bus tours, though… It didn’t help that he hit his head again on the bus ceiling.

The parking for visitors is a little ways away from the town, which you then get to via shuttle bus. You walk across a bridge to get to the tidal island that the town sits on. It’s a bit different from when Rob visited in the 80s, when it had a causeway and closer-in visitor parking.

Once you get to the town (with a population of 23 (in 2023)), you take a winding cobblestone street (no vehicles) up to the thousand-year-old abbey.

Lining the street up…lots of shops and restaurants. It was a bit crowded for my taste but the views from the abbey were amazing. Seeing the building and learning more about its history was, of course, awesome.

Musée d’Orsay

Having both been to the Louvre before, we decided to hit the Musée d’Orsay on our last day. I needed to see my Impressionists and I was not disappointed. All of my favorites were represented! It would have, of course, been nicer if it was less crowded but what can you do. It’s definitely worth another visit in the future.

We walked by Notre-Dame afterwards but didn’t go in. Something else for a future trip.

Getting Around

I couldn’t figure out how to get us multi-day Metro passes in the transit system’s app (none of the advice on it I found online worked for me) but I was able to easily get us daily passes through Apple Wallet. Not as economical but they worked.

The Metro could be tricky at times but nothing I wasn’t used to from living in New York, Boston, and Washington, DC. I do tend to freak out a little bit (momentarily) when I get lost or can’t figure out where I need to go. Which I’m sure is just a signage issue and not a skill one on my part!

The worst was when our tour to Mont Saint-Michel left very early in the morning and we had to get to an unfamiliar pick-up point across the city. It didn’t help that I gave myself a bloody nose when my nasal allergy spray slipped out of my hand while getting ready (classic me). It looked us a bit of time to find the right train and then when we got to our stop we had trouble finding the exit to street level. (I may or may not have cried the whole way. You can’t prove a thing!) We had to run for the tour bus, though we ended up NOT being the last ones on. They were actually nice enough to call me and check that we were close, while we running! (Did I mention that Rob kept a cool head through all of this? He always does.)

Going Home

Since we had a morning flight to London, I booked us in the Sheraton Paris Charles de Gaulle, which has direct terminal access, for the last night.

It’s a very nice hotel that I’d be happy to stay at again. The food in their restaurant was great but the service left a lot to be desired. It felt like they were slammed and understaffed. Everything, while tasty, took forever to get to us.

After a good night’s sleep, we made our way through CDG to board our short hop flight (BA A320) to London Heathrow. Over the Channel, we had an easy layover (no lounge access, though, no Amex Platinum yet!) and then boarded a BA A380 for the long leg home.

We knew going in that the BA A380’s are in need of refurbishment. Yeah, it really showed. Everything was very worn and janky. There was a storage compartment next to Rob’s window seat that was duct-taped shut. Still, it was fun to ride on the upper deck and we had two reasonably comfortable seats with no strangers to climb over.

Would I like to ride in a newer, better A380? Of course! Now that’s on the bucket list…

And thus ended our Paris adventure! (We’ll definitely go back in the future for more Disney AND Paris fun.)