France Day 1: Arrival in Paris

After a summer of news stories about travelers (including people we know) losing luggage - especially through European hubs - I laid down the law with my family that we were going to pack for our 10 day trip in carry-on bags only.   John proposed a compromise that we should check one, mostly empty, large bag of things that could get lost / were easily replaced and carry-on everything else so that we could have a bag to put the dirty clothes before laundry day, and to have room to carry home any new purchases.   Sold!   (And, the bag arrived at CDG very timely and didn't delay us at all....and we were very glad to have the laundry bag during the trip/souvenir bag for the return trip.)

First snack of the trip was a vending machine cupcake at O'Hare.   Last snack of the trip was vending machine random candies from CDG.   Pretty good coverage in between with everything else!  

We departed on Saturday evening after William's cross country meet, and arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, October 2.   Since it was the first Sunday of the month, many museums were free admission, and after taxiing to the city and dropping our bags at our hotel, we went out to explore a few while we tried to adjust to the time change and lack of sleep.   

First glimpse of the Eiffel Tower from the taxi en route to the hotel.  Our hotel was a small, boutique hotel called Hotel de Latour Maubourg and was located in the 7th arrondissement.    I found it online looking for places that were walkable to the sites we most wanted to see as well as the metro.   This was also the way we had a separate space for William plus a king bed for us.  

The hotel was across the street from Les Invalides which house the Museum of the Army, where we would spend an entire day touring!   It was another 5 minutes to the Rodin museum, which was free for that Sunday, so we did a walk through the sculpture garden.  The gold dome visible from the garden is the The Dome church, which is the building where Napoleon's tomb is located at Les Invalides.

Eiffel Tower peeking through in the background middle of this picture!  And then when we headed back toward our hotel and we could see the Eiffel Tower better.  I really liked their picture! :-)   Ours was also nice.

From there we walked out to the Seine River and headed toward L'Orangerie.    I thought we would have more time for seeing the outsides of Musee d'Orsay or the Louvre or Notre Dame but my geography and scale were a bit off.   And we had a timed (free) admission to the art museum so only made it that far for the day.   After a quick lunch.  We were quite hangry by this point.  We should have eaten more at the Rodin gift shop but my master planning / clock management / food coordinator skills were a little off from the travel and I also underestimated how hard it would be to find street food.  Seriously....where was a cart with some cheese baguettes!

But alas, tucked into a spot in the gardens was a creperie!   We were able to have a bite to eat and a sit down and all was well again.   

L'Orangerie is famous for its oval rooms of Monet's Water Lily paintings.   I took video instead of still photo of it, so have nothing to post.  It was really neat.  It was also very crowded.   I really enjoyed exploring the other floors for the Matisse and Cezanne.   This museum was a great size to say we saw some art in Paris but could otherwise focus on military history! 

When we were finished, our room was ready for check in.  Thank goodness, because it was raining and we were tired.   Naps in the rain were next on the list.  We had the Chagall Room which was the 3rd floor dormer.   It was fine for three people 5'6'' and shorter!  The bathroom was big with a large closet, two sinks a soaking tub (for my hand washing laundry, mostly!) and a shower stall.   The toilet, or WC as you'd say, was a separate room on the other side of the room.   William's half of the room had a couch that pulled out  into a sleeper.   And he had room for all of his stuff separate from ours - including the off-brand Legos he bought as souvenirs.  

We got our exercise every day in Paris with all of our walking and then the three (short) flights of stairs to get up to our room.   There was a tiny elevator that we used the first day to take up our luggage, but we carried to down upon departure.   In advance, I had scoped out a pizza place to try at some point during our stay.  We ended going the first night when realizing it was at the end of the block.  Afterwards we walked the 10 more minutes to the Eiffel Tower.  It was neat to see the lights in the sky as we approached.  After seeing the "front" and "back" sides of the Eiffel, I definitely preferred the quieter, neighborhood approach.   

I was hoping we could walk fully under the Eiffel Tower but it was barricaded off.   We never did go up or see it (at the site) in full daylight.   We stopped at a restaurant for a bathroom, so had a drink and dessert.   William didn't offer us a bite of this profiterole.   That's fine; I didn't offer him a sip of my champagne either!  (I may have had a bite of the dessert anyway....)

France Is Finally Happening

Our trip to France...4 years in the making.   Subtitled:  our route to Normandy took us through Des Moines.

We finally got our COVID-cancellation make-up for summer 2020 this fall.   The original plan was a roughly two-week summer vacation that was 2-3 days in Paris followed by a 10-day bus trip from Normandy to Munich with a tour company called Beyond Band of Brothers following the route of Easy Company with some local R&R spots like Versailles mixed into the WW2 heavy guided tour.    Since BBOB went bankrupt (more Ponzi scheme it seems than truly COVID related) and now having a shorter window and an older teen, we decided to revise our plan.   Instead, we did 4 nights in Paris and 4 nights in Normandy.   In Normandy we hired a private tour guide who picked us up each day at our B&B to drive/guide us for the various (mostly WW2) sites.   The itinerary was heavily based on what we would have seen on the original Easy Company tour, but also customized to our interests.    This ended up being a great way to go because the travel was at our pace and only to the places we were prioritizing.        

Since William turned 13 prior to our trip, it was time for him to get his own TSA Precheck versus being able to tag along on mine when we travel.   Realizing we had to take him in for an interview and that we had international travel coming up, we decided the entire family would apply for Global Entry.   It ended up being quite the adventure to find an open spot to interview, as the spots were few and not looking likely before our trip.   After monitoring the TSA/Global Entry website for weeks (including anytime we went through an airport in any city), we devised a weekend roadtrip to Des Moines, Iowa, as we could never find a local appointment that worked with William's school schedule - although I could find one for myself near my office during business hours, etc.   We drove 4 hours to Des Moines on a Saturday afternoon, had dinner at a brewery I read about online (PB&J beer was decent...), spent the night at a hotel, had 7:30 a.m. interviews with the customs officer to be issued our Global Entry cards, and were on the road home by 8:15 a.m.  Unfortunately, we had work and school stuff to get ahead of, or I should have planned an afternoon at the Iowa State Fair!   I know that our < 24 hour investment for Global Entry will more than pay for itself in TSA and Immigration lines in the next 5 years!  

8th Grade Cross Country Season

William ran on the ASCA Cross Country team for the second year.  It's a nice sport - usually good weather, the season only lasts about 8 weeks, the meets get you in-and-out before noon on Saturday so you can still enjoy your weekend.  And at this level it's mostly about racing against yourself and improving your own time,  so people are generally cheering on one another.  

The first meet of the year was livestreamed which was neat for the grandparents to watch.  It ended up being an overcast day, so I stayed home and watched it from the office.  During tax season, I didn't have the bandwidth to commit the entire morning and then get rained out.   I knew this course from last year and know his general times so it was easy enough for me to spot him and then "follow" him throughout the 2 miles on each split.  Trying to be a helper, I told the grandparents he wore orange shoes, because almost all the schools have some version of a navy blue uniform shirt.    Turns out I had not gotten a good look at those shoes cluttering the floor.  They did have some orange patterning, but were also blue.  Oops!  Once I spotted him, I took a photo and texted it out to help them find him.  

The second meet was at our home course, which is a three minute drive or 15 minute walk from the house, so even better!  We could drop him off and come back later.  That's the only bad part about 8th grade versus 7th grade....you still have to get there before the meet starts but you run last.

By our home meet, the new jerseys were in!  The kids (and parents) ended up loving them.  Tank tops so they were cooler and the light blue was so easy to spot across a field!  Finally; I could find my kid!

The last meet of the season is run at Lewis University.  We were pretty sure that was the end of William's XC career.  He liked it fine but certainly didn't love it enough for the mileage and discipline of the high school team.   He got one last good run in and then we went home and all got showered and changed and headed to the airport for our overnight flight to Paris for fall break.   It was good to have been out in the fresh air and running around a little before our long coop up.

Labor Day Visitors

We got to host another pool party for Labor Day when the Koudeles came up for their first visit since we moved to this house.  It wasn't quite as warm over the weekend as most people would enjoy, but Unicorn Princesses will swim in any weather, so it was just fine!   Thankfully we had a glitter unicorn float at the ready.   It helped that we received it from the Koudeles for a housewarming gift last year and astutely waited to debut it until they arrived!

Since we had an extra driver, of course we requested drop off service from Aiden on the evening that the adults went out!  We walked home but didn't want to waste our energy or get wind blown hair on our way there!  We joked he was going to take John's A4 for a joy ride on the 5 minute drive back home. Or at least cruise through the nearby college campus to meet some ladies.  According to his phone, he went straight home..... We tried a new-to-us place for drinks that was good, if not a little weird.   We're old enough and particular enough that we can make better drinks at home for the most part.  So we didn't stay out too long!

Plus Saturday morning was William's cross country meet.  Thankfully it was a home meet a mere 5 minutes from the house!   It was a beautiful morning and the first time they debuted their new team jerseys.  They were so much easier to spot on the course in these new light blue tanks.   Every other school also had the royal blue t-shirts like their old uniform which made it a challenge to spot your kid across a field!

Alberto and Tyler, above, and William, below

That afternoon we got prettied up with manis and pedis (including some sparkles for Addie) and then did a family dinner out.   Since we new traffic and parking would be a mess, we called for the Tuk Tuks to come pick us up!   They only do rides around the core downtown area but our house is close enough that we're in the zone.   It was so much fun zooming down our street.   Especially on the ride home when we had a parents v kids race.   Parents won!  (I hope Keith and John tipped our driver extra for that victory!)

Had to get a final picture of the losers....I mean, the kids, after we got home.    Somehow Addie managed to hold onto her ice cream safely the entire ride home!   Aiden (16), William (13.5), Addie (9).