Adventures in Paris, Paris, France

My money clip stolen, a sprained ankle, and Petey going to doggie heaven all in a month…that was enough for a spur of a moment trip to France! I joined some friends for drinks during the floods in Colorado when I found out one was visiting France and Spain in just six days.

So that’s where my journey began. Six days before takeoff, Theresa didn’t have a plan or any reservations…only her plane ticket, and aside from picking hotels four days before we boarded the plane, that’s the way our trip remained. We took recommendations from friends and obviously focused on the tourist highlights and began our adventure to France…our first stop Paris!

To get a ticket on Theresa’s plane connecting through Chicago was going to costs $5,000, so I flew with a longer flight time but for SUBSTANTIALLY less money, and we met up at Charles De Gaulle. I was to land 30 minutes after Theresa, but after her delays I cooled my heals by the bathroom outside customs waiting on her. That was our only plan so far.

I was very fortunate to sit next to a woman on the plane who was very familiar with Paris. I learned that “gare” means train which was about the third word added to my French vocabulary (I studied Spanish in school). I also learned I should buy a 3 day metro pass. These two tidbits of information were quite helpful as we were able to take the RER (train) from the airport and transfer to the metro to arrive at our hotel for a fraction of the price of a taxi. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).