"Don't anger the dolls"-A France and DLP Trip, June '18-COMPLETED (4/22-ride comparisons)

Wow! I might have to save your tips in my someday Europe trip document!

I wish I'd gotten travel wifi thing when my friend and I went. Imagine us cold, starving, at like 9:30pm in the dark, huddled outside a bar, trying to pick up their wifi to make sure we took the right street back to the hotel from the Metro after a day at DLP :laughing: We had a really great cast member on ToT there, so I can't wait to hear about yours!
 
So excited for this TR! Joining along!

I'm sorry that some of your family gave you a hard time about planning! I am the planner in my family for most trips and thankfully my family has just come to trust me and is pretty good about telling me what their musts are and I can work them into the plan. I firmly believe a trip runs best if one person is organizing everything!

I agree with your thoughts about DLP guests. My family encountered a very scary situation in the line for Phantom Manor. Two families started full on brawling with each other with no cast members or security in sight. Kids were punched and had bloody noses and were crying, it was awful. The only reason it stopped was because my Dad being a former police officer for 30+ years jumped into action and was able to get the instigator to stop. (The instigator btw was a very large man using his size to bully smaller men but my Dad was bigger and that seemed to shock him enough to stop and thankfully understood English to know that my Dad wasn't trying to further the fight!). Thankfully nothing else happened but it was very scary and I couldnt help but think this wouldnt happen in the US parks! And the response would have been much faster! (I think we did score some bonus points for Americans though so that was good I guess :confused3).
 
I'm so excited to hear all about the details and everything!!! I've been trying to catch up on all the TRs and PTRs I fell behind on during our vacation and then catching back up at work, etc. So don't start updating too fast!! :) LOL
Haha, well at least the Disney part will take a while!

Joining in! Excited to read along :)

Joining in, sounds like a fun trip!
Welcome!

Wow! I might have to save your tips in my someday Europe trip document!

I wish I'd gotten travel wifi thing when my friend and I went. Imagine us cold, starving, at like 9:30pm in the dark, huddled outside a bar, trying to pick up their wifi to make sure we took the right street back to the hotel from the Metro after a day at DLP :laughing: We had a really great cast member on ToT there, so I can't wait to hear about yours!
OMG, it really was a lifesaver! And I just didn't feel that unconnected from the internet panic you can get sometimes! Like, if I wanted to answer a question about something, I could just search it, not have to remember til we got back to the apartment!

So excited for this TR! Joining along!

I'm sorry that some of your family gave you a hard time about planning! I am the planner in my family for most trips and thankfully my family has just come to trust me and is pretty good about telling me what their musts are and I can work them into the plan. I firmly believe a trip runs best if one person is organizing everything!

I agree with your thoughts about DLP guests. My family encountered a very scary situation in the line for Phantom Manor. Two families started full on brawling with each other with no cast members or security in sight. Kids were punched and had bloody noses and were crying, it was awful. The only reason it stopped was because my Dad being a former police officer for 30+ years jumped into action and was able to get the instigator to stop. (The instigator btw was a very large man using his size to bully smaller men but my Dad was bigger and that seemed to shock him enough to stop and thankfully understood English to know that my Dad wasn't trying to further the fight!). Thankfully nothing else happened but it was very scary and I couldnt help but think this wouldnt happen in the US parks! And the response would have been much faster! (I think we did score some bonus points for Americans though so that was good I guess :confused3).
Wow, that is scary! I don't think I saw anything like that between guests. Just mainly guests being extra rude. I did yell at a couple, but they always knew they were in the wrong, so didn't argue back!
 
Days 0-1, May 26-27: Travel and Arrival in Paris

I’m counting this as 1 day, since I really didn’t go to sleep from Saturday morning to Sunday evening!

The night before, we made sure to pack up everything and tried to get to sleep early... yeah, right! Of course, the boys were still trying to pack up until the last minute, and up all night doing whatever they do... Even Saturday morning, Joey ran off to get his hair cut - ok. Mom and I told everyone our flight left 1 hr earlier than it really did (we had a similar problem when we flew to London in 2015), yet we still left later than we would have liked. :sad2:

Our flights went as follows, and we were flying British Airways both ways:

LAX - London Heathrow : 3:30pm PST - 10:10am London time (i.e. 2:30am) = 11 hr flight
5 hr layover
London - Paris Charles de Gaulle: 3:10pm London time - 5:30pm Paris time = 1hr 20 min flight.
Each of these flights was actually a separate reservation, which saved us $1,000 per person! It also gave more convenience for Lauren, Joey, and Anthony, since they weren't flying from Paris - London.
Anyways, we finally loaded up everything in the car and said goodbye to our critters - we have 4 cats, 1 dog, and a chameleon! For once, we weren't worried about them, since one of my brother's best friends was willing to be our housesitter for the 2 weeks my parents would be gone. We've known him for 20 yrs, and he's also a vet technician, so knows how to care for animals; he also is at our house 3-4 nights a week anyways, so it just made sense! He really did a spectacular job, so we've already told him we're planning all future vacations around his schedule! :thumbsup2

We arrived at the airport around 12:30pm (thankfully there wasn't much traffic on the roads to LAX, so we weren't delayed; when we went to London it took us 2 hrs to drive to the airport, so we barely got thru security before they were starting to board our flight)! We dropped the car off at an off-site parking facility (much much cheaper than official LAX parking) and took the shuttle over to the terminal! You can see the excitement oozing out of us all!
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I think Lauren is thinking (and she actually probably said this out loud): "Oh no, she's going to write another Trip Report..." :cool:

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While we had checked-in online (well, I had checked us in (minus Lauren and Joey, since Lauren was in charge of their reservations) online), Mom, Dad and I still had to drop off our bags; Lauren, Joey and Anthony were all doing carry-on only. It was a good thing we all stopped though, because Lauren had gotten mobile boarding passes for them, but those wouldn't have worked at the gate for some reason, so they were able to print off new boarding cards for everyone. We also had the added complication of the two separate reservations, so unfortunately the checked luggage could not be checked all the way to Paris; instead we were going to need to re-check-in at London (I was worried about that, which is why we had such a long layover).

After that was all taken care of, we recognized how hungry we all were! Everyone else decided to go thru security first and then get food, but I knew I wanted something that was before security, a place most Disney people will recognize:

Earl of Sandwich! :cheer2:

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Yum! I picked up 2 sandwiches, one for now and one for later. Then, I headed to security, but rather than going up the main escalators, I followed the tips in this post about a "secret" security checkpoint (https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/05/05/best-kept-secret-lax/). Basically, it's designed for the people who have connecting flights, but can be used by anyone. So, if you are ever flying through Tom Bradley International Terminal, go to the Southeast corner of the departure level (between the cars and the airline desks). Rather than having a couple hundred people in the security line, I had 10... :bitelip:

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It was a bit longer than normal (there was some issue holding up the people at the front of the line), but, still I got to skip this area (excuse blurry picture):
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I made it through everything and came out the other side, to find my family still in the main security line (I had told them about the shortcut, but no one listens to me, so they just went into the normal area)! Despite stopping for food and having to walk further, it was still faster than them...

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Anyways, we all found a table in the food court area to grab lunch (I think everyone ended up with some form of sandwich or burger). I ate my first Sandwich - Holiday Turkey (minus the aioli and cranberry sauce...because I'm picky like that). I saved the Caprese for on the plane.
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We eventually made our way over to the gate to wait for boarding, which was pretty painless. And I lucked out - the plane was not full at all, so I ended up with no one in the middle seat!
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I was originally supposed to be sitting in the same row as Mom and Dad (so it went Window - me-Mom-Dad - aisle - Lauren-Joey; behind Dad is Anthony). When I was checking us in, I noticed lots of empty seats, including fully empty rows! So I moved myself to one of those empty rows, with fingers crossed I'd get a full row. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but at least I ended up just with someone in the aisle. I was hoping my original seat would remain empty for Mom and Dad to spread out, but unfortunately someone took the last seat, so Mom got stuck next to a stranger :confused3 (though at least it was just a young woman, so not too bad). Also, turns out I probably wouldn't have been able to take advantage of a fully empty row anyways; the way British Airways seats were had armrests, which only went up to a 45 degree angle, not fully 90 degrees (this was the seat back design which curved over and prevented the armrest from moving further up). So, I wouldn't have been able to lie across the whole seating row! It also made it extremely difficult to get in and out of the seating rows, since you couldn't lift up the armrest and slide out! Oh well...

Oh, and another thing about my seat - I got the back row of the section. Sometimes that isn't too good because the wall is up against the seat and you can't recline. But this aircraft had a large gap (there was some sort of storage box behind the middle and aisle seats), which actually gave me room to store my carry-on behind me during the flight. This meant I didn't need to take up space at my feet, or disturb my rowmate to get it from above. :thumbsup2

One thing BA does do well, is the entertainment. Plenty of movies, and I ended up watching Cars 3 (for the first time, finally), Ratatouille and Aristocats (to get in the French mood), Marshall (again for the first time, and it was excellent), plus about 2.5 episodes of Young Sheldon. [I don't sleep on planes.] It also became active immediately, so I started watching movies when everyone else was still boarding.
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Before long, we were off!
 


(Cont...)

Nothing really interesting on the flight. I attempted to sleep, but it's just too hard for me when I can't control my environment, so I just decided not to bother.

We had 2 meals. I think the first was some sort of chicken/pasta dish. Not disgusting, but not good by any means! The breakfast was pretty bad, some sort of cheese and sausage breakfast burrito, but the cheese was that horrible plastic kind that I just don't like at all. So, I was very thankful for my yummy sandwich, as well as other snacks I had brought on board! :)

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Overall, service was adequate. Nothing great; not like when we flew Air New Zealand to London, which was wonderful.

Eventually, we landed in Heathrow on-time. As I mentioned above, our flights from LAX-LHR and LHR-CDG were on separate reservations. For Lauren, Joey, and Anthony (who only had carry-on luggage), that was no problem. They got to go thru the in-transit border security area, which was pretty fast, as well as into an expedited security lane, and made it back into the terminal easy-peasy. However, Mom, Dad, and I were going to need to go thru the normal immigration line, collect our bags, re-check-in, normal security line, and finally get back to terminal. If it was just me, that would also be pretty easy, because I can adapt to things quickly, especially with travel hiccups. But Mom and Dad don't quite adapt as well, and due to annoying circumstances (nothing exciting, just boring delay stuff), we got stuck at the end of a long immigration line, which was even longer due to a shift change happening. Besides the timing, we didn't have any real issues with the rest of the process, but it ended up taking us 1.5 hrs from landing to getting back thru security and into the terminal. :headache:

We were then in the purgatory of Heathrow, Terminal 5

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You see, rather than having the crowds spread among lots of different gates, the terminal has one general holding area. You are stuck there until your gate is announced (shortly before boarding). So, this area is crowded, and noisy, and messy, and just altogether ugh! :crazy2: It also does not have enough air circulation, and those windows make a pretty severe greenhouse effect. They have some restaurants and shops around the outside of the holding area, but it really feels like a cattle pen. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

By the time we made it through, Lauren, Joey and Anthony had finished eating breakfast at the English Pub. I was definitely hungry for food, but Mom wasn't exactly feeling like a full meal, and Dad was being noncommital. I may have thrown a bit of a tantrum :oops: (what - I was hungry, and tired, and exasperated, and realizing I always travel alone for a reason)... but anyways, I knew I needed to get away and get some food, so we split up and I told them I would find them downstairs in a bit (I think they ended up getting pastries or sandwiches from one of the casual places).

I headed to Wagamama, which is an Asian food chain. Luckily I was seated almost immediately and actually had a decent view of the holding area.

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I ended up ordering the Chicken Ramen [grilled chicken on top of noodles in a rich chicken broth with dashi and miso, topped with pea shoots, menma and spring onions], as well as the Pork Belly + Panko Apple Hirata Steamed Buns [two small fluffy asian buns served with coriander and mayonnaise] - it's also supposed to have sriracha, but I asked for no sauces.

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The ramen was meh - probably not a good choice, and I've had much better from other places. I did really like the buns though, and the panko crusted apples really worked well! If you liked the sauces, it'd probably be even better.

After eating I wandered around a bit - checked out the Harry Potter Shop (didn't buy anything though), as well as the Harrods location, and considered getting some Kinder Eggs to be a rebel (they are banned in the US due to choking hazards). I think I did pick up some water and English candy bar (Flakes are my favorite); something interesting - at Heathrow, you need to have your boarding pass to buy anything! My mom found that out the hard way!

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Somehow, I was easily able to find my family on the floor, and they had gotten some seats off to the side. I tried to nap on one of the bench seats (no armrest in between two seats), but it was weird since I could feel people staring at me, so that didn't last long. :worried:

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It took a while for them to list our specific gate, with "please wait" remaining on the board for a good 5 minutes, which was stressing out my parents... eventually it popped up and was in the A terminal, so right near the main holding area. For anyone flying thru there, I think most of the smaller (domestic or intra-Europe) aircraft board in Terminal A - the main terminal. If you are flying a larger international plane, you're going to eventually need to take the tram to Terminal B or C.

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Another uneventful flight with just a short hop over the English Channel. It did become clear enough to see both England and France at one time (marked in red)!

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Immigration was also pretty fast and easy in Paris. While everyone else was waiting for the luggage to come out, I went to pick up my mobile wifi (we had landed at Terminal 2C and I had to get the unit from the tourist desk in Terminal 2E since it was the only desk open that late). It was definitely weird walking over there, as it was thru random tunnels and across a parking lot/rental car facility, but I followed all the signs and marked paths and found my way. I also bought everyone our Museum Passes, and picked up a bunch of brochures for other places to look into.

By the time I made it back to Terminal 2C, my dad had called Super Shuttle for our pickup (I had recommended Ezy Shuttle, which other Dissers had used, but he went with Super Shuttle instead, but we didn't have any complaints). So...it had been a long travel day so far, and I think it showed!

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(Cont...)

Our drive from the airport to Airbnb definitely demonstrated how CRAZY Paris drivers are! Holy Cow! Nope, never driving in Paris EVER!

Because I had wifi, I was curious and looked up the route to get from CDG-the Airbnb and realized where were were going, so I told everyone to look up and pay attention. Around the corner and...

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We ended up driving straight down the Champs-Elysee! It was definitely a weird feeling; I mean you don't really think of it as a real street for driving from place to place, but it obviously is! I guess the same could be said when I lived in the DC area and would drive down Pennsylvania Ave or across the National Mall.


We also realized some sort of ceremony was happening in front of the Arc de Triomphe, but I was never able to find out what it was!

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Drove down the street, passing some high-end shops (plus other places, like a 3-story 5 Guys).

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And eventually got our first sight of the Eiffel Tower!

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It was a very warm and humid day, so lots of people were lounging outside (it was also a Sunday early-evening)

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And we made it to our Airbnb, where we were greeted by our great host with some Champagne, bread, cheese, and cookies. We were staying on Rue du Bac, pretty much a block away from the Rodin Museum, which was an excellent location as you can see on the map below. It was also very safe, as the Prime Minister of France lived on the property next door, so they actually had armed guards 24/7 at the street corners - it made my mom worried until she realized why!

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Our apartment was a great size for us, with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a large living room. It was only on the 2nd floor, but there was an elevator.

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Anthony got the bunkbed room...

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While I got the twin bed room (which I called once I saw the Lego)

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Our view, nothing special, but still nice. In the morning Anthony would like to sit on a ledge with the window open and watch the world go by!
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And most importantly, it had Luna!
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When we got the Airbnb, one of the photos had the cat in a photo and the description said not to worry that the cat wouldn't be there when it was rented. We offered to the host that she could stay as long as she was nice and we had food/litter/water, since we had 4 of our own. He went ahead and took us up on it (I guess less stressful for her than being boarded for a week), but did tell us to call if there was ever any issues. But she was pretty adorable and so sweet! I was jealous though, because she spent more time in Lauren and Joey's room!

Anyways, back to the trip...

After we got our bags inside, we knew it was getting late and, while we were exhausted, we also needed to eat! That was a bit harder than we thought, being a Sunday evening, but we did find a place a few blocks away that was open, Le Rousseau.

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I ended up ordering the "Camembert roti au miel et romarin" (Roasted Camembert cheese with honey and rosemary) for a starter. Lauren got one too, and we totally misjudged the size (I think the waiter didn't understand our question). So we totally could have shared! But it was very good, with some toast that we could spread the melted cheese on, and we did shared with everyone else. I think some of the others got Onion Soup (it isn't French Onion Soup in France), which they said was delicious. (I didn't take many photos of other people's food, as I knew it would start to annoy them even quicker). They also ordered a bottle of wine, but I don't like wine, :duck: so I skipped!

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For my main, I got "Cotes d'agneau aux herbes, haricots verts" (Lamb ribs with herbs, french green beans), which were good, but there was a lot of fat on the ribs, so it didn't feel like a whole lot of meet to me. The boys also got this; mom got the Boeuf Bourguignon, which I tried and was good too. I think Lauren got Steak-frites, which she liked.

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We were all too full and tired for dessert, so we went back to the apartment, tried to unpack a bit, and collapsed asleep (I think I did take a shower first, because I felt gross and didn't want to fight for it in the morning).


Coming up: Day 2 - In which mom gets worried about terrorists kidnapping me and Anthony, and Dad almost gets pick-pocketed...
 
We were then in the purgatory of Heathrow, Terminal 5

Ugh, I remember that terminal. My dad and stepmother arrived on a separate flight a few hours after me and they didn't have a cell phone so it was by pure chance that I found them before our gate was announced. I suppose it is set up this way for security reasons but I hate it.

And most importantly, it had Luna!

Awww, what a sweetie.

"Camembert roti au miel et romarin"

Yum!!!!
 


I am also very familiar with Heathrow, ugh. I love London, the airport not so much. It isn’t to bad when your final destination is London.

Your Airbnb looks very nice and spacious for Paris. Space is a premium in Paris.
 
That terminal in London sounds nuts! Why would you want everyone congregating there en masse? And how strange that you need a boarding pass to buy anything at the shops.
I've eaten at Wagamama before. It was all right, a little overpriced for what it was...

Driving in Paris just seems stressful. I give you guys kudos for doing it. And after two flights. Yikes.

I was cracking up that the AirBnB host took you up on your offer and let you keep an eye on the cat. That's not something you see everyday.
 
You see, rather than having the crowds spread among lots of different gates, the terminal has one general holding area. You are stuck there until your gate is announced (shortly before boarding). So, this area is crowded, and noisy, and messy, and just altogether ugh! :crazy2: It also does not have enough air circulation, and those windows make a pretty severe greenhouse effect.
On my one and only trip to London, we had the very same experience in this area of Heathrow!! That was back in 2000. It's surprising things are still exactly the same, but I guess it must work for them!

and considered getting some Kinder Eggs to be a rebel (they are banned in the US due to choking hazards).
Jimmy LOVES those things!! Though he has had the ones that are Kinder Joy or something like that...not sure if there's a difference. There's a fancy schmancy candy store that sells them at the outlet mall by our house.
 
Ugh, I remember that terminal. My dad and stepmother arrived on a separate flight a few hours after me and they didn't have a cell phone so it was by pure chance that I found them before our gate was announced. I suppose it is set up this way for security reasons but I hate it.
Yeah, and I guess so they can just consolidate all the amenities in one area. I just really hate it though, and it gets nasty when people drop food or sauce on chairs and no one comes around to clean it up! On the way back I only had a few hours layover, but Mom and Dad had almost 10 hours (their original flight from Paris-London was cancelled and they had to take a much earlier one)!

Awww, what a sweetie.
She really was! She let me hold her and just liked to sleep on the couch. And so easy to take care of - the owner just left her a big container of dry food and had some kind of litter that absorbed everything, so we weren't even told to scoop it!

I am also very familiar with Heathrow, ugh. I love London, the airport not so much. It isn’t to bad when your final destination is London.

Your Airbnb looks very nice and spacious for Paris. Space is a premium in Paris.
It was very nice and large! It was difficult to find a 4-bedroom in Paris, but I think we ended up with a great one!

What time was it? Because there is a ceremony every single evening (and yes, they stop the traffic on the round a bout for it....)
That must have been it! We asked our driver and the Airbnb owner, but neither of them knew what it was!

That terminal in London sounds nuts! Why would you want everyone congregating there en masse? And how strange that you need a boarding pass to buy anything at the shops.
I've eaten at Wagamama before. It was all right, a little overpriced for what it was...

Driving in Paris just seems stressful. I give you guys kudos for doing it. And after two flights. Yikes.

I was cracking up that the AirBnB host took you up on your offer and let you keep an eye on the cat. That's not something you see everyday.
Oh we did not drive in Paris! No way, no how! We hired a van to drive us from airport-apartment and the reverse.

I don't think we expected them to actually take us up on the offer, but it worked out great. She was definitely the lowest maintenance cat I've ever met! When we checked-out, the owner and his teenage daughter came over with their dog, who was cute about needing to explore everything again as well as greet the cat!

On my one and only trip to London, we had the very same experience in this area of Heathrow!! That was back in 2000. It's surprising things are still exactly the same, but I guess it must work for them!


Jimmy LOVES those things!! Though he has had the ones that are Kinder Joy or something like that...not sure if there's a difference. There's a fancy schmancy candy store that sells them at the outlet mall by our house.
I've gone thru 2 terminals at Heathrow and they were both laid out that way! I don't think anyone really likes it though, as it feels stressful and too chaotic!

They have Kinder egg in other countries which are a full chocolate egg and the inside is coated in a hard white chocolate (so it sort of looks like an egg-white). The toy itself is just sitting in the center of the chocolate egg. I guess there were issues some years back about kids just biting into the egg and not knowing about the toy and choking on it. So, now they have the Kinder Joy, which has the sealed toy on one side, and candy on the other side! When that first happened though, we didn't know about the ban and were driving from Canada back to the US. The agent asked if I had anything to declare and I said, oh just some chocolate. He immediately got all serious and asked if any were Kinder Eggs (thankfully not) - we thought he was joking until he explained they were banned and would have been confiscated!
 
Anyways, we finally loaded up everything in the car and said goodbye to our critters - we have 4 cats, 1 dog, and a chameleon! For once, we weren't worried about them, since one of my brother's best friends was willing to be our housesitter for the 2 weeks my parents would be gone. We've known him for 20 yrs, and he's also a vet technician, so knows how to care for animals; he also is at our house 3-4 nights a week anyways, so it just made sense! He really did a spectacular job, so we've already told him we're planning all future vacations around his schedule! :thumbsup2

Ooh, you lucked out! We have four dogs and leaving them is the worst part of vacation for me. My inlaws usually come stay with them, and I always come home to weird stuff. We got back from San Francisco late Wednesday and found a dining chair randomly in our living room, a decorative shelf over the bathtub ripped off the wall (HOW???), and my wedding dress bag (which hasn't been touched in at least four years) all pulled forward and out in my closet. Yesterday I started discovering dish towels randomly folded in different rooms of the house...Hey, does your brother's friend want to fly halfway across the country to stay with my dogs next time?? :rotfl:


Your sister's face! This would also be my expression before boarding such a long flight!!

Lauren, Joey and Anthony were all doing carry-on only

:faint:

I want to do carry on only so badly, but I will never be able to manage it. I can't imagine two weeks in Europe with only a carry on.

And I lucked out - the plane was not full at all, so I ended up with no one in the middle seat!

I say I'd go for no seat mates over first class every time!! My favorite flight was on a small regional flight from Dallas to home b/c there was no one next to me.

One thing BA does do well, is the entertainment. Plenty of movies

One reason I'm nervous to fly to Europe or Hawaii is the long flights. Movies help...One leg of our SF trip was a little over three hours (from MN to SFO, and SFO back to MN) so I liked catching up on movies too (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing MO, Happy Death Day, Chappaquidick, Lady Bird, and half of Annabelle:Creation (which I finished at home this morning) - I feel like I can recommend all of them!)

And most importantly, it had Luna!
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Sold on Airbnb!

If I can get pets included, I give up all previous reservations I had about booking it, LOL!!

I like hotels, so I'm hesitant about Airbnb, but it sounds like you had good experiences all around. We briefly considered it for SF, but without knowing neighborhoods well at the time, I didn't want to risk it. I feel like we could do Airbnb confidently in SF now, though. Plus now I know some owners might be willing to leave an animal there!

I loved looking through your pics of this trip on social media, so I'm excited to see the rest of your report!
 
Sounds like a super long travel day!

Your Airbnb looks nice!

Glad you could enjoy your first meal together in France!
 
Ooh, you lucked out! We have four dogs and leaving them is the worst part of vacation for me. My inlaws usually come stay with them, and I always come home to weird stuff. We got back from San Francisco late Wednesday and found a dining chair randomly in our living room, a decorative shelf over the bathtub ripped off the wall (HOW???), and my wedding dress bag (which hasn't been touched in at least four years) all pulled forward and out in my closet. Yesterday I started discovering dish towels randomly folded in different rooms of the house...Hey, does your brother's friend want to fly halfway across the country to stay with my dogs next time?? :rotfl:
He was pretty great! Made sure to sleep in all the different rooms to keep all the pets comfortable (though I guess my little girl cat has decided whenever she wants to snuggle with one of my brother's friends, she asks permission by tapping them on the face!). Then washed all the sheets and remade the beds. He also used our cars (partially to move from different sides of the street due to street cleaning, but also because he didn't have a car right then), and then got them all washed and vacuumed out afterwards. He also got excited when we advised him we have every premium channel (I got them for free from cable company when I threatened to cancel), so was already trying to figure out what he'd watch first!

I want to do carry on only so badly, but I will never be able to manage it. I can't imagine two weeks in Europe with only a carry on.
At least we had laundry at every Airbnb, so we could wash clothes. But yeah, I was pretty surprised with my sister for doing the carry-on route! Anthony did a carry-on and he stayed in Europe for 1.5 months, but that's just the hippie way he lives!

One reason I'm nervous to fly to Europe or Hawaii is the long flights. Movies help...One leg of our SF trip was a little over three hours (from MN to SFO, and SFO back to MN) so I liked catching up on movies too (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing MO, Happy Death Day, Chappaquidick, Lady Bird, and half of Annabelle:Creation (which I finished at home this morning) - I feel like I can recommend all of them!)
Once they started adding in-flight entertainment on-demand, it made flying so much less painful!

Sold on Airbnb!

If I can get pets included, I give up all previous reservations I had about booking it, LOL!!

I like hotels, so I'm hesitant about Airbnb, but it sounds like you had good experiences all around. We briefly considered it for SF, but without knowing neighborhoods well at the time, I didn't want to risk it. I feel like we could do Airbnb confidently in SF now, though. Plus now I know some owners might be willing to leave an animal there!
I don't think we've had any bad experiences with Airbnb yet. The one in Paris was interesting because it was absolutely someone's home (I guess they also have a country house or flat that they stay in during summers when the Paris apartment is rented). The others were more dedicated rental apartments on the property, but that meant the owners were around and could answer questions. The place in Amboise actually also had a friendly cat who we could pat and chill with in the garden. None in Normandy though!

Sounds like a super long travel day!

Your Airbnb looks nice!

Glad you could enjoy your first meal together in France!
It was long! Makes me wish I still lived on East Coast to cut down on flight length, but at least we are closer to Asia and stuff!
 
Joining in, loved the previous trip report "Hippos", so looking forward to seeing how Paris compares to Florida :)
 
Love the apartment, especially with all the books! The view is nice, too.
Yeah, my mom liked that too and it stood out when we looked up Airbnbs. I didn't read any of them, but they were on all sorts of subjects, plus lots of travel, so she glanced at a few.

Joining in, loved the previous trip report "Hippos", so looking forward to seeing how Paris compares to Florida :)
:welcome:
 
Day 2, Part 1: A Modern Brother-Sister Morning

First, I thought it'd be helpful to try and put a map for each day, since I know a lot of people won't be totally familiar with Paris.

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I woke up at a decent hour, I think around 8am. Surprisingly, I didn't have issues with time change/jet lag at the beginning of this trip. I think because I basically stayed awake the whole day/flight before and went to sleep at a normal Paris time. Anyways, either I was the first one awake, or Mom also woke up, but whatever happened, I headed out to a patisserie down the street to get some breakfast for everyone.

For anyone who didn't read my PTR, we were staying on Rue du Bac, which is known as the street in Paris with the most high-end patisseries (https://www.usatoday.com/story/trav.../06/13/paris-street-devoted-sweets/102775672/)! So,basically, my version of heaven! We even had a patisserie (Angelina's) downstairs!

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But I did my research beforehand and I knew there was only one place open before 9:30/10am: Secco Patisserie-Boulangerie. I ended up picking up half a dozen croissants and a brioche, all of which were delicious!

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Croissant Count: 1, Crepe Count: 0

Anthony was also up by the time I got back to the apartment, but Lauren, Joey and Dad were all fast asleep. Around 10am, I finally got frustrated, so decided - I am not going to spend all morning stuck in an apartment when I could be exploring Paris! Anthony decided to come with me, but Mom hung back and we agreed to meet at Notre Dame, but keep in contact via text (my wifi plan and Anthony's phone plan).

Anthony and I hopped on a metro, and headed towards Centre Pompidou. Our first metro experience was pretty uneventful, and it wasn't too busy, since we missed the morning rush. I used Google Maps which helped us know which metro station to go to (there were about 4 within a few block radius of our Airbnb, all of which service different metro lines - Paris has 16!), and which stop to get off at.

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When we got off the metro I again was using Google Maps and realized we were right next to another place I had researched, but not planned to stop by. So, I decided to surprise Anthony and we walked a couple doors down to check out a store: ETS Aurouze.

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Sorry if the glare blocks what we could see, but here's the view from the inside
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Remind anyone of anything?
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Yeah, I'm a weirdo! Anyways...it was still fun and Anthony is weird too, so he laughed about it! It's actually a real shop which specializes in pest extermination (they have lots of other taxidermy animals/bugs in the windows). And it's been around since the 18th century!

But, onto our actual goal for the morning: Centre Pompidou.

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While the Centre Pompidou is actually home to a huge public library, modern art museum, and centre for music and acoustic research, all I really cared about was the building itself. It was originally designed in 1971 and is truly revolutionary, with its basic skeleton exposed and huge tubed escalators up the outside of the building make it super recognizable. Everything is also color coded, with green pipes for plumbing, blue ducts for climate control, yellow conduits for electrical, and red for safety and circulation elements. I think nearly every engineering textbook I've ever used has had a photo of this building in it!

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It's free to go into the main lobby (and I assume the library), but the modern art museum on the upper levels was included in our Museum Pass, so Anthony and I headed up the escalators. (Having the Museum Pass also allowed us to skip the longer security line which had formed for people without tickets.)

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Getting up to the top of the escalators is actually really cool and you have a great view of Paris! There is a restaurant up there, and it looks fancy.

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We also decided to do a quick visit to the Modern Art Museum (well...I thought it'd be quick, but I guess Anthony really likes Modern art... so it took longer than expected).

So, I don't really get Modern & Contemporary Art. So, bear with me if you are actually a huge fan, because I am not trying to make fun of any of it, it just seems strange to me!

First, some typical paintings, all good there.
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Raoul Dufy "Le paddock a Deauville" & Georges Braque "L'Estaque"

Then... it got weird
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Pablo Picasso "La Pisseuse"

This one was somewhat interesting because you could get close and see the pencil marks...
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Vassily Kandinsky "Entassement regle"

And a classic
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Andy Warhol "Ten Lizes"

One artist I actually do really like is Chuck Close, as we did a unit on him in high school art class, and I actually did really well, getting an honorable mention in the annual art show for my painting.
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Ok, now I'm just throwing up my hands... it's Blue...like just blue...
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Yves Klein "IKB 3, Monochrome bleu"

And he even had this version where he had naked models roll and drag each other around to use their bodies as brushes...
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And IMHO this is a floor, not art piece
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Carl Andre "144 Tin Square"

And this one just looks like the back of a crayola box
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Gerhard Richter "1024 Farben (350-3"

So, yeah, a bit weird and not quite my style, but to each their own! I'd say if you like Modern Art, definitely check out Pompidou. And if you like Architecture, it is also pretty awesome. The view is great, and it's open late at night (until 10pm in summer), so it's also a good place to get a great skyline view. If you have the Museum Pass, I'd recommend stopping by just for the view alone!
 
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Day 2, cont... Notre Dame

It was after noon and we still hadn't heard that the rest of the family had left, which was getting rather frustrating! We ended up just deciding to walk down to Notre Dame and grab lunch along the way. I would have preferred just grabbing a sandwich, but Anthony wanted a beer, so we ended up getting a table at "Aux Tours de Notre Dame", which is basically across the street from Notre Dame (As in I was almost standing against Notre Dame when I took this photo). Oh and a funny anecdote, we came up to ND along the street from the north. I was using my maps to confirm how far along we'd need to go (not that you can miss ND, but whatever), and we came to a dead-end with a tall stone wall in front of us and a large open square to the side. I was very confused and just like, where is Notre Dame? Anthony is like - um, look up...yeah, that stone wall was the side of one of the towers!

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Anyways, for lunch, neither of us felt like anything too heavy because it actually was a rather hot and humid day already. I got the Caprese Salad and Anthony got I think some sort of Nordic salad with smoked salmon and eggs. We also shared an order of fries. And I ended up getting a chocolate crepe dessert when he got another beer, because we still hadn't heard from the family.
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Finally, Anthony got a call on his cell phone from Dad, asking where we were since they were at Notre Dame. We said we grabbed lunch, so we would pay the bill and head over to the area in front of the cathedral (they gave a statue they were sitting by).

We finally met up with Mom and Dad who were sitting outside, and immediately, they start snapping at us... so it turns out they had been at Notre Dame for about 2 hrs already and were not in a good mood!


So... lets rewind...

I don't know what time everyone else left the apartment, but I guess they all got up shortly after Anthony and I left. Based on time-stamped photos they had gotten to Notre Dame around 11:30ish.

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There was one incident where my dad was almost pick-pocketed by a bunch of people who suddenly surrounded him trying to get him to sign a petition. Mom and Lauren knew to just keep walking and say no forcefully, but Dad can be too gullible and stopped. Luckily a French businessman knew what was happening and rushed over to get the pick-pocketers to leave him alone! (Thankfully that ended up being the only real incident with attempted theft on our trip.)

I guess Dad attempted to contact Anthony and I, but no texts were going through. So, they decided to walk around Notre Dame, and continue to try to get a hold of us.

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We must have finally reconnected around 1:30 when he realized the phone would work even if the texting didn't. Mom also wasn't feeling good - the heat was getting to her, plus I guess she just doesn't like Notre Dame - too dark and depressing for her, so she went in briefly before coming back out. As she was sitting there she just kept hearing and seeing convoys of armed cars driving around and soldiers with assault rifles, so she was also worried about me and Anthony. And being a mom, she was thinking the worst that something really bad had happened and we were caught up in it...

So, when we showed up, she was exhausted and worried and just unhappy, so snapped at us. Anthony and I were pretty annoyed at that, but we decided to quickly go in and check out the cathedral (at least I've visited before and Anthony doesn't care so much about the historical stuff).

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After making our way around, Joey and Anthony expressed interest in going up to the top of the tower, and I thought, hey, why not. Well...it was fully booked that day, so that was no longer an option. (Note: you can book a tower ticket ahead of time, which I'd recommend if you really want to do it. One snag is that the tower climb is included in the Museum Pass, but you CANNOT book ahead of time. So if you don't want to pay extra, you need to get there early that day and hope there are still slots available. No admission is necessary for the overall cathedral).

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We ended up walking around the outside to check out all the flying buttresses!

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And of course on our walk, Lauren ends up running into someone from college...
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We also found an area where they had a bunch of bells on the side of the cathedral. I looked it up later and I guess the original bells were deemed unsatisfactory and were going to be melted down and recast into new ones, but there was a legal challenge, so the original bells have remained off to the side, while new bells were delivered in 2013.
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Overall, Notre Dame is definitely an iconic place to visit in Paris, though you don't need to dedicate a whole bunch of time (unless you end up climbing the tower).
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There is also an Archaeological Crypt of Notre Dame underneath the square in front of Notre Dame, but unfortunately we didn't visit it because it's closed on Mondays.


Coming up - more sightseeing.
 

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