I'm home (briefly)!
I have to leave for a conference in about an hour, but I wanted to post an update about our trip to France! this might be more for me that anything so I remember what we did, but figured there might be someone interested.
We took an overnight flight (non-stop) to Paris a week ago Friday. Terminal 1 at CDG is a bit odd, let me tell you. At any rate, we were somehow in Economy Plus, so we had a bit more legroom, which was kinda nice, but not something I'd pay extra for (taller folks might have a different perspective).
We stayed at a fun hotel a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, near where Shaun's conference was. Mostly wandered around Saturday, and ran into the gay pride parade. On Sunday, Shaun's co-workers arrived, and we wandered with them a bit. Monday they all went off to the conference and I went to l'Orangerie and saw Monet's giant waterlily paintings (probably 5 ft tall and 20-ish feet long). Tuesday I hit the d'Orsay for a few hours; got the audio tour here, which was nice to give the back story of some of the stuff. We all visited Sacre Coeur in the evening. Wednesday I went shopping, and in the latter part of the day, we all went to the Louvre, and got to see some stuff I hadn't seen in a past visit. That museum is insane in July - last time I was there, it was April.
Thursday Shaun had a meeting in the morning, and when he was done we took the train to Caen in Normandy. We rented a car there and drove to a little town called Bayeux. It's the first town that was liberated after the D-Day invasion, and one of the few in the area that wasn't destroyed by the air attacks. We saw the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really neat. It's from about 1070 and tells the story comic-strip style of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and it's 70 meters long! After that, we went out to Arromanches, where the British built a harbor (called a mulberry harbor) after D-Day so they could bring in all the machinery, vehicles, etc. It was low tide, so it was really neat to be able to see a lot of what is left of the harbor. Friday (4th of July) we went to the Normandy battle museum and then visited Point du Hoc, a strategic D-Day attack point between Utah and Omaha beaches where the Rangers scaled the cliffs. There are huge bomb craters and quite a few ruins of German gun emplacements still here. Then we drove up Omaha beach and stopped at the American cemetery before heading back to return the car.
We left Saturday morning, and, let me say, I could live without ever flying into, out of, or through Charles de Gaulle airport again. The hotel shuttle driver did not tell us what airlines were at any of the places he stopped, and when we asked, he said he wasn't allowed to go to the terminal where Lufthansa is, but he'd get us close if we tipped him. He also told us there wasn't an airport shuttle that could take us there. I knew that was bullshit, so we got off and asked the airport information people how to get there (there is a little train, of course, that goes to the other terminals). He should have just told us what stop to get off at that was closest to that train. I was quite annoyed that there was no mention by the hotel or the shuttle driver that the shuttle didn't go to our terminal or how to get there. I much preferred the Frankfurt airport, where we had a layover. Got to have German beer (I had a Radler!) and frankfurters with German potato salad (my favorite!) while watching the planes take off. Again in economy plus on the way home, and now have jet lag. Much easier coming this way, but I still feel like I don't know what time of day it is or when to eat! I should be all better by the time the conference is over Thursday, then I have Friday off!
We took an overnight flight (non-stop) to Paris a week ago Friday. Terminal 1 at CDG is a bit odd, let me tell you. At any rate, we were somehow in Economy Plus, so we had a bit more legroom, which was kinda nice, but not something I'd pay extra for (taller folks might have a different perspective).
We stayed at a fun hotel a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, near where Shaun's conference was. Mostly wandered around Saturday, and ran into the gay pride parade. On Sunday, Shaun's co-workers arrived, and we wandered with them a bit. Monday they all went off to the conference and I went to l'Orangerie and saw Monet's giant waterlily paintings (probably 5 ft tall and 20-ish feet long). Tuesday I hit the d'Orsay for a few hours; got the audio tour here, which was nice to give the back story of some of the stuff. We all visited Sacre Coeur in the evening. Wednesday I went shopping, and in the latter part of the day, we all went to the Louvre, and got to see some stuff I hadn't seen in a past visit. That museum is insane in July - last time I was there, it was April.
Thursday Shaun had a meeting in the morning, and when he was done we took the train to Caen in Normandy. We rented a car there and drove to a little town called Bayeux. It's the first town that was liberated after the D-Day invasion, and one of the few in the area that wasn't destroyed by the air attacks. We saw the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really neat. It's from about 1070 and tells the story comic-strip style of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and it's 70 meters long! After that, we went out to Arromanches, where the British built a harbor (called a mulberry harbor) after D-Day so they could bring in all the machinery, vehicles, etc. It was low tide, so it was really neat to be able to see a lot of what is left of the harbor. Friday (4th of July) we went to the Normandy battle museum and then visited Point du Hoc, a strategic D-Day attack point between Utah and Omaha beaches where the Rangers scaled the cliffs. There are huge bomb craters and quite a few ruins of German gun emplacements still here. Then we drove up Omaha beach and stopped at the American cemetery before heading back to return the car.
We left Saturday morning, and, let me say, I could live without ever flying into, out of, or through Charles de Gaulle airport again. The hotel shuttle driver did not tell us what airlines were at any of the places he stopped, and when we asked, he said he wasn't allowed to go to the terminal where Lufthansa is, but he'd get us close if we tipped him. He also told us there wasn't an airport shuttle that could take us there. I knew that was bullshit, so we got off and asked the airport information people how to get there (there is a little train, of course, that goes to the other terminals). He should have just told us what stop to get off at that was closest to that train. I was quite annoyed that there was no mention by the hotel or the shuttle driver that the shuttle didn't go to our terminal or how to get there. I much preferred the Frankfurt airport, where we had a layover. Got to have German beer (I had a Radler!) and frankfurters with German potato salad (my favorite!) while watching the planes take off. Again in economy plus on the way home, and now have jet lag. Much easier coming this way, but I still feel like I don't know what time of day it is or when to eat! I should be all better by the time the conference is over Thursday, then I have Friday off!