Wow. I wish I could say I was happy to be home, but that%26#39;s definitely not the case. Paris was wonderful. Even better than I expected. We were there from June 24th to July 1st. Many thanks to those who provided such helpful information and tips.
My husband and I (we were on our honeymoon) flew out of NY - JFK via AirFrance. For this special occassion, we splurged and flew business class. Really, we were only able to do this because AF had a special sale of 60% off business class flights. In any event, this was my first time flying business class so I was excited. It was definitely better than coach. You get to check in at a special line, you get to board (and deplane) first. The service and food were very good. The seats were very comfortable and I actually managed to sleep for a few hours. We left JFK a little late, but made up the time and arrived at CDG when we were supposed to. However, we still had to go through the fiasco of getting bussed to the terminal. I pity the people who were in the back of the plane (and it was a HUGE double decker plane) because it must have taken them at least an hour to just get off the plane on to one of the little busses. We made it to the terminal and our luggage actually came out fairly quickly.
We went outside to a taxi stand (as people recommended) and had a very %26quot;exciting%26quot; ride into Paris. I was really amazed at the traffic and how people drive - particularly the motorcycles. They just weave in and out of traffic. Our driver had a couple of close calls with other drivers and at one point yelled out %26quot;connard!%26quot; It was hilarious. He was very fair and actually turned off the meter when he realized he had turned the wrong way down our street and had to circle the block. Our fare came to 52 Euros, but I liked him so I gave him 60.
We stayed at this apartment we rented through Paris Perfect -http://www.parisperfect.com/montrachet/text/paris-vacation-apartment.html. It%26#39;s in the 7th, on Rue St. Dominique. Again, it was a splurge, but it was our honeymoon and our first time in Paris so we thought it was worth it. The check in process was very easy. We called from the airport and a nice young woman named Sara met us at the apartment and let us in. I actually thought she was an American student because she spoke English so well, but she was French. She showed us around the apartment and let us know how everything worked. We also had a welcome basket with some milk, juice, wine, and crackers in it. It was a nice touch. Although the apartment did look like the pictures, it was definitely small. I wouldn%26#39;t want to try and fit more than 2 people in to it. Also, it was actually very noisy. Our balcony overlooked Avenue Rapp which is a very busy street, and we were also on the corner of an intersection where 4 or 5 streets all came together. If we shut the windows it was okay, but wow did it get noisy sometimes. However, the stunning view we had of the ET basically made up for any shortcomings.
After we got settled in we walked around our neighborhood to check things out. I was pleasantly surprised because there were lots of restaurants, several bakeries, a butcher shop, and all kinds of really nice stores all along our street. I had heard that there was not much going on in the 7th, so to see that there were places to eat and shop etc. was encouraging. We decided to grab lunch around the corner at a restaurant called Le Dome (not to be confused with the Marais restaurant). I ordered the croque messieur (sp?) and my husband ordered the Dome hamburger special. Boy did he get a surprise. The hamburger came out, and it had no bun. It was covered in tomato sauce with a piece of ham on it, topped with a fried egg - with an orange yolk! The look on his face was priceless. I wish I had taken a picture.
We decided to do some exploring so we bought a carnet of tickets from a tabac and caught the 69 bus which stopped across the street from our apartment. We didn%26#39;t have a particular destination in mind so we just got off at one of the bridges (the one with all the artists) and wandered around. We were near St. Chappelle and my husband decided he wanted to see it so we got in line. He didn%26#39;t realize it, but he was throwing a little bit of a wrench into our itinerary that I had put together. I planned on us getting 6 day museum passes, but wasn%26#39;t planning on using them until the next day (Sunday). That way we would be able to use them for the entire week until Friday, since we were leaving on Saturday morning. Oh well. So we bought the passes at St. Chappelle and went in. It was really spectacular. We had a bit of sun that day, but I can only imagine what it looks like in there on a truly sunny day. We wandered around a bit more and wound up catching the 69 bus back to our street. We decided to walk over to the Champ du Mars to check out the Eiffel Tower. Very impressive. We wandered around the base and were amazed by how many people that there were waiting in line to go up, and just milling around in general. We thought that there was something special going on since there were so many people. Nope. It was just the usual crowds.
We went back to our apartment to rest for a while and then got ready to go to dinner. I thought it might be fun to go down to Rue Cler and check out Cafe du Marche since I had heard a lot about it, both good and bad. Fortunately, we got there a bit on the early side - maybe just before 8:00, and were seated right away. After that it got very crowded and people were waiting for a table. I have to say, I was generally unimpressed. The menu was very sparse. Definitely not many options. I wound up choosing a goat cheese crepe over salad and my husband ordered fried duck with potato medallions. He said his food was very good. Mine wasn%26#39;t so great. The goat cheese crepe itself was good, but the salad was not good. Some of the lettuce was brown and wilted. Yuck. There were also a few sno peas that were overcooked and a bit mushy. The house wine was pretty good though, and it was relatively inexpensive.
After that we decided to take a walk along the river. It was a perfect night for it. I happened to look up and the Eiffel Tower was sparkling. It was perfect timing. We found our way back home and called it a night.
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congratulations on your wedding. what a wonderful way to start your new life together. :)
keep the reports coming, we love them.
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What a wonderful place for a honeymoon. I%26#39;m looking forward to more of your trip report.
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Even though I know that the word %26quot;hamburger%26quot; originated in Hamburg, as a child I always thought it should have something to do with %26quot;ham%26quot;, so I was amused to read the description of your husband%26#39;s burger. You never mentioned if he actually liked that concoction, though. My guess is that it was very tasty.
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