Burkarskis do Europe 2023 - First Night in Paris
Overview
| Rating |
🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐 |
|---|---|
| Year Traveled |
2023 |
| Length of Trip |
2 Weeks |
| Locations Visited |
Brussels, BE and Paris, FR |
When we wake up in Brussels Michael pulls his typical vacation coffee hunter trick and steps out of the hotel while I’m getting ready. He returns with coffees and pastries. Flakey, buttery, cinnamon-y. Lovely. But I’m supposed to be avoiding fats and this this is 50% butter.
We head to the train station but take a route to the street car that avoids those big stone steps. But we end up on a “narrow door” street car. Instead of being close to ground level with a pair of doors that open wide, it has two pairs of doors that open narrow and have a couple steps up. I am slow to lift my luggage through the hole sideways. There was also a woman with a baby stroller that had difficultly embarking so I wasn’t the slowest.
Buying our train ticket from Netherland to Brussels was easy and we wer able to do via the ticket machines but for our ride to Paris we went to the ticket office. These trains have reserved seats and we wanted to be sure we were seated together. The train ticket purchase works well and soon we’re on the rails to France!
After yesterday’s schlep up the stone stairs, Michael makes the call to hail a cab to our hotel instead of navigating the local metro system of Paris. As I am one constant tummy ache, I agree. We go to the taxi lane but the first cab we flag down stops for us… then restarts and moves further down the aisle. He picks up a woman with a cigarette. Maybe if I had a cigarette I wouldn’t look like a tourist. The second cab stops for us asks for the address. I have the hotel reservation email up on my phone and I am prepared to read the address aloud in French. But the number eight is written as a digit and I automatically say, “eight” instead of “huit.” Will I ever learn?
We arrive at our hotel, Hotel Verneuil in the sixth arrondissement, too early to check into our room. But we are able to drop our bags and do the paperwork.
Let’s take a moment to talk about our hotel reservation. When I took the travel job I hated last fall, I needed to pay my own expenses upfront with whatever payment method I choose and then get reimbursed by the company. The company would pay up to $75 in annual credit card fees (or more like $275 for an airline club credit card, but I received bad advice). So I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred card with $95 fee. THEN when I took the job in New Hampshire and I needed temporary housing for one month, again with reimbursement, I wanted to put that on a credit card in order to maximize the money in checking for down payment and closing costs on the house. But the weird beach motel didn’t take credit card payments directly; I would have to use PayPal. I didn’t want to add credit card fees to the transaction, but hoped the housing reimbursement would cover it. So, I attached that card to my paypal account and made one (1) transaction. Months later, I log into that card account when we’re booking plane tickets to see how many points I have. Instead of one or two thousand points, I have seventy thousand (70,000) points. What happened? There had been a special promotion to get sixty thousand (60,000) if you add the card to PayPal and perform one (1) transaction. I racked up enough points to cover several hundred dollars of travel money by accident!
So when we booked our hotels in France and Brussels, we used the credit card’s booking features and paid with the points. All three nights in Paris, our Eiffel Tower tickets (with tour guide), and most of our Brussels hotel were all covered by the points. In total, we paid for $943.25 worth of travel with just those points. From a credit card with a $95 fee that my old job paid for $75 of. (And my new job did pay those PayPal credit card fees)!
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We haven’t had lunch yet but our timing is awkward. It’s around 2:00 PM and many restaurants are closed between lunch and dinner service. Not to mention it’s a Tuesday so not a popular day. But I find a traditional brasserie a few blocks away and we head there for our first al fresco meal on a sidewalk in Paris. Michael points out a cocktail on the menu called, “Soupe de Champagne.” Yes that is the drink for me. He orders a Hemmingway. I’m trying to eat “light” so I go for a salad that has prosciutto, sausage, blue cheese, and an egg. Maybe not so low in fats. But I said no to the croque madames and monsueirs. Later in the meal Michael switches to a blanche draft beer and it’s really refreshing. I am now interested in blonde and blanches and set to avoid European IPAs.
Our hotel room was ready so we stopped in for a brief siesta and shower. A little box of chocolates was left for us. We also had a free mini bar that contained one (1) bottle of Evian, one (1) bottle of Heineken, and one (1) can of Coca-Cola sans sucre. And the TV had “Malcom in the Middle” dubbed in French.
Our hotel is on the Left Bank. Did I mention my first date with Michael was at a restaurant in Buffalo called Left Bank? We also drank Belgian beers at the Blue Monk. Full circle.
Michael managed to lose his toothbrush somewhere along the trip so we visited a pharmacie. I had to ask for an antacid in French and did poorly. I even had a photo of a roll of tums up on my phone. I really wanted that little roll of tums you can get from bodegas and gas stations. Instead I got French Malox. It was lemon flavored and the active ingredient was magnesium instead of calcium. Oh well. Michael was going to get a regular toothbrush but then he found one where the bristles were the color of the French flag and couldn’t say no.
On our evening adventure to find dinner, we stop at a Canadian Expat bar. I was thinking I would get a Canadian beer but the only actual Canadian beer they carried was Moosehead Lager. I get a local beer from Paname brewery. Whatever Michael ordered was on a tap that only poured foam so he never got it. He got an alternate after a long wait.
We were going to try to get sushi from a tiny restaurant where you can sit at the counter but they were too busy. We saw lots of good restaurants and bars but my tummy was still not doing so hot. We pick a little brewery that was kind of an odd choice in a neighborhood with so many good options. They weren’t sure if they were French or British or German? Michael gets a flammekueche which is a French/German pizza made of onion and bacon. Again, trying to eat light, I get a piece of salmon with a salad. The menu said they had green beans but they were out. My salad is overly dressed in “salad cream” which is just thin mayo so that’s not helping. The beers weren’t bad as long as I stuck to blonde and blanche. I wasn’t a fan of the Amber and my snakebite beer cocktail was too sweet.
The night is still young and we’re not ready for bed so we go for a walk. We cross the Seine and wander Jardin du Carrousel. Many young people are having picnics out on the lawn. I spot a rat run by in the dark. Usually when we see a rat we call him Templeton. But we’re in Paris. So this must be Remy. A second runs by soon after. Emile.
We return to the hotel to go to bed and drink our one Heineken poured into two glasses. La Tour Eiffel in the morning.