On January 17, Karen’s niece Marie sent us an email about a cruise she had just booked for some clients. She works at Expedia Cruises in Barrie. The cruise was an 11 day Mediterranean Cruise on the Norwegian Epic. We did this type of cruise in the past for my 50th birthday. What was exciting about this one was that it was overnighting in three ports … Barcelona, Rome and Florence. This was would give us more time to explore these cities.By January 19, Karen, Nana, myself and Darlene (friend from work) booked it. In the end, the following is everyone that will be joining us:
Marie
Brodie (Marie’s son)
Dave and Cathy (Karen’s nephew and his wife)
Michael & Liam (Dave and Cathy’s sons)
Teresa & Jon (Karen’s niece and her husband)
Paul & Jen (Karen’s brother and sister-in-law)
Terri & Dan (Karen’s nephew Dan’s in-laws)
Pam & Ken (friends of Jen)
Chris & Donna (friends of Pam & Ken)
Donna (friend of Marie)
Leslie (Marie’s co-worker)
I ended up having to work for a couple of hours before signing off for two weeks of vacation. The rest of the morning was spent just relaxing and making sure we had everything. Darlene and her daughter Taylor arrived at around 11:30am. We had a quick bite to eat before loading up the car. I was shocked that the drive to Toronto Pearson Airport took just an hour. I would have thought it would have been much worse for a Friday afternoon.
I dropped Darlene and Nana off at Terminal 1 with all of the suitcases. I then headed over to Karen’s brother Ross and his wife Susie’s house. Because they live about ten minutes away from the airport, they were kind enough to let us leave our cars there. They are also going to be looking after Maui while we are gone. We had a really nice visit with them along with their grand daughter Rosie. Once Dave arrived, we had some birthday cake in honour of his and Susie’s birthdays which happen to be today. Besides the parking and dog sitting, Ross dropped the three of us off at the airport.
We got inside of the terminal and found Nana, Darlene, Cathy, Michael and Liam. We proceeded to the Air Canada kiosks and printed our luggage tags and boarding passes. After dropping our suitcases off, we went through the American Express Priority Security Lane. This is a perk I get with my American Express Aeroplan Reserve card. Some of us got through security faster than others. Why can they not be consistent in terms of what needs to be taken out or not taken out of your bag.
My American Express card also gives me two passes for the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. When we went to check in, I was told that the two passes I have because of my Aeroplan status were not valid in the International Lounge. Oh well, $134 later we were inside along with the hoards of other people. Never have I been in the lounge when it was this busy. After spending an hour enjoying the food and drinks, it was time to make our way to the gate.
Almost all of our travel companions were at the gate and very excited about our trip to Paris, France. Our Air Canada flight ($985 CAD / person including taxes, fees and one checked bag) was supposed to leave at 5:45pm. We finally left at 6:45pm. The reason for the delay, people abusing the carry on limits. Because the flight was full, I could not get comfortable enough to get any sleep. So I spent the time listening to podcasts, culling through wedding photos that I took last weekend and watching some TV.
We landed at 7:20am and proceeded to taxi to the gate for another twenty minutes. Finally around 8:30am, we were able to leave the plane. We made our way to passport control and were lucky enough to not go through an automated kiosk but instead actually speak with an agent who put a Paris, France stamp in our passports. Just as we were picking up our suitcases, our driver from BT-Transfer messaged to let us know he was waiting for us. The cost was 15 Euros / person and we had Karen, Darlene, Nana, Terri, Dan and myself for the thirty minute ride from Charles De Gaulle Airport to the Novotel Paris Centre Bercy (427.62 Euros including taxes and fees).
Because it was only 10:00am, we were not able to get into our rooms. However they were able to store our suitcases. We walked over to Bercy Village to have some breakfast even though they fed us on the plane. The village has many little shops and restaurants to explore.
We got back to the hotel so that we could meet TukTuk In Paris for our 12:30pm tour. The tuk-tuk gang included #1 – Karen, Darlene, Nana, myself, #2 – Teresa, Jon, Marie, #3 – Dave, Cathy, Michael, Liam, Brodie and #4 – Paul, Jen, Terri, Dan. The next two hours was spent zipping around Paris. I can not remember all of the places we went to but we did see the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and Louvre Pyramid. Paris Fashion Week was happening and we did see many many people dressed up in some wild outfits. The tour gave us a good sense of the city and places we want to go back and explore in more detail tomorrow. By the time we got back to the hotel, our rooms were ready.
Karen, Darlene and I headed across the street for some very good Thai food at Star Wok. We went back to the hotel and picked up Nana and decided to walk over to the Gare de Lyon train station. On Monday we are taking a high speed train to Marseille and so we wanted to see exactly where it is and how long it would take us to walk there. It was only about a fifteen minute walk to the station and now we feel prepared for Monday. Gare de Lyon Train Station is the home of Le Train Bleu which is an iconic restaurant. I have never seen a fancier restaurant than this.
We ended our very long day doing research for tomorrow’s adventures.
11444 steps, 8.29 kms
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