Part 11 - Last Day in Paris and Traveling Home

After a pretty big and tiring day of traveling around Paris yesterday, we decide to keep it pretty mellow on our last full day in Paris (9/18/15). The forecast was also calling for rain and thunderstorms. 

We started out our day by stopping into a local bakery (boulanger) called "Eric Kayser." We picked up a couple quiches, some croissants, a baguette and a raspberry dessert of some sort. 

Back at our apartment I reheated the quiche in a frying pan like I did earlier in the week and Deanna made a sandwich out of the baguette. I brewed us some espressos and we relaxed, enjoying the view of Paris from our window. 

Quiche

Deanna went back to reading her book more and I watched some French television and took a nap before we decided to go for another walk around the neighborhood. There was a break in the rain so it was a good time to head out for a bit. Deanna was looking for a place that served chicken pho, so we stopped at a few Vietnamese restaurants to check their menus but could not find one that had it.  We stopped into a little gift shop and looked around for a bit then headed home. 

After watching a movie we then headed back to our favorite place "Foyer Mon Vietnam" for some beef pho. This time we ordered the pork rolls, shrimp/crab rolls, 2 beef pho and I had the coconut panna cotta again. It was all just as amazing as before. This restaurant was packed this time which makes sense because it is very good. We wished this restaurant was in SF. 

After dinner we spent some time relaxing with some beers and wine and good music on our jambox. We kept the windows open for a while and listened to the night air and soaked in our final night in Paris. 

There were a couple of nights we looked out the window and saw all of the lights in this building putting on a weird light show or something. 

We did a little packing and went to bed.

Here is the AirBnb that we stayed at in Paris:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6274420

We definitely loved this little apartment. It was cute and the neighborhood was great as well. All transportation needs were close by. Everyone we met in that neighborhood was nice and easy to interact with. We recommend it if you are heading to Paris. 

We booked a flight back to London instead of the EuroStar rail because it was faster and cheaper. The only negative is that the cheapest flight leaves at 7:30am out of Paris. 

So Friday (09/29/15) morning we got up around 3:45am. We did a quick clean up around the apartment packed our remaining luggage. We called for a cab to pick us up at 4:30am to take us to Charles de Gaulle airport. We could have taken the train to the airport but the train does not run at that time. So we would have had to take a bus and transfer once or twice and it would have taken over an hour to get there. Our taxi took us there in about 35 minutes and cost around 53 Euros. Pretty typical for an airport trip in the US. 

We arrived at the airport and went into the terminal to find the British Airways terminal. We were in the right terminal, but could not find anything that indicated where the check in was for British Airways. We walked around for a while trying to figure it out but could not. We looked it up online and found that they were downstairs in a separate registration area. So we headed downstairs to the #9 check in desk and found a group of people waiting for British Airways to open their doors. As we waited a large number of people gathered to get in. They opened around 6am and we all went in. 

After being processed we went to the British Airways gate and hung out waiting to board. The British Airways terminal is very nice and swanky in Paris. We boarded shortly after and took off on our way back to London for our flight home. 

Manbun and Girlbun in front of us

During our flight we got breakfast in the form of a ham and cheese croissant and drinks. Pretty nice for just an hour long flight. We landed and made our way out of the terminal to get our backs to recheck back in to fly United. You'd think they could have some sort of better process for transferring from different airlines and not forcing you to go back through check in and security. 

We found a restaurant in the Heathrow terminal called the Perfectionists' Cafe where we sat down for some food. We both ordered breakfasts. I had the full English breakfast plate, an americano and a beer. Deanna had Eggs Benedict, champagne and a pot of tea. The breakfast wasn't that bad. I ate it all. 

Heathrow Airport

After breakfast we made the 15 minute trek to our United terminal at Heathrow. Luckily this long walk was full of moving floors to aid us in our adventure. Also at Heathrow they have FREE hand carts. We made good use of those. 

We hung out for an hour or so at our terminal before boarding our 9 hour flight back to Houston. Deanna was kind enough to let me ride by the window for this flight and she suffered next to some weird dude for the duration. 

We enjoyed many bottles of complimentary wine and a meal during our flight and watched a couple movies. We watched "Tomorrowland," "D-Train," "San Andreas," and Deanna watched "Bessie" while I watched "Avengers." Before we landing in Houston we were given a small turkey and cheese sandwich that wasn't bad. 

When we arrived in Houston we had to go through customs. The dumb thing they don't let you know about Houston is that they have automated Customs form machines. You do not have to fill out those stupid declaration cards they give you on the plane. We did of course but nobody ever took them. We did the machine and go in the huge lines and made our way out to our Luggage yet again. Then had to get re-scanned to get back to our connecting flight. What a terrible process this was. 

It was immediately evident that we were back in the US as we kept encountering rude TSA agents and unhelpful people at nearly every turn. The restaurants and service at the Houston United terminal were also very depressing. We wound up eating at some sad sports bar where I had chicken strips and fries and Deanna had what they were passing off as a Cobb salad. We quickly ate and drank our beers and left. 

Our flight began boarding and Deanna again was kind enough to let me ride in the window seat. The flight from Houston to SF was terrible. We could not get comfortable the entire time and they only offer drinks and snacks for purchase. How cheap is it of United to not even toss you some free peanuts anymore? The 4 hour flight was worse than the 9 hour one from London. 

We touched down in SF and got our stuff from baggage claim and headed over to the Park SFO shuttle. We parked offsite this time because I had a coupon for a free day of parking at the Parks SFO lot. It turned out to be a good and simple process. We ended up paying around $200 for 13 days of parking. Maybe not the cheapest option but it was convenient and easy. 

We got home about 23 hours after we left Paris. It was great to be home and reunited with our little Donkeycat Nima. She was happy to see us too. 

This was a really fun trip. We loved visiting London and Paris and think we did a good job of balancing out our tourist activities and our vacation relaxing activities. 

Thanks for reading everyone!

Deanna and Mack

Our full photo album is located here
(Many more photos and we'll be posting on facebook in one large album later): https://goo.gl/photos/rRMpDJXDXoF5QsS98

Part 7 - Lazy Day in Paris

Today (9/14/15) we took it easy. We needed a break from visiting things and walking 10 miles a day, which was the case a few times. So today we took things down a notch and just enjoyed doing much of nothing. 

We started out with breakfast at a little cafe on our block called Cafe Saint-Victor. Most cafes that we've seen have a large outdoor patio section that usually has sidewalk adjacent seating and a section closer to the building, sometimes behind a small curtain or glass wall. That is how Saint-Victor was setup. We sat in the inner most area of the patio on the deck. The waitress came out and with Deanna's minimal French knowledge and my google translate we managed to order 2 ham and cheese omelettes, 2 lattes (Cafe Creme), and 2 Orange Juices (Jus d'orange). 

When the juice came out it was fresh squeezed but they only filled our glasses half full. They provided a tiny pitcher of water with it so we could dilute our juice to our liking. I wonder what they would have thought if I would have wanted a full fresh squeezed juice? I didn't ask of course and just added a bit of water to my juice to make it a bit more mild. I like full strength juice though, for the record. 

Our omelettes came out pretty fast and they looked and smelled great. They were accompanied by a small green salad with onions, tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette. The omelettes were very good. The ham was tasty and the cheese melted perfectly. I think Deanna's was a bit runny on the egg side, but mine was just fine. They also accompany the breakfast with a basket sliced baguette bread with no butter. This is another trend of dining in France. Everything you order comes with a fresh basket of bread. (yum! from Deanna)

After our tasty breakfast we did take a small stroll around the neighborhood to see what we were working with. The streets are filled with cafes on about every corner. A lot of the same menu items repeat themselves from cafe to cafe. Not a bad thing really, but hard to find out which place to try. All of the shops were open and many people were out shopping and walking around.

Our Neighborhood

Our Neighborhood

Our Neighborhood

Pretty much every person we see on the street is smoking. The front of cafes are packed with people drinking and eating and smoking. Some of the cafes are so full of cigarette smoke that they are intense just to walk by and try to breathe. It takes some getting used to. When we were at breakfast we had many people smoking around us. The only real way to avoid it is to eat inside the restaurant. But even then some of it can drift in and usually does. 

We found a small bakery and picked up 2 quiches for later, a baguette and 2 butter croissants. Then we continued our neighborhood stroll. 

From Deanna--
Our interactions with the locals have all been very positive so far. I (Deanna) have been practicing my French lessons for the last few months, trying to prepare myself for our trip. I have to admit that not knowing the language has been kind of stressful for me. I have been nervous that they won't understand me and we will be called out as the stupid Americans. 

As we approach each restaurant or store, I start rehearsing in my mind all of the French words that I want to say when we arrive... but usually we walk in the person who greets us says something that I don't understand and then it immediately becomes apparent that we are not locals. I feel like a deer in headlights. Suddenly I can't recall one single word in French- Ahh! But luckily, everyone here speaks a little bit of English too. So it usually ends up that I will say a few words in French and the person will respond to me in English, lol. It feels a little silly, but it is also comforting to know that we are both trying and are able to communicate with each other in the end. 

So far no one has made us feel bad for not being fluent in French or for being American. In fact, the one person who did ask us where we were from started squealing when we said we were from San Francisco. haha, it was pretty funny- he was super excited about the Warriors.
End Deanna 1st Person--

The walk then took us up around the Pantheon area where they have some very large buildings, a church, a mausoleum and a square. 

Pantheon

Pantheon

Pantheon

The architecture in Paris is gorgeous. Everything is so cute it almost seems like a set in a movie. The pace in Paris is noticeably slower than that of London too. It also seems that most of the people in our neighborhood are French and are not transplants from abroad.   

Anyway, back to our day.... after shopping a bit and cruising around, we headed back to our place to lounge around the rest of the afternoon. 

Above our dining table. I hit my head on these spikes many times

View from our apartment

View from our apartment

Our apartment and most apartments in UK and Paris come with front loader washing machines. They are typically located in the kitchen. Ours is right under our sink to the left. We took some time to read online how to use it and wound up doing a load of underwear and socks. The thing took like an hour and a half or something to complete. The clothes came out with a bit of a soapy feeling left on them but are pretty dry compared to clothes in an American washer. We hung up our clothes in the bathroom where a drying rack hangs over the tub. Apparently there is a negative opinion of dryers here as they fry your clothes. 

The toilet in our apartment is in its own tiny closet. I kind of feel like I'm back in our trailer when I'm using it. Our bathtub is jetted, so at some point I think hot tubbing is in order. 

The weather was mostly clear, cool and windy. But a couple times during the day it went from sunny to hailing and looking like the world was going to end outside. lol, but the bad weather past very quickly. As the rain clouds moved away a giant double rainbow even appeared over the city. 

After laying around, reading, and finishing up those last two blogs we decided to go find dinner. We took a walk down a street we had not gone down yet and stopped at each cafe and restaurant to check out their menus. It's been a bit difficult to settle on food here. We don't want to just eat familiar things like pizza or pho, so we have been trying to find local-style restaurants to eat at. 

We settled on a place called Le ValmoZZola which was positioned on a very busy corner of 5 intersections. We found seats inside and began ordering in Frenglish.

I ordered the steak dish with fries and Bearnaise sauce. The fries were delicious and crispy.The steak was sort of a poor cut of a rib steak and not a rib eye, which I was hoping for. The cook on it was much better than the one I had in London, but the overall meat was tougher and had more stuff to gnaw on. It was pretty good overall though after adding salt and pepper. 

Deanna ordered a chicken and potatoes dish with a nice brown gravy. We also ordered another bottle of Chardonnay. A cool thing when you order a bottle of white wine is that they always bring you an ice bag to put your bottle in. It's very nice and keeps your wine good and cold.  Deanna liked her chicken and potato dish. We finished with a creme brulee for dessert. This creme brulee was better than the place we went to the first night in Paris. It had a more vanilla bean flavor and crispier top. 

After dinner we walked up to a Metro station to try to buy our Visite train passes for our trip the next day to the Palace of Versailles. The machine denied both of our cards for some reason so we decided to head home and get some rest before the big trip the next morning. 

Our full photo album is located here(Many more photos and we'll be posting on facebook in one large album later):https://goo.gl/photos/rRMpDJXDXoF5QsS98