Back from France, Part 1

Posted on | July 16, 2008 | 3 Comments

We’re back from our trip to France. It was lovely and busy, and I did well health-wise, I am happy to say! I’m sitting on the couch right now, having just finished my treatment an hour or so ago, so I’m going to give myself a break and tell you that the trip recap will be in several different entries. I have tons of photos, but I haven’t had any time to upload them and describe them.

So, without further ado, here is the first installment of our travel journal!

At the last minute I decided not to take the walker because the Metro in Paris is not very accessible, the car we were renting was going to be small, and I had a gut feeling that it would be more of a pain than a help. I’m glad I listened to that gut. I brought my quad cane instead, and that was perfect. The sidewalks were slim, there were not a lot of elevators around, and those that were around still required some stairs to get into the building or up to our room in Paris. The quad cane was perfect.

We flew business class on Air France. That was the smartest thing we did. Business class made our trip much more pleasant. We got to eat well, sleep pretty well, and arrived refreshed. They took great care of my need to be near a bathroom because of my balance and the flight was very smooth. I actually did not get very motion sick on the plane, which was a miracle in itself.

To "prove" that we were in France, we took a self-portrait near the Arc d'Triomphe

Unfortunately, the same was not to be said for our first hotel. We had reservations at a Kyriad in the Latin Quarter, which the conference had recommended. It was close to the location of the meeting and we figured we could save a bit of money by staying there. That changed upon our arrival. We walked in and it was gross. The carpet was filthy, the room smelled of smoke, and the elevator was not working. We put our bags in the room and immediately decided to find an Internet connection and find another hotel. We did. We found a room with a kitchenette near at Pavillion Monceau Palais des Congres, which is near the Villers Metro and, though it was on the other side of Paris, it was well worth it. Poor Dave was in charge of bag-schlepping, since my balance was off from all the travel. We were much happier with the new hotel. We had only made two-nights’ reservation and figured we’d decide from there what to do. We ended up staying the full week.

The Arc d'Triomphe, Paris, France

It rains in Paris in July – almost every day. We did not know this. And when we set out the next day for a walk to the Arc de Triomphe, we looked at the skies and thought we had not a care in the world. By the time we had found our way to the Eiffel Tower, however, the heavens had opened up and we were soaked! We purchased very silly rain ponchos – bright red with simple drawings of the Eiffel Tower and “Paris” written all over them. We looked goofy and completely like tourists! But we were dry… And I am planning to turn those into something else, like totes for shopping or something else. I’ll keep you posted!

And now I must end this first installment, as the fatigue from my treatment has started to set in. I look forward to providing you with more pictures and more of our travelogue as the days go on!

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