Bonjour Paris!

Well this came together fast. Realizing it was already August and no real vacation yet this year spurred us into action.

First plan was London, with day trips to Bath, Cambridge, Canterbury, and Kew. Flights were open, so got that itinerary all squared away before realizing what the U.K. COVID requirements are: negative pre-departure test, negative Day 2 test (that’s two days after you arrive, and then another negative test to return. If the Day 2 and return test turn up positive, it’s into the klink with you and you’re quarantined for 10 days. We’re vaccinated but, as you know, you can still have a positive test. So we X’d that plan and replaced it with Paris and the Loire Valley.

So we quickly cancelled everything in England and rebooked everything in Paris and the Loire Valley! Excellent dry run for future trips! Unfortunately Paris flights were not nearly as open as London, so we planned to fly to Brussels and take the two hour train ride. No big deal, really. The train from Crystal Lake to the Loop can be two hours…

Turns out the travel gods were with us as the ORD-Paris equipment upgauged to a 787-10 on our departure day which expanded the number of available seats enough that we flew directly to Paris. Yay!

Safe flying today means being vaccinated and wearing a mask!

The flight over on United could not have been better – the 787-10 was comfortable and quiet, the crew was fantastic (shout out to Cherilynn!), and most of all we arrived safely.

After a looooong trek into central Paris (the Roissybus did not, in fact, show up ever), we arrived at our hotel, the Maison Astor Paris which is a Hilton Curio Collection property. We had booked a small room here since this was our first night and you tend to just sleep right through it anyway.

Oh but the view we had!

Believe it ir not we had errands to run, and one of those is super important to all European travelers. I’ll share that in the next post!