Today, we got up at around 5:30am so we could get to the airport on time. EasyJet recommends being there TWO HOURS ahead of time, even at an itty-bitty airport like Ciampino. Rather than taking any chances with train or bus, we just paid 40 euro and hired a car to drive us (the driver showed up at 6:30am in an E-class Mercedes).
The flight from Ciampino was uneventful, except for the unfamiliar budget-airline procedures (take a bus to the plane, load simultaneously through front and back doors, no assigned seats).
In Paris, we arrived at Orly airport, a small airport on the south side of the city. Here, we got a little lost — in the parking garage! — before finding our rental car, a turbo-diesel Ford Focus with a 5-speed transmission [ 1 ].
We had intended to buy a map while in Rome, but then forgot. This caused a few problems, since all we had were printed directions to Versailles. We got pretty lost. We actually got trapped in the same traffic circle three times — in a traffic jam like back in Rome — and eventually drove around the city of Paris for an hour before extricating ourselves and getting onto the right highway. (Julie was ready to scream at this point. Ken was happy to be driving.)
In Versailles, we had no problem finding our hotel (which used to be a stables for the palace) [ 1, 2, 3 ], but we only stopped there briefly before grabbing a late lunch from a pastry shop and heading to the palace itself [ 1, 2 ].
Unfortunately, since we had lost (ha!) so much time in the car, we didn't have as much time as we wanted at the palace. However, we got to see most of what we wanted, including the whole indoor tour [ 1, 2, 3 ], and a good part of the gardens [ 1, 2, 3 ]. While in the gardens, we saw swans (who refused to pose) and some people practicing for a concert — one of them playing an odd instrument that looked like a cello but sounded like a string bass, and had five strings [ 1, 2, 3 ]. (Julie did some research later and thinks the instrument was a Viola da Gamba.) We stayed late enough that we got kicked out the gardens at closing time.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves but got an odd reception (they told us to sit down, then ignored us and didn't even give us a menu). Eventually, feeling a little uncomfortable with France at this point, we left and found "comfort food" — Thai! — right by our hotel. We got seated at table "1.5" under the stairs, but the curry was great (and hot!), and we left happy.
We checked out of our hotel bright and early, grabbed breakfast at the same pastry shop from yesterday, then bought groceries before hitting the road.
We went about half-way to Bayeux on the "A" roads (like interstates) before getting off and taking "N" roads (like state highways) and "D" roads (like county roads) the rest of the way. It was fun to drive through the countryside, although navigating was challenging, since road signs generally indicate what you're heading toward, not what road you're on.
Around lunchtime, we stopped in Giverny, location of Monet's gardens (and source of inspiration for many of his paintings). First, we got lunch [ 1, 2 ]. Then, we headed into the gardens and spent an hour and a half looking around. Rick Steves promised great photo opportunities, and he wasn't kidding [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ].
After Giverny, we headed to Rouen. There, we saw the cathedral, which was partially bombed in WW-II [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. We also walked around the city, seeing their medieval clock, a Black Death cemetery and the site where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ].
After that, it was back in the car and off to Bayeux, where we checked into our hotel after dark [ 1, 2, 3 ]. Most restaurants in Bayeux are closed on Sunday and Monday, so we ate at one of the two nicer ones, which happened to be a few doors down from the hotel. Ken had an interesting herring appetizer and a French-style pepper steak (with cream sauce), and Julie had carmelized pork. The wine, dessert and espresso were all excellent as well, adding more credence to the "food is better in small towns" theory.
On Monday, we spent the whole day on and around the D-Day Normandy beaches. First, we went to Arromanches, which is where the Allies built "Port Churchill", a temporary port the size of Dover, in 12 days. They used everything from old ships (sunk in place) to custom-built floating dock sections hauled across from the English coast [ 1, 2, 3 ].
In Arromanches, we went to the D-Day museum, and then walked up the hill and paid for a "360-degree" movie about D-Day (which was, perhaps surprisingly, worth the money). The site of the movie was well above the beaches, and afforded some neat views [ 1, 2, 3 ].
After getting lunch in Arromanches (some mediocre crepes), we headed down the coast to see other things. Our first stop was the site of some German artillery bunkers put in place to guard the coast. This artillery shelled the Allied invasion on D-Day [ 1, 2, 3 ]. The bunkers were set well back from the shore and couldn't see anything. Instead, they used a forward sighting bunker [ 1, 2, 3 ]. The sighting bunker itself was also kind of neat, although Ken climbed up into it before thinking too far about how he'd get back down [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ].
Next, we headed to one of the U.S. military's WW-II cemeteries in Normandy, this one right above Omaha Beach [ 1, 2, 3 ]. Around 5000 servicemen are entombed here. The grounds were immaculate [ 1 ], and with the sky threatening to rain, it was kind of a somber experience. We also took the opportunity to walk from the cemetery to Omaha Beach. The hill doesn't look too large until you imagine people shooting at you while you climb it [ 1, 2, 3 ].
After leaving the cemetery, we headed to the Army Ranger memorial. This site has been preserved as it was after the battle, meaning that all of the bomb and shell craters were left in place [ 1, 2, 3 ]. If the cemetery was somber, this was sobering.
Back in town, we got dinner at the other open restaurant, and then — as usual — went for an after-dinner walk around the city.
We had about half a day left in Bayeux at this point, and we took the opportunity to see the Bayeux Tapestry and the Bayeux cathedral before getting on the road to Chartres.
The Tapestry museum was neat. The tapestry [ 1 ] is an 800-year old piece of fabric celebrating William the Conqueror (who was a Norman). The museum had a lot of information about the tapestry, but also about William and the time in which he lived [ 1 ].
The cathedral was the first example of Gothic architecture that we had seen, as evidenced by the flying buttresses [ 1, 2, 3 ]. At the cathedral, we got to listen to the organist and a clarinetist practicing a duet, presumably for a service. It made our visit memorable.
After leaving the cathedral, we bought some lunchmeat at a deli and some bread and other food at a grocery store, and we headed back to the hotel to get the car. We got on a road and stopped to eat lunch about an hour outside of town at a convenient gas station with a picnic area (we also tanked up the car).
We took "interstate" roads most of the way, but once we got off thoese, the roads reinforced to us that we were someplace unusual. Instead of interchanges where various roads meet (like in the U.S.), we drove through "chains" of traffic circles, sometimes four or five after another. It wasn't difficult, just strange.
Our arrival in Chartres was exciting — the cathedral is visible from miles away, standing high above the farmfields [ 1 ]. It was built this large to accomodate pilgrims. Once inside Chartres, we got pretty lost trying to find our hotel. Our map wasn't good, and the hotel was kind of hidden (and so was the incredibly cramped municipal parking garage they eventually directed us to). Our room was tiny but cheap [ 1, 2, 3 ].
It was late when we headed toward the cathedral, and we weren't sure how long we were going to be able to stay. We looked around outside first [ 1, 2, 3 ]. Then, by the time we went inside [ 1 ], it was pretty close to the beginning of mass. We ended up staying around and listening to mass and a little of an evening vespers after that. It was nice to sit for a while, and the church was dark and quiet.
After leaving, we walked around some [ 1, 2 ] and then eventually got dinner at a crepe shop (good crepes this time). Then, after dinner, we walked off our table wine before heading back to the hotel.
We had to return the car by 11:00am or so at Orly, so we got out of the hotel around 8:30am, picked up breakfast, and were on the road by 9:00am. The hour-long drive to Orly was easy, and this time we had no problems navigating — at least after getting out of the Chartres city center. Once at Orly, we caught an Air France coach bus to the center of Paris (lots easier than the train).
From the Air France drop-off point, we walked 15 minutes to our hotel [ 1 ]. When we got there, we found that they had lost our reservation. So, we took the expensive room they had, dropped our stuff off with the desk (the room wasn't ready yet), and headed for an internet cafe to print out their confirmation email to use later. Ugh.
Then, we grabbed lunch at a sandwich stand and spent a few hours walking around Paris. We first walked back to the Seine, and then headed down the river past the National Assembly, the Louvre on the way to Notre Dame on a Rick Steves walk [ 1, 2 ]. On the way, we wandered through some interesting neighborhoods, including one that was also pictured in our National Geographic when we got home [ 1 ].
Notre Dame was neat, especially as another example of Gothic architecture [ 1, 2, 3 ]. However, we didn't spend too much time there. Ken hadn't slept well the night before and wanted to get back to the hotel to solve the reservations problem (and take a nap).
After resting, we took advantage of the Louvre being open Wednesday nights until 9:45pm. We left the hotel around suppertime, grabbed some crepes to eat on the way, and walked back to the Louvre [ 1, 2 ]. You cannot possibly see the entire Louvre in one day. Instead, we followed a Rick Steves' tour to see some of the classical and renaissance areas of the museum, including the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa [ 1, 2 ]. This took a couple of hours. Then, we explored the Islamic art section, where we saw things like a written Code of Hammurabi and some five-legged sphinxes [ 1, 2, 3 ]. Then, we wandered through textiles and glasswear displays before getting kicked out at closing time [ 1, 2 ].
On the way back to the hotel [ 1, 2 ], we went to the same crepe place for dessert. Julie got a lemon/sugar crepe, and Ken got Nutella (yum!).
Our hotel room was fairly decent, although it was on a major street and was way too loud to keep the window open. Instead, we just ran the air conditioner [ 1 ]. At least we got a better night's sleep there than in Chartres (which was also loud but had no air conditioning).
We got out of the hotel fairly early to another grey day. We got breakfast at the same stand as lunch the previous day (right by the hotel) and then began another Rick Steves walk. First, we headed to the Eiffel tower, just a few minutes from the hotel [ 1, 2 ]. We didn't go up, deciding to leave that for an evening. Next, we walked over toward Champs Elysses and looked at the Arc du Triomphe [ 1, 2 ]. There is a traffic circle around the Arc du Troumphe where 12 roads converge [ 1, 2 ]. Apparently, this sounded like a good idea at the time, but it's kind of chaotic now (we read that car insurance companies split the costs of any accident here 50/50 without asking any questions).
We weren't able to go up the Arc du Triomphe because it was closed, so instead we continued down the Champs Elysses [ 1, 2, 3 ] on our way to the Concorde, where the guillotine was set up during the Revolution [ 1 ]. From there, we headed back to the Army Museum, watched some marching, and got lunch before touring Napoleon I's tomb [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. After that, we headed back to the hotel and caught another nap and rested a bit. (By this time in the vacation, we had no interest in running ourselves ragged.)
On Thursdays, the Orsay is open late like the Louvre on Wednesday. So, we headed over there around 6:00pm, got dinner in one of their cafes, and spent the rest of the night in the Museum [ 1, 2, 3 ]. After leaving, we got another dessert crepe on the way back to the hotel (Paris crepes were much better than Normandy crepes).
This was our last day in Paris. We decided to do the Rick Steves Marais neighborhood walk. This started a good distance from our hotel, so we took a 15-minute subway ride to the starting point. First, we looked at Place des Vosges and Hotel de Sully (where "hotel" means "mansion") [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. While continuing on the walk, we stopped at a bookstore, the Carnavalet museum, and then the Picasso museum [ 1, 2 ]. Both museums were worth our time, although we didn't go through the entire Carnavalet museum, because it was a bit of maze.
After leaving the Picasso museum, we got falafel [ 1 ] for lunch in the Jewish quarter (really good!) before continuing over toward the Pompidou modern art museum [ 1, 2 ]. Unfortunately, it was closed due to a strike. Since we couldn't go there, we took a break in a church near the museum. Then, we walked back toward the Louvre and sat in the park there for a while, just people watching [ 1, 2 ]. Then, we walked to the Rodin ("Thinking Man") museum and stayed until it closed [ 1 ]. Neither of us knew much about Rodin, and we were happy we got the chance to go. As usual, we were tired by 5:00pm, so we went back to the hotel to rest.
Julie wanted to get a nice dinner — rather than crepes or sandwiches — for our last night in Paris. Since we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at dusk, we decided to snack (cookies!) and then eat dinner after seeing the tower. So, we headed over to the tower around 6:00pm. Unfortunately, we forgot that it was Friday and there would be a line [ 1 ]. We ended up waiting for around an hour, which sounds worse than it was. The only problem it caused was that we got up the tower after dark, rather than just before dusk as we had planned.
We decided to buy tickets just for level 2, because Ken wasn't too interested in being up in the wind on the small level 3 platform. We took the elevator directly to level 2 and looked around for a while, even catching the tower during one of its top-of-the-hour strobe-light events [ 1, 2 ]. Then, we walked down to level 1 [ 1, 2, 3 ] and looked around the museums and things before walking down to the ground again.
By this time, it was 9:30pm, and we hadn't had dinner yet. We tried a number of places before finding someone that would seat us. (We were thinking that we might have crepes again — a lot of places seemed to close at 10:00pm). As it turned out, we had a fantastic last meal in Paris with a very friendly waitress/hostess, and it was a good way to end the trip.
We had heard that we should be to Charles de Gaulle airport at least three hours before our flight, so we knew that with a 1:20pm flight, we weren't going to do anything else today. We checked out of the hotel around 8:30am and grabbed breakfast at our usual place. Then, we hopped on a subway and took it to a transfer point, where we caught an inter-city train to the airport.
We were doing fairly well until the train we were on just stopped ("terminus!") at an arbitrary station (Paris North) and everyone had to get off. We had a few scary minutes (like the rest of the passengers) trying to find the next train to the aiport. However, once we found it, it turned out to be a "direct" (no stops) train, which was kind of nice.
We understand why they suggest 3 hours at this airport. Signage stunk, and we had no idea where to go. It took asking three different people to find the Delta check-in desk, and we already knew we were in the right terminal! Once we found it, things went pretty smoothly, mostly because we were savvy enough to check in at the electronic kiosk with no problems. Most of the other travelers had more issues than we did, though.
The flight to Atlanta was uneventful, as was our connection to Minneapolis. Our biggest adjustment was how cold it was when we got out of the airport to meet Aunt Maryellen and Uncle Randy (we went from summer in Italy to fall in France to winter at home).