Is it really over? Did I really just spend 8 days in Paris? How can it be!! 
As all vacations do, it went by in a flash and now it’s back to work, back to the grind, back to the mundane daily routine … BLEH! Post-vacation-disenchantment SUCKS! … But it’s not a complaint; the mundane daily routine is the reason why I was able to take a vacation in the first place! Ultimately, I am grateful.
Still, I figure I am entitled to a few days of pining over what was… no?
Flight
The flight over was fine – calm and uneventful. On the way back however it was quite turbulent (to me, because even ‘normal’ turbulence makes me nervous). I did have some white knuckle moments, but it was all in my head. My dislike (I hate calling it: fear) of flying is getting worse the older I get… what’s up with that??
I really should do myself a favour and stop watching Mayday!!
Weather
The weather was SO CRAPPY! It rained every day, with a little touch of blue skies now and again, but not many! It was cold and SO WINDY!! Had we to do it over again, we both said we would have brought our winter coats.
I wore a shirt, with a light jacket over that, a thicker sweater-jacket over that, and either my leather jacket or rain coat over THAT! UGH, I felt like an onion… or better: a sausage! I had trouble bending my arms!!
Look at the picture… now imagine how ‘cramped’ it was with the jacket zipped-up!
Hotel
The hotel was everything we expected. But I am not so sure I want to do Citadines again (this was the 8th time).
We like Citadines because we enjoy having breakfast in the room, but this time I found myself resenting the fact I was doing dishes on vacation!!! okay… 2 plates and a knife… but still, it felt like chore this time.
If you’d like to see pictures, I’ll refer you to a previous post with their highly-staged glamour-shots of the room, and my Hotel Album for candid views of the real thing.
The location was excellent, right across the street from a metro stop where 3 lines intersect. La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle.
I tried to capture that in this picture. I’m standing at the metro entrance, and as you can see, the hotel entrance is about 5 strides away!
Mega convenient!
Getting Sick and Going Solo
It’s usual for me to get mild sniffles on vacation, especially the first few days – but I stuff myself with vitamins and try to get as much sleep as I can so it passes quickly.
My husband on the other hand got REALLY sick and by day four I was on my own a lot. I think that (based on our symptoms) we caught a mild case of food poisoning and that just killed his already weakened immune system. He was down for the count, I was out the game for only 1 evening.
I was pretty upset about it at first, not because I was afraid or uncomfortable being on my own, that doesn’t bother me, but because the whole point of being on vacation with your husband in Paris is to be together!!!
But I still had a lot of fun in Paris on my own, I’m great company 
I ♥ Cafés!
One of my favourite things to do (not just on vacation, but at home too) is having a drink in a loungy place, either reading a book or just watching the world go by… and what better place to do it but in Paris!!
Café Culture is right up my alley! I love my husband, but this activity is best done alone.
Food
We found that by and large the menu items were pretty similar from one Brasserie to the next: basically red meat. Great if you’re a hard-core carnivore, but we aren’t, we’re not used to eating that much meat and pretty early on in the week we were saturated.
Not a serious problem for me since my favourite dish: Cheese Plates were also every menu!! I was in my own personal Dairy Heaven!! I did not hold back!!
Here are just 3 examples:
jealous?
Day Trips
Fontainebleau
We went to see the Châteaux, but neither on of us cared enough to visit the inside (seen one over-the-top gilded rococo interior, seem ‘em all) we just enjoyed a nice stroll around the grounds.
Rouen
I can’t remember anymore why we picked this destination! Probably because it was not too far and pretty simple to get to by train.
Lovely place, but not much to keep you busy for an entire day; we strolled around the old town for about 2-3 hours and then stopped for a really bad lunch. Despite having stayed in bed the entire previous day, my husband was not feeling much better and could not stand the site of meat – so we had pizza. Bleh.
Chartres
I wanted to go to Chartres specifically to see the Cathedral and I am SO GLAD we did! It was magnificent!! I have seen my fair share of Cathedrals and this one in Chartres is high on the list of great places. We started exploring the old town, but my husband was feeling so weak, we just stopped to have lunch instead. It was great! A delicious meal with a fantastic view of Cathedral – it was wonderful!
Sights
As for the sights, well, you can flip through my pictures to see what we covered. Combined with the last trip, we pretty much covered it all!!
We did not bother revisiting places we saw last time if it meant lining-up and long waits, like Notre Dame or Sainte Chappelle for example, but I did enjoy going back and lingering a little more in places we only covered briefly last time, like The Louvre and The Père Lachaise Cemetery (both on my own since my husband was too sick to leave the hotel)
The Master Plan
Remember my original list of goals for this trip? Here’s how we did:
- Day trip to Mont Saint Michel – nixed even before going and replaced with Fontainebleau – DONE
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Day trip to Rouen – DONE (but only a half day)
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1/2 day in Chartres - DONE
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1/2 day in Versailles Gardens (Hameau de la Reine) – NOT DONE
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Opera House Tour - DONE
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Centre Pompidou - DONE
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Les Halles - CLOSED
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Napoleon's Tomb - DONE
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Point Zero - DONE
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Tulip View - DONE
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Rue Cler -DONE
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Tomb of Oscar Wilde (Pere Lachaise) - DONE
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Vel d'hiv Plaque - DONE
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Statue of Liberty - DONE
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Ile St Louis - DONE
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Louvre - Ipod Tour - DONE
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Palais de Chaillot / Musée de l'Homme – DONE & CLOSED
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Memorial des Martyrs de La Déportation - DONE
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Galleries Vivienne and Colbert – DONE
- Train Bleu - DONE
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Café De Flore - DONE
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Café Le Bosquet – NIXED
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Monparnasse Resto: Ciel de Paris - CLOSED
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Thoumieux - NIXED
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La Coupole - DONE
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Le Petit Saint Benoit - NOT DONE, but we did walk by and considered it… but never went back.
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Brasserie Bofinger (oldest in Paris) - DONE
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Resto Au Pied du Cochon -NOT DONE, we really intended to! But it just never happened.
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Harry's New York Bar - NOT DONE
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Café Marly (in the Louvre ) -NOT DONE
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Chez Les Fondus – NIXED
(I’m saving my opinions on the places for future posts)
In conclusion, because of the lousy weather and sick husband I can’t say it was the best vacation ever… but over all: no regrets!
)
