Traveling to and Visiting Paris

As mentioned, we missed visiting Brugge, Belgium where we were set up to make Belgian chocolate truffles.  We could not dock due to a labor dispute leading to a work stoppage.  Ted’s comment “Whatever!”

So Saturday we spent docked in La Havre, not a hotbed of activity.  Pat and Kelly went into town, visited a museum and went to Mass after a wedding concluded!  Kristin, Bill and Kara went to a laundromat!  They saw another wedding!  We sent a bagful of clothes to the ship’s laundry but Kristin didn’t get hers out in time to get it back.  We just chilled!  

Sunday was disembarking day and as stated earlier, it apparently didn’t go too well.  I was so happy to use my purple VIP badge to get off.  The ride to Charles de Gaule airport was fine but they dropped us off at Departure Terminal One.  Except we weren’t departing!   We were going to the Hilton which was “adjacent” to Terminal 3!  So we got two carts, found the connect train to take us there.  We could see signs for Hilton but it kept running us in a circle!  Finally a man walked Kristin to the end of a corridor and pointed across the street on the other side of a bus station.

She got us seated on a bench, standing guard over our two carts so she could walk over and get info on the shuttle.  Surprise!  There is none!  She asked at the desk how we were to get to the hotel and she was told “walk.”  So here we were pushing two carts that probably should never have left the Terminal across the street, past the bus stops, around to the front of the hotel.  The doorman greeted us and I asked if businessmen actually walked over every  morning when they were flying out.   He said, “oh no, they call a taxi!”   So taxis will actually take you across the street!  A fact the desk failed to tell Kristin!  

Our room was great, terrific breakfast, key to executive lounge for snacks and drinks so I guess it turned out ok.  

We took RER-B train into Paris.  No problems.  We had read the route would be shut down on Sunday nights starting the week of 10/13, 10:45 pm for maintenance work.  No worries it was 10/12!    But we were aware because it is the only train out to the airport.  We took a Seine River cruise that was sort of hop on/hop off but we rode it all in one trip.  Then we went to a Cafe for lunch.  We saw the outside of Saint Chappell but admittance was by ticket only and there was a really long line.  So here is a photo of what we missed.

We stopped at the Gates of Justice (where Quasimodo was brought to). 

We went to Notre Dame and there were two lines, one extremely long and requiring a ticket.  The other one was short and for people attending Mass.  That’s what we were there for.  It was beautiful pomp and circumstance with amazing music but we didn’t understand a word.  You can tell by the cadence of prayers what is being said such as the Lord’s Prayer’s and the Creed. 

Afterwards we went for an ice cream and then on to a park to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle on the hour.  

We left at 9:05 to go to the Metro Stop that would take us to RER-B line back to the Hilton at the airport.  We navigated that fine but when we arrived at the RER-B line, the gates were down and locked!  We knew the next Sunday it was to close down at 10:45 pm but it was not to start until 10/13!  We were not alone in our shock.We didn’t trust reading the directions to take 3 different buses so we went back up and took an uber, the second most expensive taxi ride I have ever taken.

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