Our Paris Vacation: Days 6 & 7
So I haven’t gotten around to writing about our last two vacation days for a couple reasons. The main one is that this past weekend, I was hit HARD with the flu. So I’ve been in bed for most of the past three days, and I’m only now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t remember the last time I felt this yucky.
But the other reason I haven’t written much is because we didn’t really do anything. On day 6, the day after Disneyland, we didn’t leave our apartment until lunchtime, and then spent the better part of the early afternoon looking for a place to eat that wasn’t full. Parisians really get out on the weekends. We finally sat down at a little cafe a bit after 2 o’clock.
The lunch was delicious (of course), expensive (of course), and full of the food I wish was still around me. So after this, we went food shopping. We went back to Le Bon Marche, the food section, and got some souvenir-y food things like Dijon mustard, chocolates, jam, and the like. We even bought parmesan, cheddar, and brie cheese. Hey, it’s worth a potentially stinky suitcase.
After this, and after fighting the day’s rain and wind, we headed back. We needed to clean the apartment and pack up.
So that’s what we did most of the evening while the kids watched Ratatouille (which is much more fun to watch now). We finally crashed at dark-thirty, only to wake up again at… well, dark-thirty, to catch our flight.
Day 7 was our leave day (sniff sniff). We thought our flight was at 8 a.m., but it turns out it was at 8:40. Not a major difference, except that we left the apartment via taxi at 5 a.m., not sure how long it would take to get to the airport (with traffic, it could easily take an hour). We needed to be there two hours ahead of departure, since it was an international flight, so our goal was 6 a.m.
Well, we got there at 5:30. For an 8:40 flight. Check in was super fast, so we were sitting at a table at the closed Starbucks at 5:50, waiting for 6:30, when it would open. Let’s just say that we had plenty of time to kill at Charles De Gaulle International Airport, quite possibly one of the strangest-looking airports either of us have seen. Felt like we were in a Bond movie.
So we got back home, safe and sound, only missing one piece of luggage. The one that happened to have the brie and the parmesan. Luckily, it came to our home the next day, and it wasn’t too stinky. Still totally edible.
This past week has definitely been a recovery week, and the house is still a wreck. But that’s also in part because of our household’s Flu Takeover 2009. Needless to say, though, Paris has probably wrecked us for life. I’m not sure I’ll ever eat food as good again. I can’t wait to go back.
I have news to share… tomorrow! Stay tuned.
I hope you recover soon! Thank you for sharing the human side of: stayed at home, cleaned up. That is something that you just have to do when with baby – stop more often. My friend was in Paris the same time as you and its so interesting to see the same place from the eyes of a single traveler and a traveling family! We weren’t so lucky to get sick after Paris, DH got flu in Paris, i locked him in hotel for a day at 80 euro a night, 2005. He was furious!! Needless to say, we hated Paris… The airport is indeed strange, at least I took some undercover pictures that sell sooooo well. Worth the trip