Paris for Almost Three Days

We arrived in Paris on the morning of July 17^th at 6:00 am, claimed our baggage, and waited in the Arrivals terminal for our Avalon transfer driver.  He was not there to meet us so we waited but began to worry that he was not coming.  Just as we were digging out or international cell phone to try to contact Avalon, he appeared.  He transported the four of us to the Hotel du Collectionneur Arc de Triomphe for our 3 night stay in Paris.  Upon arrival at the hotel, we checked in at the desk to the unhappy, but not unexpected, news that our rooms would not be ready until 3 pm.  We checked our luggage and ventured out to find a Parisienne café for a pain du chocolat.  There was one right across the street from our hotel so we grabbed some seats at a sidewalk table and ordered.  Oh no!  They were already out of pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) to my disappointment!!! French pastries and breads arrive early in the morning at the cafes and are there until they “run out” and they arrive again for snack time around 4 pm.  So, I enjoyed a plain croissant and cappuccino, which were both quite good.

After this, we headed for a 15 minute trek to the Arc de Triomphe, which was built to honor the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte.  It is located at the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle & is quite impressive!  The area was already quite crowded but we snapped our obligatory photos and continued on our walk. 

As the renowned Champs-Elysees stretches from our location at the Place Charles de Gaulle to to the Place de la Concorde, the decision was made to explore one of the most famous avenues in the world.  My impression?  It was MUCH larger than I expected; I read somewhere that it can take 5 hours to walk its entirety.  Oh yes, you do want to walk in Paris, as it is the city of lights & lovers!  Since we were all a bit exhausted from our overseas flight and were becoming accustomed to our new “body clock”, we didn’t do the 5 hour walk.  I’d say that we walked for a couple of hours and then stopped at a café on a side street for a glass of French wine.  We “sat a spell” here, enjoying the wine and consulting our map of Paris. 

The decision was made to venture back to the hotel via side streets to see if our rooms were ready.  This we did and no they were not!  Reception assured us that we were at the top of the list so we grabbed chairs in the spacious lobby and waited.  Around 2:30 we received the good news!  Our room was quite lovely and overlooked the hotel’s courtyard.  The bath room was spacious with Gilchrist & Soames shampoo, conditioner, and lotion.  Ooh La La!  We hit the comfy bed for a quick nap before meeting our traveling companions for dinner. 

Our wish was to dine at a traditional French brasserie, within walking distance of our hotel so based on reviews on Tripadvisor, we walked the 10 minutes to Le Valois (located at 1 Place Rio de Janeiro).  We met in the lobby at 6:30 pm to head out for an early dinner at Le Valois.  It’s a charming restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating.  We had made a reservation for the 6 of us and were promptly seated at a table inside.  The menu was limited prior to 7 pm so we ordered drinks and waited until the dinner menu became available.   My sancerre was perfect for the wait!  Once the menu arrived,  you could choose “la formule” (a price fixed menu that included appetizer, entrée, and dessert) or a la carte.  Since my eagerly anticipated authentic coq au vin was not on la formule, I ordered a la carte:  French onion soup and coq au vin, no dessert (although the crepes suzette caught my eye!).   Hubby ordered mussels with French fries.  Others ordered from la formule, with starters that included oysters & shrimp, and entrees to include steak, veal, and salmon & one ordered a reuben sandwich.  Of course the crepes suzette dessert option was ordered by several so I got a taste & was not disappointed!  It was delicious. 

The onion soup was served in a larger than anticipated crock and was topped with the requisite cheese & bread – to die for good!  My coq au vin was served in a large stainless steel pot with lots of chicken, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, onions and sauce.  The chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender and I was quite pleased with my dinner choices.

Ken’s mussels arrived in a large Le Creuset type pot & there must have been 100 mussels in that pot!  His French fries were served as a side dish, also quite a large serving.  The mussels exceeded his expectations and he is a mussel connoisseur!  Those that ordered steak said that it was tough so they were quite disappointed.  The salmon and reuben sandwich that were ordered were fine.  I think I came out on top though!

After this yummy dinner we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep.

Day 2 in Paris:  Breakfast was included with our hotel package so we headed to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast.  Wow!  Everything that you could imagine was there… even pain au chocolat!!!   Eggs & omelettes made to order, bacon, sausage, ham, cheeses, cold cuts, fruits, cereals, yogurt, fresh baked breads, and more… What a great way to start the day!  As we wanted to see Montmatre, we hailed a cab to take us there.  The drive through Paris is beautiful – oh what a city!   

The buildings, the cafes, the shops, the Seine… too little time and too much to see.  Montmatre is a hill in the north of Paris & also the name of the surrounding area.  From the top, where the white domed Basilique du Sacré-Coeur is located, you will get some of the best city views and photo-ops.  Many famous artists, to include Dali, Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, & Mondrian, had studios or worked in this area.  Montmatre was quite crowded with tourists, even though we headed out in the morning.  We snapped photos, saw the Basilica, wandered the cobblestone streets, and ended up at Place du Tertre, where years ago the legends of art used to roam.  It’s now filled with watercolors & sketch artists… some quite good.  The day was already hot (around 85 degrees) and I didn’t want to be “sketched” so we stopped in at a cute café for a glass of wine.  Our choice was La Cremaillere where we people watched for about half an hour before we met grabbed a cab back to the hotel.

What’s up next?  It’s lunch time!  We wanted pizza so we headed off to La Belle Poule.  The pizza was just what we wanted so after a quick bite, we headed back to the famous Champs-Elysees for some shopping.  I must confess that I really didn’t purchase much here except for some Benefit make-up essentials. 

Back to the hotel for our pre-arranged evening at the Moulin Rouge!  Our driver picked us up at the hotel promptly at 6:15 and transported us to the famous venue.  We only had to wait for a few minutes before being escorted inside to our table for 6.  Well… we were crowded in like sardines!  I was disappointed in this aspect and also in the quality of the dinner that was served.  The show was fine… costumes quite sequined and feathery and skimpy.  It’s quite expensive for what you get in my opinion and I’m glad that I went but wouldn’t do it again nor would I recommend it to others.

Day 3 Paris:  Following another hearty breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we were off for our Avalon sightseeing tour of Paris.  It was a 2 ½ hour tour in a coach that included only two stops, one at Luxembourg Gardens (for a restroom stop) and one at the Eiffel Tower for a quick photo-op.   

We did get a glimpse of the Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral.  Once the tour was complete, it was time for lunch so we headed out to Del Papa on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore for some of the best Italian food in Paris.  We enjoyed pasta and pizza, excellent bread, wine & beer.  Service was great and the food was good.  Good enough to a return visit tonight, in fact!

We indeed returned for dinner and we had the same server that we had for lunch.  Somehow a few of our orders got mixed up and we got our dinners at different times but all in all, everything was fine and we all had a good time.  We returned to the Purple Café at the hotel for after dinner drinks.  Of course, I ordered a glass of white wine and hubby ordered a Drambuie on the rocks… only to discover that the Drambuie was a 20Euro drink!!!  Yikes – that’s getting expensive.  I think he changed and ordered a glass of red wine.

Day 4 Paris to Remich:  Following breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we met in the hotel lobby at noon to be escorted to the train station to catch the high speed train from Paris to Metz.  The train station is a busy place, but our cruise director, Jean-Loup, got us all there and onboard efficiently.  At the train station, we grabbed some sandwiches to take for an onboard lunch. The train ride was a couple of hours and we arrived in Metz and got on a coach to Remich in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where we boarded the Avalon Poetry II.