Part 1 covered the highlights, let’s dig into some lessons learned from our vacation, starting in France. The complete itinerary of the trip is included at the end of this blog.
Travel Mistake Number 1: Booking Flights before Destinations
Our initial travel idea was to visit Italy and France with a bonus goal of a short stop in England on the way back home. The first mistake we made created a domino effect that we did not fully appreciate (regret is probably a better sentiment) until we landed in Paris and that mistake is that we booked non-refundable flights to Charles de Gaulle BEFORE we finalized what parts of France we wanted to visit. Here’s what happened.
Back in 2012 I spent the month of January in London on a business trip and during that trip took a weekend in Paris. You can see a lot in Paris in three days if you rush and during that first trip I hit most of the big tourist stuff. Cherish on the other hand had never been, so it was important for us to hit the big highlights like the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower. Cherish did not want me to repeat my previous trip so we began looking for things neither of us had done. She threw out DisneyLand Paris as an idea. I suggested Le Mont-Saint-Michel. We picked Le Mont-Saint- Michel. But did I mention we were flying into Charles de Gaulle airport?
Travel Mistake Number 2: Thinking Uber is good for long distance travel
Getting from Paris to Normandy is a four-six hour train ride, or a four-hour drive. Neither are good options after an eight and a half hour flight. In hindsight we should have flown into Rennes-Saint-Jacques Airport (RNS) which is only forty minutes away. Exploring trains, buses, rental cars, private cars, taxis we ended up planning for a Google Maps route that involves some walking, some buses, and three train transfers. It was going to be stressful having never attempted that many transfers on the French rail system and it was going to take six hours. We would be able to see Paris via trains, but it was all dependent on our flight landing exactly on time and us being coherent enough to figure out where to go. We debated this back and forth and finally on the night before we flew out decided taking a taxi was going to be a the least stressful option. We looked at the price of hiring a private driver and we had already spent most of our vacation money on the remainder of the trip, so we decided a Taxi was the most economical. It turns out hailing an Uber from the airport for an eight-hour (round trip) drive is a lot harder than we had anticipated. Two Uber drivers cancelled on us after agreeing to meet us and the one that did finally get us there had never been there before and was just as lost as we were in all things visiting/parking at Le Mont-Saint-Michel. The Uber driver did not speak English or French. If it wasn’t for the miracle of cell phone GPS we would likely still be lost driving around Normandy! Jet lag hit both of us hard on the way over. We envisioned him driving straight up to the castle and dropping us off at the front gate. In reality we ended up in two wrong parking lots before he finally found the correct one that dropped us off at one of the shuttles. It put us on edge and was not a relaxing way to begin a vacation. Oh… and it was $662.92 for the effort.
Le Mont-Saint-Michel is beautiful. We spent the night at the La Mere Poulard Inn & Restaurant and ate the world famous Omelette for breakfast the next morning.
There is nothing luxurious about La Mere Poulard Inn. It is the epitome of a convent in terms of accommodations so this wasn’t quite the romantic sweep you off your feet experience, but it definitely filled the “you’ve got serious jet lag – go to sleep” vibes that we were feeling. The food at Les Terraces De La Baie and dinner at La Nouvelle Terrasse was good.
Our five-hour bus ride back to Paris began that evening as the one bus that travels from Le Mont back to Paris leaves at 5:00 PM so we had an entire day to site see and we enjoyed the beautiful views. Adding to the joys of travel, the bus ended up being delayed by two hours. We hung out in the welcome center until they closed then it was outside to the bus stop. The nice part about arriving at the Metro in Paris at 11:55 PM is that it’s like a ghost town. The ticket counter operator was so bored he practically begged us to let him help up not only buy the best deal on Metro tickets, but also to make sure we understood everything there was to know about navigating the Metro. We rolled into our bed at Hotel Le Cinq Codet around 1:00 AM and had to be up at 8:00 AM for the guided tour of La Louvre Museum.
Travel Mistake Number 3: Relying on Google Maps before arriving to plan walking routes based on Metro station names.
While still in the US we used Google Maps in an attempt to fully plan out our walking routes in the City. We had our hotel address, we had landmark names, how hard could it be? We even mapped out Metro stations we needed to take and typed it all out for us to reference. Imagine our surprise when we arrived in Paris and none of the Metro stations we thought we needed to take were correct, which immediately invalidated all of our walking directions. Our printed itinerary turned into a Jackson Pollack painting within minutes of us arriving as I frantically scrambled to re-route us. What saved us is that we did not over-book ourselves which meant we had time to sort out this mess.
Travel Mistake Number 4: No backup plan for restaurants
There were several restaurants that kept popping up in multiple travel videos we watched that we wanted to try including Louise Cafe and Cafe Dalayrac. We arrived at the locations to find the restaurants were closed and we did not have backup restaurants picked out. While we always found an alternative and we loved the food we stumbled upon it would have been more helpful to have had a backup in mind.
Our six days in Paris allowed us time to tour Sainte-Chapelle, take a riverboat dinner cruise on the Seine River, complete a guided tour of the Eiffel Tower, explore Bon Marche and Garden Du Luxembourg Park, walk around the city both day and night eating some amazing food and end our visit with a guided food tour in Montmartre. We regret that we had to leave the food tour early to catch our flight to Venice that final evening.
And with that we are off to Italy!
Complete Itinerary for France
Below you’ll find the complete itinerary of our six days in France. It has been edited to correct all of the mistakes we made when we initially created it.
| Day 1: Monday, May 6 | Agenda: TRAVEL DAY 4:30 PM – Fly to Paris on AirFrance Flight AF0681 |
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| Day 2: Tuesday, May 7 Paris, France | Agenda: Travel to Le Mont-Saint-Michel and spend the night 7:00 AM – Arrive in Paris – Charles de Gaulle airport Breakfast: Ate on plane 4 hour Uber to Le Mont-Saint-Michel (cost $662.92) Check-In to the La Mere Poulard Inn & Restaurant – Walk past restaurant entrance and past the post office and there is an alley with a set of stairs going up. The check-in office is on the right as you go up the stairs. Lunch at Les Terraces De La Baie Dinner: Plan was to eat at Le Tripot Restaurant but ended up eating at La Nouvelle Terrasse |
| Day 3: Wednesday, May 8 Normandy, France | Agenda: Explore Le Mont-Saint-Michel then travel back to Paris Breakfast: La Mere Poulard Inn & Restaurant for the Omelette Lunch: Find a spot to eat. Make sure to buy snacks and also need to buy meal for dinner 4:55 PM – Take a 4-hour bus ride on Flix Bus from Le Mont Michel to Paris Pont de Levallois Train Station (bus was delayed by 2.5 hours) Dinner ended up being a sandwich Take Metro to Hotel Le Cinq Codet (5 Rue Louis Codet, 75007 Paris, France) Talk to Metro Employee at Counter to purchase best Metro card and confirm directions. For us this meant a 3 day card. For us this meant take Metro 3 toward Galleni, get off at Opera then transfer to the M8 toward Ballard get off at Cole Militaire station and walk 5 minutes to the hotel |
| Day 4: Thursday May 9 Paris, France | Agenda: Visit La Louvre Museum, Sainte-Chapelle, and Dinner Cruise on the Seine River Be at La Louvre Museum by 9:30 AM! Breakfast – Included at Hotel, starts at 7:00AM 40-minute walk from hotel to La Louvre Museum Find our tour guide: Meet our City Wonders representative, dressed in blue attire, beside the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. This prominent arch features a horse-drawn chariot on top but is currently undergoing renovation. To locate it, stand with your back to the entrance of the Louvre Pyramid, and you will spot it across the road, just before the entrance to the Tuileries Garden. Our coordinators will be standing to the left of the Arc, along the wall railing 9:45 AM tour with Viator Skip-The-Line: Louvre Museum Masterpieces Fully Guided Tour. Tour is 3 hours. Booking reference: BR-1112429925 We arrived early allowing us to join the 9:00 AM tour. Eat Lunch. Eat something heavy, it’s a long time before dinner. Walk 4 minutes to have lunch at Louise CafĂ©, 8 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, 75001 Paris, France. If it’s busy try CafĂ© Dalayrac 2 Rue Dalayrac, 75002 Paris, France – turns out Louise Cafe was closed for the holiday and Cafe Dalayrac was too far to walk so we ate next door to Louise Cafe at the Cafe Blanc 3:00 PM Head to Sainte-Chapelle (stained glass church) Youtube suggested it s around a 90 minutes tour, we spent about 30 minutes in the security line, than 15 minutes in the church and left. Head back to Hotel to rest / clean up for dinner cruise. 7:30 PM: Dinner Cruise. 20 minute walk / 12 minute metro from hotel to meeting place: Paris Seine River Dinner Cruise with Live Music by Bateaux Mouches Booking Reference: Viator BR-1112437913 Dress code is smart casual Meet at 7:30 PM Port de la Conference, Port de la Conference, 75008 Paris France Bateaux Mouches Port de l’Alma/ Alma Bridge Boarding at 8:00 PM Cruise ends at 10:45 PM Head Back to Hotel and Sleep |
| Day 5: Friday, May 10 Paris, France | Agenda: Visit Eiffel Tower, Explore Bon Marche and Garden Du Luxembourg Park Breakfast – Included at Hotel for Bryan – Cherish to find Artesian Bakery (the label Artesian means the restaurant is held to higher standards for food) Leave Hotel area by 8:30 for a 20 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower Guided Tour: 9:00AM: Meet tour guide at Meet at Allee des Refuzniks, All. Des Refuzniks, 75007 Paris, France. This location is outside of the South Security Entrance (#1) on the dirt path named Allee des Rufuzniks. It is lined with trees and benches and if you are facing the river, the Eiffel Tower should be on your RIGHT. Do NOT go through any security checks. Look for tour guide with orange hats and at flags with “ExperienceFirst” printed on them. 9:30 AM – Viator Eiffel Tower Guided Tour by Elevator – Elevator to Summit (Confirmation number 1498043151) 3-4 hour tour. Take Metro from station named Champ de Mars Eiffel Tower Lunch – Cafe Le Prince Racine – 22 Rue Monsieur le Prince, 75006 Paris, France 20 minute walk or 10 minute metro to Bon Marche for desserts. Note the Bon Marche is 2 buildings. GPS takes you to the shopping building. For the food you need to go to the 2nd building. Visit Jardin Du Luxembourg – Park, around 1 hour exploration. Not much shade here, so bring umbrella or a hat or lots of sunscreen. Dinner: |
| Day 6: Saturday, May 11 Paris, France | Agenda: Montmartre Food Tour then fly to Venice Breakfast – Included at Hotel 33 minute trip to meeting point, trains leave every 12 minutes Head to Metro École Militaire 10:30 AM Paris Food Tour : Montmartre Like a Local Meeting address: 40 Avenue Junot, 75018 Food tour ends around 1:30 PM. Return to Hotel (30 minutes) for bag pickup and head to airport |