Saturday, March 30 - A Day in Paris
My DH had never been to Paris, so my goal for today was for us to see the Eiffel Tower before our flight in the evening. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. Hotels in Europe, even the basic ones, have much better breakfast than hotels in America! I was impressed in particular at the poached eggs, since they were still a bit runny.
This was my first time seeing a "Suggestion of the Day" on a breakfast buffet! Definitely more food then I like in the morning, but this gives you an idea of everything they had on offer.
The park shuttle runs about every 15 minutes, so after breakfast we grabbed our bags and took it to the train station/park entrance. We then got on the Saint-Germain-en-Laye A train into the city. This also leaves quite frequently. Total travel time from the hotel to being in Paris at the Chatelet Les Halles station was about 45 minutes.
The reason why I picked Chatelet Les Halles station as our base for the day was because it was accessible from DLP with no transfers and had a direct line to the airport for us to take later on. For our bags, I used Bounce Luggage Storage. They have locations all over the city and had one about a 5 minute walk outside of the station. How it works is you book your time in advance and then take it to the location the day of and they scan a QR code on the app to check your bags in and out. Our location was a little convenience store that had two guys working in it. There was a few other bags when we dropped ours off, but they had a lot of them by the time we picked ours up. I would imagine its not as secure as a luggage locker, but it was the best option for the area and they did seem to keep a good eye on the bags.
After dropping them off, we headed to take a bus to the Eiffel Tower. I downloaded the local transportation app and bought a day pass so we could easily get to wherever we wanted to go. I read somewhere that you should take the buses in Paris so you can see the city on your trip, rather than the subway which is just dark and underground. This was actually some great advice, since it was like we got a little tour of the city. Our city bus passed by all of the major sites.
And soon enough, we were at the Eiffel Tower! We got our pictures and then were ready to continue on with our day! When I was in high school, I went on a European trip with my Chorus and we went up the stairs at the Eiffel Tower. Since I had done it before I didn't have much interest in doing it again. The Eiffel Tower is the most notable landmark of Paris, and so when you are taking pictures from it, it's obviously not in your pictures of the skyline. Plus, it was a cloudy and lightly rainy day, but the line to go up it stretched for blocks and I imagine it was over an hour long!
Since we only had time for one meal in France, I wanted to make it count. We went to L’Auberge Aveyronnaise. Whenever I see something cool online, I keep a web bookmark for it. I had seen this restaurant on Instagram like over a year ago, and it looked like it would be the perfect spot for us this day. I made reservations on their website about a month in advance, and we went right when they opened.
This is definitely more of a local spot and was outside of the main touristy area. They are known for their aligot, which is like super super cheesy mashed potatoes. Of course I had to try them, so I ordered the traditional sausage aligot.
Meanwhile, my DH got the beef tartare. That's not my thing at all, but he loved it.
There was a French couple behind us who got the exact same orders, so I guess we made the right choices! By the time we left, it was packed with local families and groups having lunch, so definitely make reservations if you want to try it. From the restaurant, it was a quick bus ride back over to the luggage storage. The buses were definitely busy on a Saturday, but you could usually get a seat.
Then, from Chatelet Les Halles it was a 35 min direct train to the airport. For this leg of the trip, we were flying Business Class on Turkish Airlines. Since we had stood in horrible lines at CDG airport before, we got there extra early. Turns out, if you are flying Business or First class, this isn't needed at all. We had separate premium lines for check in, security, and exit immigration that all had no wait.
Since we had so much extra time though, we got to enjoy the Terminal 1 Star Alliance Lounge. This lounge was really nice, and at the time we were there it was basically empty. Amenities included showers, and outdoor terrace, self serve liquor, a French wine room, and of course a buffet. There was a great variety of hot dishes, salads, breads, drinks, and desserts. After our last day and a half of running around, it was nice to take a few hours and relax.
I just got back from my dream trip visiting all of the international Disney parks and wanted to write a trip report to help anyone else who might be planning a similar trip!
After waiting in line for so long, my DH and I both decided to get a Mickey Beignet. Beignet is the French word for donut, so rather than the Disneyland California Mickey Beignets, it was a Mickey shaped donut stuffed with Nutella. We aren't the biggest Nutella fans, but if you are you would love this.
