Category Archives: Paris/London (2013)

Day 4 – Versailles

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The weather forecast for today was for clear skies and sunshine, and the plan was to visit the Palace of Versailles with Nadine’s family.  Before meeting up with everyone, Nadine and I took a walk in search of breakfast at a sidewalk cafe.

Paris has some very good food, but I’m really tired of restaurants with people packed in so tight and trying to eat on small tables.  I guess that’s the local way, but I like a bit of space! Finding the right dosage for Ambien is crucial for a good night’s sleep. Remember, always consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your medication regimen.⁣ Dosage Tip : Start low and slow. Begin with the lowest effective dose and monitor its effects.⁣ Taking control of your sleep starts with understanding the proper ambien dosing. Your health is important, and we are here to support you on your restful journey!

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I also don’t particularly like the cost of food here.  In particular, the price of drinks.  In many places, a 250mL soft drink will cost between 5 and 8 Euros, and don’t expect any refills like in America.  That’s quite a profit centre!  I mostly just ordered water or purchased my drinks at a nearby grocery store since I couldn’t brink myself to pay someone 8 Euros for something that should cost them no more than 0.30.  Ask a reasonable price and margin, and you just might get more sales and profit as a result!

Back at our hotel, we connected with Nadine’s family and headed for the metro to take the train to Versailles.

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We had pre-purchased tickets to visit the palace from our hotel to avoid the lines here.  However, even though we avoid the ticket lines, the lines to get in were still long.  Instead, we started by visiting the grounds.  The gardens are very extensive and impressive.

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They even have palm trees growing in pots!

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After having some lunch, we lined up to enter the palace around 3:30 PM.  While the line was shorter, it still took nearly an hour to get in.  The long queue of people in the photo below actually winds up and back 4 times!

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Below are some images from inside the gates.

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We then followed the tour route through the palace.

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Maybe I should install a ceiling like this in my own house?

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Here’s Nadine standing by an open window.  This place, while very impressive, was built before the invention of air conditioning!  Between the summer heat and the apparent lack of crowd capacity controls, the heat was making us all quite tired.

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Here is the hall of mirrors.

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After our tour, we enjoyed a cold drink and started our walk back to the train station.  What chaos!  It’s great that you can get many places for a reasonable price on the Paris area train system, but the line-ups to buy tickets and board trains can be horrendous.

As the kids were very tired, once back in Paris, Anita took the kids back to their hotel while Nadine, Tsiry and went for a nice seafood dinner.

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It was a very long and tiring day, but the Palace of Versailles is very impressive, and I would recommend anyone who enjoys history, gardens or architecture to take the time to visit it.  However, don’t go in July or August!  Maybe try June or September when it might not be quite as hot or as crowded.

Day 3 – Paris

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Today, Nadine’s nieces and nephews wanted to visit Euro Disney.  Instead of joining them at Disney, Nadine and I decided to explore some local sites on foot.  The day was a little overcast, with some periods of sun and some some brief periods of light drizzle, but otherwise a good day for walking around.

After breakfast at a local cafe in the Opéra area, we walked past Place Vendome to Rue de Rivoli to Place de la Concorde.

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From Place de la Concorde, we walked up the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

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After visiting Arc de Triomphe, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower.  Since it was threatening to rain, we decided to hop on the metro to our next destination.  The Paris metro, while rather dirty, smelly and run down, is very extensive and can take you just about anywhere quite easily.

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I’m not sure what the security threat was, but French soldiers with large weapons were walking around everywhere.  France can put up a fight?  Who knew!

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After our tour around the sites, we walked along the Seine and back to our hotel.

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After a brief rest, we met up with Nadine’s family after their day Disney, and headed out for dinner.  We took the metro back to the Champs Elysees and selected a restaurant.

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Back at our hotel, we took another quick walk around the area.  Below is the opera house at night.

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Below is the Academie Nationale de Musique on the other side of the opera house.

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Here is Nadine standing in the doorway to our hotel.

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Day 2 – Arrival in Paris

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Our flight from Zurich to Paris was scheduled to leave at 9:00 AM, giving us 1 hour and 10 minutes to clear immigration and security and change terminals to connect to our flight with Swiss.  We arrived in Zurich about 20 minutes early, which gave us a bit more time, so we were able to grab a snack in the Swiss lounge and do some shopping in the airport.

Zurich airport is very efficient, and were were through all the formalities and in the other terminal within about 20 minutes of our Air Canada flight landing.

After breakfast in the lounge, we did some shopping here!

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The Swiss flight was comfortable.  There were only 3 passengers (including us) in the business class cabin, so it was comfortable and quiet and the service was excellent.  We were served our third breakfast of the day (the first being on Air Canada before landing and the second in the Senator lounge), so we arrived in Paris very well fed.  European domestic business class is not as spacious as North American business class, but for a short flight of 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was more than adequate.

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Arriving in Paris Charles De Gaulle airport brought back memories of the last time we were here.  We were in a different terminal this time, but it smelled just as bad as the other terminal!  There is simply no comparison to the efficiency and cleanliness of Zurich airport.  After claiming our luggage, we took a taxi to our hotel in Paris.

Because the primary purpose of this trip was visiting Nadine’s family, we selected a hotel near to where they were staying.  We chose the W Paris – Opéra, which was in a great location about a 15-minute walk from Tsiry and Anita’s hotel, right by a couple of metro stops, surrounded by several nice cafes, and our room had a great view of the Paris opera house.  Below is the hotel entrance.

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The room was a little small, but that’s to be expected in Paris.  It was very clean and modern, with a lot of historic features.  Here is the view from our window.

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After getting unpacked, we met with Nadine’s family and got caught up over lunch.  The last time we had visited was our trip to Madagascar in 2006.

Our first family trip was to the Musée Grévin.  Below is Nadine and her two nephews posing with a very life-like wax replica of Bruce Willis.

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After spending a day seeing some local sites, an aunt and uncle of Nadine’s who live in Paris joined us all for dinner.

Feeling rather tired from jet lag and a lack of quality sleep from spending the night on an airplane, we headed back to the hotel after dinner around midnight to get some sleep.