Paris for the first, second and third time!

We love to share experiences with each other and with others, so we were triply blessed on our most recent trip to Europe.  My mother is 77 and had never seen Europe and had some favorites picked out.  Florence/Tuscany, Prague and Scotland.    We were able to fulfill on two out of three, Scotland will have to wait!   And she is now grateful that we insisted on Paris and Venice as well.

Also traveling with us for the first time to Europe was my 23 year old Kelsey.  And for a third trip, although her first as an adult, my step daughter Lindley, who is 24.  All in all, a mixed group of five family members.  Richard (my husband) had been there twice before, and I had been there once.  Richard  put together a great itinerary, with a nice long stay in Paris of five days, followed by an 11 day road trip.  My job was to book the hotels!

Typically we have our first few nights handled before we leave town and this was no exception.  I found a beautiful VRBO 3 Bedroom apt in Montmartre right next to a Metro station with Wifi.  http://www.vrbo.com/1027152a  I highly recommend Laure, she was very helpful, prompt and gave good recommendations.   Email is best unless you speak French.  We didn't have a single problem or issue.  There is a grocery across the street, a lovely little coffee cafe/bar two doors down and a fantastic bakery on the corner next to the metro stop.  Just past the metro is a great outdoor fruit and vegetable market.   It's two stops from the famous Paris Flea Market too.  More on that later!

And we like having our return night home booked as well, preferably in or near the airport, so I booked the IBIS hotel in CDG for the night prior to our return.  Three rooms so that everyone gets a good nights sleep before leaving.  That leaves us plenty of flexibility to travel to unexpected places, leave early or late, and generally speaking has worked well for us in the past.

First night in, Richard took all three of them to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night.  It's truly an amazing experience, and the light show keeps getting better and better.   It was nice to have a kitchen and a shop across the street, but we ended up with the traditional Parisian sandwich of butter and salami on a baguette more often than not.  Breakfast was eggs and yogurt depending, and we generally tried to keep our meals out to one per day, preferably lunches to help keep costs down.

Day two was The Louvre and The L'Orangerie.   One day I will book a week just for the Louvre.   This time, it was a quick trip to the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo and then on to the water lilies.  It was nice to sit and relax with those restful blues.

We hit Notre Dame and the Chapelle on day two, beautiful churches, with amazing interior and exteriors.  Then across the Siene to the Left Bank for some shopping!  Mom found a lovely leather jacket that's the perfect weight for her Tucson, AZ winters, Lindley found one too, as well as "French shoes".  The girls were thrilled to be able to look at clothes and Kelsey found the perfect "hippie chick" clothing to bring back as souveneirs as well as the French bathing suit I'd promised her!  Tres chic:)

I got some of my offbeat Messy Nessy blog sites in as well, with a stop at Shakespeare's Bookstore, former haunt of Hemingway and others, and Paris's largest and oldest english language bookstore.

The days went by faster than I would have thought possible.  Versailles took up most of a whole day, and even the RER train out there is lovely and decorated in that "too much" style.  The gold on the fences is dazzling, much less the interiors.  It was a lesson in decadence that I couldn't help but compare to our current economics.

Then the lovely Paris Flea Market!  Messy Nessy wins again with Chez Louisette as a restaurant.  Truly a blast from the past, torch singers and singa longs at long tables with strangers.  Decent food and a quaint decor that can only be explained as "the Christmas tree exploded".  We found stalls that had lovely antiques, stamps, chandelier parts, furniture, and dolls.  Beads, antique clothing, and anything else you could imagine.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g227615-d1322656-Reviews-Chez_Louisette-Saint_Ouen_Seine_Saint_Denis_Ile_de_France.html

Our final day before returning home (after our 11 day road trip) started at the Musee D'Orsay with a Van Gogh exhibit, then the beautiful Musee Rodin and ended at the Left Bank, for more shoe shopping (Richard for more cappucinno drinking), a trip up the Eiffel Tower, and a dinner of Raclette and fondue in the Left Bank near St. Michel.  *sigh*  Next time, I think we'll need a month in Paris.