A Summer in France – Our First Bucket List Trip

Our first exciting retirement adventure begins with a Summer in France, our first bucket list trip. We’ve been planning a lifetime for the moment we were both retired and it’s finally here. There’s been lots of turmoil, demonstrations and national strikes in France in the past several weeks. President Macron ordered an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64. This started the upheaval and we’ve been following it closely. In spite of these difficulties, we decided to continue with our Summer in France plans and flew to Paris this week. We fly standby free, so packing for a three month adventure calls for one roller board and backpack per person. No checked luggage allowed as we might not get a seat, or we may have to fly into a different country at the last minute. So we set out everything we needed and packed it all into the roller boards only to realize there were no clothes left to put in the backpacks. I guess we’re more efficient than we thought. Or we forgot to include lots of things. We’ll find out as our adventure continues.

We are flying from Houston to Washington, DC and then to Paris. Two days before leaving, there were only a few seats remaining to DC, but 22 first class seats available to Paris. So we definitely couldn’t miss the connection. We decided not to risk it and used miles to book a confirmed seat on the first leg of our trip. It was a great strategy as the flight ended up oversold. Since we had plenty of time when we arrived in DC, we headed to the United Club lounge for an afternoon of free cocktails and food.

Leaving the USA

It was in the lounge when Danny realized he forgot to pack his exercise bands. Oops. Oh well, we’ll get plenty of exercise walking and hiking and it is a vacation after all. Of course the more I think about it, maybe it was intentional. A few hours in the lounge, and a few more drinks later, we were assigned seats in Polaris First Class! Woohoo! France here we come and in comfort and style too. I love the pod seats with the lay flat beds and the service is amazing.

We decided to stay at a hotel near the airport to spend a few days resting up from jet lag. It’s also convenient to pick up our leased vehicle from Auto Europe. The day we arrived was the scheduled national strike day for transportation and many other workers in France. We just didn’t want to deal with the demonstrations, delays, and other issues. Trash hadn’t been picked up in 3 weeks either. What a mess. We opted out of staying in inner city Paris for this part of our journey. We’ll have an apartment near the Eiffel Tower for a month later this Summer.

A Day in Meaux, France

Our second day here, we decided to take a bus to the town of Meaux. Mass transit is very cheap. It took about an hour from the hotel and the ticket was only €2.10 ($2.28). Meaux is located on a bend in the River Marne.

The historic old city is nestled inside the town’s ramparts which still remain from the 12th century. Other landmarks include the Gothic Saint-Étienne Cathedral built from the 12th to the 14th centuries and the Town Hall. Meaux is also famous for it’s brie and mustard.

For the rest of the afternoon, we enjoyed wandering around the ancient winding streets. We also enjoyed a light lunch of a croque monsieur sandwich with the local Brie de Meaux…delicious.

A quick trip into Paris

The weather was nice today. So, we decided to take a quick trip into Paris after all to check out the location of our apartment once we return. Since the 3 week strike without trash pickup finally ended yesterday, we wanted to see how the cleanup was coming along. Curiosity got the best of us. Can you find Danny in the photo?

Surprisingly, lots of cleanup was already completed. We stumbled across this street where trash hadn’t been removed yet. This satisfied my curiosity about what we were going to find.

There are more adventures to come during our Summer in France, so stay tuned…