We decided to visit Paris in December to see the Christmas lights and visit the Christmas markets, see the Christmas windows of Galleries LaFayette, taste the hot apple cider, eat the French pastries (yummy!). From JFK, it was just a short hop of less than 6 hours flight to Paris. Unfortunately, the strike of the railroad workers started the day before we were supposed to leave. We checked with Air France repeatedly and was assured that international flights would not be cancelled. However, we couldn’t predict that the flights coming from France would be delayed and of course we had almost a 3-hour delay. But we made it to Paris (proof is the picture above!). We had booked an apartment for 4 at the 6th arrondissement, Saint-Germain des Pres. Thong’s sister and niece would be joining us in Paris and their flight from Los Angeles was early! The owner of the apartment was absolutely helpful and gave us detailed directions on how to take the train RER to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to the apartment. Well, the train did not run! He very helpfully arranged for a driver to pick us up by van at the airport.
The ride from the CDG airport to St Germain des Pres took around an hour and a half. Traffic was horrendous even for a Saturday. When the metro/subway and trains do not run, the buses, taxis and cars were out in droves along with motorcycles, bicycles and electric scooters. Altogether, traffic was not much different than in other big cities like New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Beijing. On my previous visits to Paris, we always used the metro and trains so did not think twice about how bad the traffic on the surface streets would be!
The location of the apartment was absolutely perfect! We had restaurants all around the apartment, bakeries around the corners, chocolate stores, open Christmas markets with lights and we could walk from there to the Louvre, the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs Elysees, the Tour Eiffel, the boulevard Haussman with Galleries LaFayette and Au Printemps. We certainly walked on this trip: around 15,000 to 20,000 steps each day! (and we did not gain weight despite all the butter and chocolate we consumed). We got to see a lot more of Paris that we would normally bypass with the metro. The weather cooperated: cool, but not cold; some sprinkling but not outright rain. We learned how to get a taxi when we were too tired to walk any more. And I learned to give the location of the Church of St Germain des Pres as our destination to the taxi drivers! We had fun and we loved the pastries, the baguettes, the brioches feuilletees, the sausage, the cheese, the chocolate! What else can I say?
It was a marvelous trip, despite the strike and the increased security with police cars with sirens and lights, police on motorbikes waiting on nearby streets ready to roar off in a moment notice! On the day we left Charles de Gaulle airport, there were a large group of Yellow Vests that were protesting and blocking the Air France counters (we happened to catch a video of them that I posted below)
The food in the restaurants were all so good! French chefs really know how to do the sauces! Their desserts were just amazing! Unlike in previous visits where portions were so tiny (a lobster bisque was the size of an expresso!), the portions in the restaurants nowadays were so big, we all couldn’t finish them. We should have ordered one dish for the two of us, but we loved to taste all the dishes.
