We are back. The jet lag is seeping away and we are preparing for Christmas with family. But before all the festivities and food, a quick recap of our final days.
Our last days in Strasbourg saw us cleaning the apartment and and packing our very, familiar belongings. We endeavoured to not buy more clothes or "stuff" while we were in France and were mostly successful. Going through our personal items revealed a few socks would not be coming back to Canada and some kid's clothes items would also be left behind.
Our schedule was, for JBN to finish her exam Friday morning, say goodbye to the kid's teachers and school friends, Saturday morning take a taxi to the train station where we would go to Paris and then to fly back to Canada on Sunday. We were travelling with 3 Large duffel bags, 2 back packs, 2 roller cabin bags and a messenger style bag. Not to bad for living on another continent for 3 1/2 months. The train from Strasbourg to Paris is high speed and we saw speeds in excess of 310 km/h. This put us at Charles deGaulle Airport around 3:00 pm. We boarded to the shuttle to the hotel to be informed that we were at the wrong Novotel. There are actually 4 Novotel properties in very close proximity to CDG serviced by a variety of airport shuttles. We know this because we visited 3 of them (I am slightly curious about the last one, maybe next trip..).
The kids were exhausted by this point and overexcited as well. So we decided to skip going into Paris that night in favour of going in the morning. JBN did some research and found a car hire service that would be, basically, our personal chauffeur for the morning. If you are strapped for time I highly recommend doing this, especially for Paris. We wanted the kids to see the landmarks of Paris and we had a flight departing at 2:00pm. This left us little to not much time to see Paris by Metro. If we were to take the shuttle to CDG and then the Metro train to downtown Paris, that would be 1hr 20 minutes. The return to CDG would be about 1 hour and then the was the question of what to do with the luggage. The personal car service addressed all these concerns and removed the rush and stress. Our driver's name was Victor and he was born in Siberia but moved to Paris in 1995. While his English was better than my French, JBN was able to converse fluently with him. And it turns out, E was able to describe the car accident and his resulting bump over his eye to Victor completely in French. Victor drove us to the Eiffel Tower first as the sun was still rising. See the image gallery here.
We took the opportunity for a quick family selfie. From here we went back the car and Victor and he drove us to the base of the tower. We again left him behind and went under the base of the tower. We did not feel like we had time to go up the tower but I think the kids were impressed. I know I was.
Next we went over to the Champs Élysées and circled the Arc de Triomphe. One more stop was Notre-Dame de Paris, here, we left the car again and went inside. There was mass in session while we were there but that did not stop tourists from being allowed to look around. The incredible architecture may not have impressed the kids much but they were very quiet and respectful and E insisted on lighting a candle for my paternal Grandmother. After exiting the church we strolled down to Le Quasimodo Notre Dame restaurant for crepes and coffee.
Finally it was time to return to Victor and off to the airport. An uneventful departure and flight brought back to Canada and a renewed urgency to find a place to live. In the meantime, thanks to family, we do have a warm and friendly place to stay.
See the gallery of our day in Paris here.