Go Back  Fodor's Travel Talk Forums > Destinations > Europe
Reload this Page >

MaiTaiTom's Paris When It Sizzles; Paris When It Fizzles Anniversary Trip

MaiTaiTom's Paris When It Sizzles; Paris When It Fizzles Anniversary Trip

Old Jan 27th, 2015, 07:46 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 10,257
Likes: 0
Received 21 Likes on 2 Posts
MaiTaiTom's Paris When It Sizzles; Paris When It Fizzles Anniversary Trip

(the long delayed trip report has finally been started. If you’d like to follow along on my new and improved website with photos…shameless plug…you can click on the link…otherwise, here we go)

http://travelswithmaitaitom.com/chap...t-smell-right/

CHAPTER ONE: Something Doesn't Smell Right

Flying at roughly 36,000 feet above Greenland, with an oxygen mask covering a good portion of my face for the better (or worse) part of two hours, as Tracy and I sat in the galley of an Air Tahiti Nui flight from Paris bound back to Los Angeles, two thoughts quickly came to mind.

First, "Will I survive the flight?" and secondly, "If I do, will the passengers seated near us kill me before we arrive?" I was suddenly the guy on the plane I hated most..."the damned sick guy!" Not just another pretty face, eh?

The situation looked fairly grim. On the plus side, the legroom in the galley was much better than coach.

This wasn’t quite how I had envisioned the Tracy/Tom Romantic 20th Anniversary Trip to Paris would eventually end up, but as they say, “The best laid plans of mice and men.” Oh, we’ll get to the mice later.

The original plan was a relatively simple one: Spend ten days and nights in Paris in a Marais apartment while enjoying some of our old haunts, exploring new ones and walking leisurely through arrondissements we had not previously explored. I had also chosen this period of time because the first weekend was Journées du Patrimoine, and there were a couple of places I really wanted to see that are not usually open to the public, including the interior of the Hôtel de Ville.

We even had a rendezvous set up with a couple of Fodorites, dinner with the daughter of our friends Kim and Mary, plus a reunion with some old friends we hadn’t seen in six years. The trip was shaping up nicely.

Then, a few days before we were to leave for Paris I received an ominous email. In hindsight, I should have followed my first instinct and postponed the trip, but unfortunately foresight is not 20/20. That scenario set the wheels in motion for a trip where everything seemed to go a little bit sideways from Day One.

Had I written this a few months ago, the report would have been in a much more negative tone than it is today, but with further time to reflect, I can be a little more objective and laugh at what turned out to be a comedy of errors…not to mention (although I will) what turned out to be a fairly serious disease that helped derail numerous plans. Sadly, our anniversary vacation to Paris certainly did not come close to living up to our expectations. But as Doris Day once said (ok, she sang), “Que sera será.”

My motto at the end of all my reports is…”Enjoy The Journey! Attitude is Everything!” I’ll be the first to admit that this was one journey Tracy and I did not (especially the second week) particularly enjoy, but as for attitude...it’s still everything.

From the good to the bad...

DAY ONE: Strike One, Jerry Lee Lewis Takeoff, A Flying City, Pilot In A Hurry, S**T Happens, Are You Smoking A Cigar, Outdoor Respite, A Hot Time In Paris, Man You’ve Got A Big Head, Glad You’re Not Related, Panning The Contessa’s Pot Store, An Evening Stroll, Model (s) Citizens & A Smoky Sleep

The idea seemed foolproof...spend ten wonderful days in our beloved Paris to belatedly celebrate our 20th anniversary. We were looking forward to so many things, including having a special anniversary lunch at Chez Fernand, sipping champagne at our special table (here we are in 2012). What could possibly go wrong?

A few days before departure, I received the email that said (not quoting exactly), “Air France would like to inform you that we intend to screw up your vacation as much as possible by striking the day before you leave Los Angeles for Paris. Hopefully, this will not be an inconvenience, although we will try and make it so whenever we can.”

I contemplated postponing our trip to a later date, but we had our Marais apartment set up, and both of us had really looked forward to our romantic anniversary trip, so I called Air France and moved our trip up. Now we would depart two days earlier, giving us 12 days in Paris.

Our apartment was occupied for those first two days, so we had to scramble to find a Paris hotel quickly, most of which were booked thanks to Fashion Week (the same thing that complicated our London trip the year before). We finally used some American Express points to book what looked like a very nice hotel near Notre Dame (more on that complete disaster later).

On Sunday morning, we arrived at LAX, checked out the digs at the new international terminal and then boarded what looked like a flying cruise ship. I have lived in cities smaller than the Air France A380, which looked like it could hold the entire population of Rhode Island.

We started barreling down the runway…it seemed like it was taking quite a while to get those wheels up...so long that I believe Tracy finished her first book before we were airborne. After a rather rough few seconds to get airborne…with a whole lot of shakin’ going on…we were in the air. The rest of the flight was uneventful, the food was good and we landed at CDG about a half hour early on a sunny Monday morning.

The landing was not one of the better ones we have encountered either. I believe our pilot just wanted to get the hell back to Paris, land the damned thing and join in the strike. I’m surprised she just didn’t deploy the chutes and have us slide on to the tarmac as we rolled to a stop.

Tracy and I caught a taxi, made it into Paris with no traffic (€49) and found ourselves in front of a charming hotel. We were ready to go…unfortunately the hotel was not.

We walked up the charming walkway to the Meliá Colbert (who I thought was Stephen’s little sister) and strode up to the lady at the front desk. “Bonjour, we are Mr. & Mrs. MaiTaiTom, and we have a reservation for the next two nights.”

Upon hearing our names, her pained facial expression looked just like a Green Bay Packer fan after their choke against Seattle. “Wait just a minute,” she said, fumbling though some type of fake folder to make it seem like she was really trying to find our room. Then came the words that started our trip off in a crappy manner…literally.

“I’m very sorry, but your room has a broken toilet.” I’ve never won the lottery, but I guess we were the lucky ones out of 39 rooms to have THE broken toilet. Why it was our room, I haven’t a clue.

Tired and in desperate need of a shower, I wanted to stick the pen sitting on the front desk directly into her heart, however being the polite U.S. tourist that I am…I refrained from violence. Instead I asked politely if there was another room we could have. Of course, the answer was, “no.”

Oh, but joy of joys, they did have a room at their sister hotel, the Meliá Vendôme Hotel, located near the Place de Concord, an area of Paris we tried to stay away from, but, we now had no choice. I did ask if they would comp anything for this crappy experience (I did say it nicely, however), but they said they would only pay for the taxi ride.

Unfortunately, we would have to return the next day, because (1) the Meliá Vendôme was full on Tuesday night and (2) because, I guess the toilet at Meliá #1 would be magically fixed by then (in all honesty, I believe the only thing that was full of s**t at Melia #1 was the receptionist’s excuse). I think it was her story and not the hotel room that didn't pass the smell test. Tracy quickly took the pen out of my hand that I had picked up, saving the desk lady from certain death, and we were on to our next hotel.

The taxi ride from Meliá #1 to the next Meliá seemed to take as long as it did from the airport to the first hotel thanks to the Parisian traffic, made worse by the fact that it was Fashion Week. The check-in people at Meliá #2 were friendly enough, and we got to our room…a very tired looking room (especially for the price) that would accommodate two tired people for one night.

One positive aspect of Meliá #2 was its large and modern bathroom, but as I entered the shower, the air wafting (I really hate that word in trip reports, but it kind of fit here) into the bathroom suddenly smelled stale. “Tracy, are you smoking a cigar,” I shouted out? Of course, she wasn’t, but the air coming into our room from the air vents smelled like a Groucho Marx poker party (you younger people can Google him). I did say a “Secret Word,” but I can’t use it in a trip report.

At this point, I didn’t feel like complaining anymore, and I thought with only one night here the chance of contracting lung cancer in such a short period was rather miniscule. So instead, we headed out to lunch.

I just wanted to get anywhere, so we took the metro and headed toward the Place du Dauphin. I had wanted to go to some joint called Taverne Henry IV, purported to be one of the oldest wine bars in Paris. I had read a review that it was a “casual, no frills bistro,” but once we got there I decided I was in the mood for a few more frills than this place had to offer. By this time, lack of sleep and murderous thoughts had clouded my judgment, so we might have passed on a wonderful spot. Maybe I’ll find out someday.

We ended up eating outside at a place called La Rose de France, 24 Place Dauphine. It was expensive, but at this point I really didn’t care about money…I just wanted to sit down and relax. The lunch was quite good. I had a risotto with shrimp and lobster sauce, while Tracy enjoyed a salad with tapenade toasts. Now that I think about it, the vin rouge might have been the reason the tab was so high.

Trying to put the earlier hotel fiasco behind us, we hit the pavement.

First we walked across the Pont Neuf, said hello to Henry IV...

...and past the old Samaritaine Department store.

We walked over to see the construction at Les Halles. It was really hot. It seems that we hit Paris about the same time as summer finally hit Paris. We were having a heat wave. Soon, we were inside L’É́glise Saint-Eustache, where Louis XIV took communion and Mozart’s mother’s funeral was held.

The church takes its name from a 2nd century Roman general who converted to Christianity and was then burned at the stake with his entire family.

Located inside L’É́glise Saint-Eustache is the tomb of a 16th century French Minister of Finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert. I started yelling at him, but Tracy had me stop, reminding me that he was not necessarily related to Melia Colbert and her fake defective toilet.

Heading outside, we saw a giant head with a giant hand cupped to its ear. This gigantic stone head is called L’Écoute, which means, “Listen.” Tracy said I should remember that sculpture’s motto when she speaks to me. I think she was attempting to make a point, but I wasn’t really listening.

As we walked back toward our hotel area, we passed by a store Tracy had very much wanted to visit, E. Dehillerin. Contrary to seemingly everyone’s reviews and perhaps because we were very tired, we were not overly impressed by this store. One of our favorite cookbook authors, the Barefoot Contessa, loves E. Dehillerin and shops here frequently, but fortunately my wallet escaped unscathed.

We continued our walk that took us by interesting architectural buildings, through the Galerie Vero-Dodat and by the colorful Palais Royal Musée du Louvre metro stop.

Back at Meliá #2, we took a late afternoon power nap (7 minutes whether we needed it or not). The cigar smell would periodically creep into our room, but I just pretended I was drawing to an inside straight with Groucho puffing away next to me. We like to stay up and not sleep during the first day of our overseas trips, so soon we were back outside on an early and beautiful Parisian evening.

First, we walked by Galignani, which claims be the "oldest English bookstore on the continent.”

Then it was time to stroll through the Tuilleries (the nearly autumn colors were stunning).

Next stop was the Place de la Concorde and its beautiful fountains...

… and obelisk.

We bore witness to the incredible traffic on the Champs Élysées (still can’t believe I navigated that street a couple of years ago without killing anyone)...

…meandered up toward the Madeleine and by a store where we didn’t stop.

The patisserie reminded me that I would not be losing weight in Paris, no matter how much we walked.

We saw the lights on at Le Souffle, but since we were so tired, a really nice meal would be wasted on us tonight.

As we walked, we passed by a number of tall, slender, relatively gorgeous women who we believed, by our incredible powers of deduction, were some of the models attending Fashion Week.

After walking for more than an hour, we just decided to park our tired butts outside at the last available table at the Brasserie Flottes, located near our hotel on rue Cambon.

Our light dinner was enjoyable, if not memorable, however, I love those Paris frites...

…and French Onion Soup!!

We somehow made it up to the magic bewitching hour of 10 p.m., and even with the smell of cigar smoke filling the room, we enjoyed a good night’s sleep, even if my lungs did not (foreshadowing alert). Tomorrow would be our first full day of exploring Paris once again (including something I have to do every decade) after schlepping our stuff back to Meliá #1.

Next: DAY TWO - Climb Quest, Navi(no)Go, A Walk in the Parc, If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Closed, The Incredible Smoking Woman, Navi(go)go, Louis Louis (and more Louis), Dead Kings And Many Things I Can’t Define, I’m Walking Here and Satisfying Our Tastebuds
maitaitom is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:06 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Great Report, MTT.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:15 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 43,531
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes on 1 Post
About time ! BUT worth waiting for
cigalechanta is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:20 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I recommend reading the one from the link; the Groucho photo helps get point across. Chuckling throughout.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:23 AM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 17,948
Received 22 Likes on 4 Posts
Wonderful report. We had hotel disasters like yours on our first trip to Paris. Looking forward to following along...
HappyTrvlr is online now  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:23 AM
  #6  
ekc
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,645
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Looking forward to more Tom!!
ekc is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:34 AM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,857
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Loving this - well, except for the crack about the Green Bay Packers, but I am not bitter. Much.

Looking forward to more - because even if it was not your dream trip, your trip reports are always a dream for us!
LCBoniti is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:37 AM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,919
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Ruh roh.

(looking forward to more!)
Elizabeth_S is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:46 AM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Looking forward to the rest of the adventure!
LowCountryIslander is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 08:58 AM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 662
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Signing on for more - great start!
YankyGal is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:02 AM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 23,763
Likes: 0
Received 6 Likes on 1 Post
Don't push him, stokebailey. He's probably just out of the hospital from that trip.
kerouac is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:08 AM
  #12  
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,074
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Looking forward to reading more of this great report
tdk320n is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:27 AM
  #13  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 4,863
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'm along for the ride. Great report!
Trophywife007 is online now  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:34 AM
  #14  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 4,849
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
On board.
nukesafe is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 09:39 AM
  #15  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 57,091
Received 5 Likes on 3 Posts
bmk to read later. yippee!
annhig is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 10:26 AM
  #16  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 10,257
Likes: 0
Received 21 Likes on 2 Posts
"Don't push him, stokebailey. He's probably just out of the hospital from that trip."

Funny you should write that, kerouac. As I was about ready to post this morning, I got one of those crazy dizzy spells that reminded me of a few of my TIAs I had a couple of years ago. I told Tracy that I blamed bad memories of the Meliá Colbert receptionist on my condition. It looks like I will be well enough to write Day Two, but the odds on me completing this report has now dropped to 60-40. Just kidding...I'm fine.

maitaitom is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 10:35 AM
  #17  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,372
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"The church takes its name from a 2nd century Roman general who converted to Christianity and was then burned at the stake with his entire family."

If that's what happens to one when one converts, think what could have happened to you and Tracy if you didn't toe the line and take a taxi to the alternate hotel when so ordered by the receptionist.

After hearing a similar tale about conversion gone wrong in Oxford, England (not involving a Roman general, but most definitely involving a stake) I have decided it pays to humour the locals.

I impress everyone with my finesse at making a Mai Tai. Naturally, I don't tell them where I got my education.

Looking forward to more.
Sue_xx_yy is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 10:53 AM
  #18  
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 497
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Yeah! I knew this trip report would be worth the wait. Love the pictures that go along with it on your website.

Hope you're back to good health!
tracilee is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 10:57 AM
  #19  
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 4,046
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
On board as well.
I've been looking forward to your report...terrific start.
sugarmaple is offline  
Old Jan 27th, 2015, 11:10 AM
  #20  
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 354
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Joining in- I've got the feeling that this is going to be hood!
Poconolady is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -