I planned a trip to Brussels and all I got was a Holiday in Paris: My 1st Trip Report
 

Alrighty, I have been back for 5 days and am attempting my 1st trip report. Thanks to everyone who answered my posts pre-plan, though as you will see, I am not much of a planner.

<b> Warning: long-winded and includes tons of extraneous info</b>

First up, some preliminary background about us for perspective. The husband and I are in are early-mid 30s, from NYC, travel to Europe @ 3 times a year and do it all, for the most part on FF miles (coach works for us). We like to eat, drink, walk around, bars/cafes, hmmm, that is about it. He goes to museums, I sit in cafe--I know, the horror of it! I hate lines and crowds and the whole stop and go movement at tourist attractions/museums and try to avoid.

He works in web publishing, I am recovering from the fashion industry and do events and fundraising for a non-profit. With my event schedule, my travel time-options are limited to x-mas-new years (December), late May, and July-August. This is our December trip.

<b>Part 1: Planning the Destination</b>

Upon returning from Portugal in June, I immediately started looking for our next destination. I will admit that the Portugal trip was not entirely relaxing -- 3 weeks of me driving (I drive stick, the husband does not), the hills and cobblestones aggravated my mild MS, and somehow both of us picked up some sort of bug that had my GI tract screwed up for months. The goal this time was simplicity. To be fair, the wine was amazing and it was beautiful and I quite liked Porto.

After plugging in random cities to see what the FF miles would get us for free, we settled on Brussels. Neither of had been to Belgium, we had heard good things about Belgium, The food/drink was a selling point as was the not-so-cold temps which had me nix Berlin/Central &amp; Eastern Europe for December.

I booked him with his delta miles and me with one pass on a Continental flight to Brussels leaving on December 25, returning on January 8.

Then I decided--hmmm, that is a long time in Brussels, where else should we go? So, I did what I normally do, I consult my friend wikipedia and search smoking bans. Yes, we smoke. We enjoy smoking indoors. We wanted to go someplace that was liberal with smoking while there are still such places. France! The ban was set for January 1, 2008. Let's go to France again before the ban goes into effect! I nixed Lille, no more full on cobblestones again! Yes, they are charming, no they are not too fun walking in 4&quot; heels on day after day and I just had 3 weeks of it. I chose instead the unlikely, Paris. Three hours driving--that was doable.

You see, I have never been that enamored with Paris. I know, I am the only one. French countryside--love it! Southern France, Rhone region, Burgundy--check, check and check. They are great! I just could never get into Paris. So I decided to give it another go.

We decided to rent an apartment in Paris. We have never done the apt rental before (only upstate house rental)and frankly, will never stay in a hotel again unless necessary. After looking at tons of apts on vrbo.com, the one I liked best was #28993. It had an elevator and a balcony and is in the 3rd. Perfect.

Thanks fishee and some others who stayed there, which I unexpectedly found reviews on here. I'm kinda new around here and with all the apts, didn't even think that I'd find reviews of any of them.

Next up tickets, trains, assorted moments of doh!

Looking forward to the rest!

<b> Part 2: Tickets: a Comedy of Errors</b>

Some of this is rehash of some other posts I have made here, apologies for redundancy.

<b>Trains, planes and assorted mishaps</b>

<b>Trains</b>

I hate trains, really, I don't find them charming. I live in a city where commuting to work requires riding the train (subway) everyday and NYC subways leave something to be desired. They are dirty, crowded, constant jockeying for position and to get a seat, and people bring their bike aboard and strollers at rush hour. Seriously, why the bike--shouldn't the person with the bike be riding it?

Anyway, the train from Brussels to Paris was 90 minutes as opposed to 3 hours. I could suck it up and take the train, or drive and hope that weather is good. It was the same price either way. Comfort, i.e. car, or train. The husband had no opinion, though he'd be the one lugging all the stuff, including the filled, heavy cargo wine case back from Paris (it does not have wheels).

Another aside: the last time we did train travel in Europe was 9 years ago. Italy, Siena to Rome on the local. We stood on the crowded train the whole way. I was 24, it was not a backpacker's trip, but definitely done more on the cheap than I would do now. High maintenance? Yes, I will accept being called that.

Back to the story at hand, after consulting with the boards and some talk with the husband, I suck it up and buy train tickets. By this point I missed the 27 euro each way fare and can only get the 48 euro each way. They are semi-refundable, as if I cared at that point.

<b>Planes</b>

So a week after purchasing the train tickets, I am doing some online shopping and per usual, going through the Continental website to get extra miles for linking to whatever shopping site through there. I do my standard looking at how full the flight is and seeing if I should move our seats as I am obsessively wanton to do and I see that the flight is suddenly really full. Wow! A run on xmas day travel to Brussels? That's weird. Then I see the date on the flight--December 26! Wait a minute -- we booked to leave on December 25, arrive in Brussels the morning of the 26th and take the train to Paris on the 27th. Doh!

Turns out the canceled the flight and didn't inform me that they were moving us to another day. 1 hour on the phone with the continental rep gave me 2 options: fly delta instead to Brussels on the 25th (and hope that single flight does not get canceled), or take one of the 2 scheduled flights to Paris on the 25th. Either way, I had to get the husband on the phone and 4 way conference call with delta, continental, me and him.

I'd be out the 2 o/w train tickets to Paris and the deposit on the Brussels hotel if we chose the Paris option. Then again, we would avoid the train o/w. I first email the apt owners to see if the apt is available on the 26th. Shockingly, I had a response within a 1/2 hour. Indeed it was available, it was still cheaper to stay there and lose the o/w train ticket and deposit as the hotel was $150 euro vs. the apt at no charge for the extra night. Two and a half hours on conference call with aforementioned 4 parties later, we ad open jaw tickets: EWR to CDG on the 25th, returning from Brussels on the 8th. Oh and since we were staying in the same Brussels hotel from the 4th-8th, they waived
the cancel fee. Doh! turned into YAY!

<b>Doh! Again</b>

So we have our annual friend's over xmas party on the 23rd this year. That leaves us the 24th to pack and most of the day on the 25th. Cleaning up for us involves putting all the mail, netflix, stuff we are using into a box and putting it in the closet to be taken out the next day. I decide to leave the train tickets out in their fedex envelope next to the computer's CPU so they don't get buried in the box. We decide that we are now going to use one of those 3 ring thin folders with clear slots in it to organize our papers for the trip--flight, hotel/apt confirmations, train tickets--the stuff we need for the trip all organized neatly. We, naturally go to buy said folder at 5pm on the 24th, because that is the way we roll. Timely planning--check!

The folder and all the printed confirmations sit together near the desk. Of course we do not bother to organize the folder yet--we'll do that later, like on the plane or something.

We do laundry and pack. Why is everyone doing laundry at 7pm on the 24th? Oh yeah--because the whole building thinks that no one will be down there on a holiday.

We of course start screwing around and watching you tube videos since we are mostly packed at midnight. I have to say, we packed pretty light.

At 3 or 4am we decide to finish packing in the morning. We call for a car to take us to the airport on the 25th. 3:45pm sounds like a good time. At 3:30, we have not zipped our luggage yet and are scrambling. I call car service to move the car to 4pm--no luck, the driver is already outside--they are always 15 minutes early and seriously--car service is 2 blocks away! We get it all together and are outside and loading the car at 3:55pm.

Thirty minutes later we are standing in line at the airport to check luggage--I suddenly realize something. I left the train tickets at home, safe and sound where I put them on the 23rd so I would not forget. Doh!

Next up, we actually go somewhere, I guess that means a report of, um, the trip.

Thanks for reading jamikins. Am taking a brief break and will continue posting throughout the evening.

Oh no!!! I am an obsessive planner, so I am looking forward to hearing how the rest turns out!

I'm loving this so far and can't wait to read more!

<b>Part 3: Hey! This isn't my Terminal, I &lt;3 my flight attendant and we actually get on with our Holiday</b>

This is really odd, but I will admit to it. I really like flying out of Newark. Yes, it takes longer to get there and costs more--we live in the totes wrong direction, on the Lower East Side, spitting distance from the Williamsburg Bridge which takes us right to JFK on the BQE. Even so, I really like Newark airport. I look forward to my pre-flight drink(s) and meal at, of all places, the airport steakhouse (I don't eat meat). I guess it is an outpost of some famous Jersey steakhouse, and no, I cannot ever remember the name of it.

We breeze through the luggage-check and security and are off to the steakhouse. I haven't eaten all day in anticipation of my fried calamari and fried other crap and glass of wine. Something was off as we start walking to our gate area. One, it was sooooo hot at the airport I thought I was going to pass out and two, we are not in the usual international wing of the airport. We are in the ghetto section--the only places to eat are in a food court and the magazine stand is some sort of kiosk and they don't have as many magazines to choose from--I could only get 4 gossip rags and I didn't have time to get a Post because the car service was waiting and they don't sell the post at Newark because it is New Jersey and I could never figure out why that mattered. As if people from NJ don't read the Post! Worst of all-THERE WAS NO AIRPORT BAR IN THAT WING!

Ok, no steakhouse, no bar, let's hit duty-free to get our cigarettes. I walk into duty free and lo and behold I see the most magical shelf--it is a shelf filled with Gauloises! But wait, there's more! They have sale pricing on them --not $29 per carton, but 2 cartons for $50! We are hot and sweating, but we have 8 cartons of Gauloises.

Two notes here: One, I have never seen Gauloises in a US airport, two, they stopped selling them in the US because the manufacturer refuses to make them US compliant by using the paper that makes them auto go out when set down. Extraneous 3rd and 4th notes: I have no clue why they sold us more cigarettes than legal to bring in, usually they are sticklers at US duty free and I was still hoarding my last pack from the Portugal duty-free.

So we start walking to our gate and hope that there is somehow a bar/restaurant near the gate, no such luck. Instead there are a bunch of cranky women yelling in the bathroom line. We wait at the gate and are hungry and hot, our choices is Wok and Roll or McDonald's. I send the husband to get McDonald's. I am not feeling good about the start of this trip. Seriously--all the flights in our wing are to South Carolina and Mexico and 1 to Manchester, England. Very Strange.

<b>The Happiest Flight Attendants in the world</b>

We had managed to get bulkhead seats, perfect as we are both tall. I wasn't all convinced about the bulkhead as I try to do the aisle/window combo and hope no one will be in the center. The husband insisted we try this though. I'm all skeezed at the inability to lift my armrest and drape myself over him to sleep. Naturally, he does not like this as it hinders his space and ability to sleep. I allow him the bulkhead this time and he turns out to be right. We take our 2 benedryl and I fall asleep for just long enough to miss the drink cart by 2 seconds--doh! Now I am awake and am trying to buy my wine so I can get back to sleep. The attendant finally comes over and asks if we'd like free drinks the rest of the flight. Um, yes please. Turns out the other bulkhead in the front doesn't have the bassinet holder and would we switch with the creepy couple and their baby who literally spent the whole boarding and take-off in the bathroom with their baby and he seemed like a jerk.

The husband wakes up and starts freaking out on me for giving away our bulkheads for drinks even though I keep telling him that we are swapping bulkhead for bulkhead. He finds this all suspicious and refuses to trade. The flight attendant comes back all smiling and happy and confirms that we will be moving to bulkhead up front right after meal service. We then begin to get drinks from the business first cabin. Yay! Decent French wine not Beringer! I even got a real glass! God it doesn't take much with me, I have the free gene. If something is free, I get excited. We slept well and every time I awoke I'd have a new drink courtesy of my new friend, the happy flight attendant.

We arrive in Paris refreshed, if not slightly buzzed. Before landing, I did get a chance to brush my teeth, put in my contact lenses and are in a cab within 30 minutes of landing--that included clearing customs, getting luggage, euros and espressos. When did CDG get so easy and fast?

<b>There is only one I in Saintonge</b>

I swear for the life of me, it took like 10 days to finally stop saying Saintoinge. This meant that I had to hand the piece of paper with the address of our apt to the cab driver constantly. The husband could say it and he doesn't even speak any French, but not me.

We arrived a half hour early to Paris and with the quick out of the airport we were arriving at the apartment not around 10-10:30am like I anticipated, but at 8:30am! As we are driving, I call Guy and Jean-Michel to let them know we were on our way and to hope they were home and/or awake. I get the machine and leave a message. We drive around the block several times as a truck was bocking the way and the streets surrounding are mostly one-way, the wrong way. Either way, I see Frommagerie, Boulangerie--my 2 favorite words. And we finally arrive at the apt.

I actually am going to get into food and stuff at this point as I really have nothing more to say about the airport. Really.

But I am going to make dinner first and be back. I know I'm on the edge of my seat wondering what I will type next. *insert sarcasm here*

great post so far!! i am enjoying it a lot.

Cherry... you and I would make great traveling partners! I can deal with almost anything if given free wine. That is why I only travel Air France when going to Europe. I figure I get them for at least an extra 35 bucks each way!! Can't wait for the rest of your report!

Great start, cherrybomb! The free gene, I love it, my husband has that gene too. Looking forward to the actual trip.

Oh boy, a truly fun trip report! Cherry, free wine always makes me smile to, and in a nonplastic glass is the icing on the cake! Don't forget to come back here..

Forget your dinner, come back here and write.

Wow--I didn't think this would serve any purpose other than for me to write and pull out all the receipts from the &quot;organizing binder&quot;--it got used for something!

Anyways, I'm back at it. Thanks for not chastising my free drink gene and the endless rant on about the Gauloises.

It's nice to see some pleasantries being exchanged around here rather than snark. Ok, other than my own snark.

I love this trip report so far! Keep posting.

<b>Part 4: Boulangerie, Fromagerie, and Markets, Oh My!</b>

<b>The Apartment</b>

So we get to the apartment and luckily Jean-Michel is home, has picked up my message and is waiting for us with keys in hand. Yay apartment!

He shows us around the studio (I have a few things to say about this apartment that I will get to in a minute), and I'm all concerned with looking at the wash machine. It's not in the kitchen, it's not listed as an amenity on vrbo, but they assured me there was a washing machine when initially booking. Yes, I am aware that this is strange, but I packed based on having a washing machine and not having to do laundry in the sink--I become obsessed with clean laundry on vacation as the last thing I want to do when I get home is do all the laundry.

Anyways, I'm all and the wash machine? Ahhh behind the door in the bathroom. I think that Jean-Michel thinks I'm a freak because I'm all obsessed with it and asking about it. He made a comment like it's not like we'd be doing lots of laundry. Hmm, that's the problem, when presented with a washing machine *inside* my living quarters, I will do laundry like every day. At home, even though the laundry room is on the 1st floor--I don't do laundry. I can go weeks without it--I just buy more. The husband does the laundry every 3 weeks and it is a ton of stuff and a big production because he runs out. I'm all, just buy some more, he's all, you crazy girl.

So Jean-Michel leaves us to settle in after informing us that the 1 other neighbor is out of town the duration--score, we have the floor to ourselves!

I realize it is early and this will probably be the only time we are ever up this early--We are know to sleep til 2pm. Luckily, I am wrong.

We unpack, make some coffee, which the husband totally overdoes and makes a whole pot of espresso--by whole pot I mean 12 cups! I of course drink 2 large mugs. There is a point to this which will come soon enough.

The apartment is, other than the washer, as described (one caveat in a sec.). It is cute and bigger than the picture. Some people have written that they would not stay there as a couple, but I'm not sure why. Yes it is a &quot;studio,&quot; but still, it is bigger than a hotel room in spades. It does have a full size bed, but we have a full size bed at home, I think this bed though was an inch or two shorter than ours, I cannot figure that one out.

The kitchen layout is brilliant and as we were spying from the balcony when we went out o smoke, it was a common scenario and I can't for the life of me figure out why NYC rentals don't do the same. The refrigerator is half-sized with a small freezer compartment and there is no stove, just electric burners. This leaves more room to have storage and workspace and the like. And really, most NY'ers don't cook--the oven, it is for storage. Besides, one really could get away with not having an oven. I actually do cook, I rarely use the oven--I saute and such. (Ok, we get an awful lot of delivery and the guy at Plump Dumpling knows who I am when I call and even remarked that he knew we had been on vacation as I hadn't called in a couple of weeks when we got back, but at least he remembered what I ordered.) You don't know how many apartments I've seen that don't even have counters because of the whole oven and full size fridge configurations. Anyhoo, I was liking the whole apartment.

As other people have remarked, they provide 2 extensive binder books that are actually organized unlike the one that we bought and hadn't yet still put any of the papers in. One is menus of restaurants in the area that had a page for comments from other guests. There were not many comments, then again, we did not make any comments either. Guess everyone who stays there is as lazy as us.

The other book had a list of all the necessity shops, i.e. food/wine shops in the area. Now here is what no one says: literally you walk to the corner and the whole damn block is 1 gigantic market! Not just a market, but a market that is open like every day! Hi: Les Enfant Rouges market stalls are right there, around the corner! Could I be more pleased? This is a regular neighborhood lacking of throngs of tourists and faux literary cafes where someone at some point may have gone and by virtue of that you end up in an overpriced cafe with half-a$$ed food and a bunch of people reading their tour guide planning the next big day of activities. Sorry, I am digressing, but you see, this is why I never could get into Paris.

<b>Out the Door, Briefly</b>

As I said, we are not ones to get up early, as such we must immediately go to boulangerie to get croissant as it may never happen in the morning again. And bread and frommage and wine and water.

I have not had a croissant since 2003, really. I have not been to France in as long and I have not had croissant in as long. First stop: croissant. Luckily, Jean-Michel had the foresight to inform us that the best baguette is &quot;tradition&quot; -- we go out and get my croissant and the first of what will be dozens of baguette tradition. It cost an extra 20 cents, as well it should. That bread even held up for more than a day. What is in that bread? Why is it so much better than anything here? Sullivan Street Bakery--$2.50, crap, Balthazar, cheaper, does not compare, Falai, keep trying little buddy.

So with loaf in the husbands hand and and warm croissant in mine, we spend a minute walking back to the apartment so I can eat it -- ok, I ate half walking. We get back to the apartment only to realize--Doh!

Oh...that's cruel. I'll guess...you forgot the keys? You forgot enough wine to last the day? WHAT???????? :-)

Ack, I refreshed hoping that the next episode would be posted.

Double doh!

what? what?

<b>Doh! A Secret about the Apartment and our First Meal</b>

We're really hitting the ground running on this trip. Out the door for 4 whole minutes! Damn, talk about slow travel.

Back at the apartment we decide what to do. I ask the husband to hand me the mapbook. It is the Knopf version book that someone on here recommended waaaay back in July or something. Whoever it was was really into maps and did a whole post on maps and thought this one was better than Streetwise, which I normally buy, but kinda don't like because many times it is wrong, or missing a street and worse, it is laminated so it is hard to write on. The Knopf one saved us, so thank you map poster.

Anyways, I also ask for the Time Out. I am informed that we did not bring the Time Out as it was not in the pile on the nightstand and the husband apparently told me but I was rushing on the whole zipping up the bags thing while car service waited that I wasn't paying attention to him--Doh!

Ok, so we have no guidebook. The bars and shops and addresses to restaurants was in there, and while we'd probably not get to the places I looked at (see slow travel), it was something. Now, back to this Knopf business. Not only is it a map, it is a pocket size book that has areas broken down and includes some restaurants and bars and cafes and shops. And they weren't bad listings either--some of the stuff was in the Time Out, I recognized it. And we had the laptop.

We decide to head out finally for real at around 1pm or so and walk around and hit a few bookstores to see if they had Time Out--no luck. I did get some postcards that I really was going to mail this time, really. And mail them from our vacation destination, not from home like I sometimes do. Besides, I promised my grandma in October when I saw her that I would send her a postcard because she likes postcards and handwritten things and she doesn't use the internets and I rarely go home anymore and my guilt, yes, my guilt and trying to be an adult and mature and such had me buying 8 postcards. All the same. A kitty in a striped sweater and beret. It was sweet, really, it wasn't corny. Well, maybe a bit, but whatever. Oh and I did not send holiday cards this as to force myself to mail postcards in lieu. Either way, the newstand guy thought I was nuts. Not because I told him the story, but because I bought 8 Frenchy-Kitty postcards.

<b>Food</b>

We actually eat something, in a restaurant. After wandering around the area we decide to get lunch. Hey, this place looks ok. I translate the menu and carte for the husband outside and he is agreeable. We first passed by Cafe Charlot, which is busy, has smokers, looks fine, but looks like Schiller's. I am aware that it is really Schiller's that looks like Cafe Charlot, a common theme. Instead we walk up the block and go to Amisphere. This is the place where I translated the menu for him in advance. It is at the corner of Rue Charlot and Rue de Normandie.

Amisphere is a hybrid of 50's-60's mod and stark 90's mod design while still being homey/comfortable. We got in on the late end of lunch service. It was 1/3 full with design-people finishing up. The waitress/owner was a 50-ish woman with amazing overdone bright blue eyeshadow and black liquid eyeliner. She wore a red and black leopard print knit 3/4 length top, charcoal miniskirt and black tights. I believe she has been sporting that look for the past 30-some years. it somehow suited her.

For 24.08, I had an omelet with cheese and mushrooms, sans jambon, the husband had steak au poivre, though he she thought he said shallots and that is what he got instead. Both came with salad and fried and my omelet was like 5 eggs and overcooked. I was pleased as I prefer my eggs overcooked. There was waaay too much food though and I only ate half. We also had 2 cafes and 2 glasses of wine. The total price was for everything. We smoked while we ate--I miss that.

After eating, we walked around a bit, ended up on Rue Temple, which I renamed Delancey Street due to all the cheap shops and more traffic. The other areas were rather dead as many stores and businesses were closed for holiday week(s).

We also took a couple pictures and called it time for buying supplies.

<b> Supplies and Secret of the Apartment.</b>

Back to Rue Bretagne for frommage, wine and water. First order was to get cheese. We had bread, we needed cheese. And Wine.

An aside: I food restrict at home and love nothing more than bread, cheese and wine. If I could, that is all I would consume. I would also be 200 lbs if I did that in the US. In Europe, all bets are off and for some reason those items, even when consumed in massive quantities do not affect my weight. In fact within 2 days, I had dropped the usual 5 lbs and was in no way shape or form ever bloated, or as I like to say, pregnant with food. I am not ED, my quack doctor also has me off those items to keep my immunity system in check. I have since come to the realization the food bloat has to do with more salt used in the US than in certain countries abroad and the food is purer. But whatever.

Cheese! We hit the frommagerie and bought a bunch. We hit the Diagonal for water. We hit Nicolas for wine. We stopped going to Nicolas after a few days as we found the best wine shop ever and I can say that Julien, Cavist at 50 rue Charlot is a much better choice for wine. I highly recommend going out of your way to go there. More on that later.

Back at the apartment, we got the wifi going, drank some wine, Nicolas let us down in the wine department, and realized the other door in the apartment led to something and we were determined to figure it out.

No one has said anything about this, but the studio apartment was really a 1 bedroom with the bedroom locked off. It was dark and we couldn't fully see inside yet but later would spy.