Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2022 May Day 01 - Hello Paris (France) Again.

We’re traveling again! Today is the 18th of May…in Paris, France. But we left the SLC airport at 9:30 AM on May 17th. Our initial flight took us backwards to San Francisco where our flight to Paris was leaving at 2:30 PM. Unfortunately there were mechanical issues with the plane and we left 2 hours late. In between flights, we did use our Priority Pass at different restaurant called ‘Mustards Grill’…or something like that. The food was ok…but REALLY expensive. But who cares, Priority Pass covers $28 per guest and allows for two guests. So it works out well.

One of the interesting things on our flight to Paris was that I could have got better seats had I flown stand by. It was tempting to list myself for a 2nd reservation. We bought one-way tickets to make sure we made it to Paris to be with Mike, Jenny and some of their kids….the cheapest, Basic Economy. The system assigns seats in these cases. The good news was that it put Denise and I together. The bad news, we were on row 52 in a plane where there were only 53 rows. And I can’t recall when I’ve been more uncomfortable flying. The plane was pretty much full, maybe 5 or 6 seats not taken. But that was after a few stand by flyers got on and got Premium Economy. So I paid money and got worse seats. You’d think the system would look at stand by flyers who have purchased seats under an employee and treat them equal to stand by flyers possibly giving them better seats. But their systems are not engineered that way. The system does know we are stand by (Pass Rider) flyers as it does not charge for checked luggage and puts us in Boarding Group 3. They just need to go the next step and include us as revenue stand by and place us at the top of the list. :-)

We arrived in Paris at around noon. Getting through customs was not bad…about 15 minutes. The walk to the train into Paris was about a 15 minute walk…but the SLC airport has prepared us for such walks! The train into Paris was over crowded and very, very hot and muggy. Some college aged girls wiggled their way on to seats by us, over our carry ons and all. The one I spoke with most was from an island country on the east side of Africa. She was Muslim and full dressed as such. She had to be really hot. We arrived just fine to our first and only train connection. After a couple of stops, we got off and walked about 100 yards to our AIRBNB. Mike, Jenny and their kids are out touring. We’ve been here and done Paris. So we think we’re going to relax and maybe catch up to them for dinner. But we’ll see. The AIRBNB is nice…but no A/C. But lots of fans are blowing and if the sun is not beating down, it feels ok.

Well…I wanted to get the Blog going. More to come I suppose later tonight. And I hope to post some pictures too.

So around 5 PM, Denise and I decided to go to the Eiffel Tower hoping to meet up with Mike, Jenny, Riley, Josh and Zachary there as they had indicated that they would be going there. Well, we found our way on the subway to the tower and walked underneath it a bit eventually finding a nice bench in the shade to wait for them. We eventually received a call from Mike saying that Riley was too wiped out from traveling today from SLC and that he and she were headed back to the AIRBNB. But Jenny, Josh and Zach were going to come and meet up with us…which they did. It is great to see all of them. Josh being just back from a mission and Zach has his papers in and is waiting.. We walked around the tower taking some pictures. We eventually headed to the Subway and headed to the AIRBNB. We were getting hungry.

For dinner, Zach wanted us all to try the French ‘Tacos’ here that are apparently made in most greasy spoon places on the street. So that is what we did. We walked a couple of blocks to get to one of these greasy spoons. The food was pretty good. They actually made ‘Donor’. We ate a lot of those in Germany. Anyway…it was all good.

We are all back in the AIRBNB. It is almost 9 PM here and Denise and I are heading to bed. Our room is on the front of this very hot apartment…so I have the windows open, with only security bars to the sidewalk on the street. It is still light so people walking by get a full view of me snoring I guess. I’ll take a picture! Mike, Jenny and Riley headed back to the Eiffel Tower (about 45 minute train ride) to see it at night. Go get ‘em guys….more energy than I have.

Until tomorrow…..

Pictures:

Our big bird. 777-200. I’m always amazed these big ships get off the ground with over 250+ people an all their things on it.

The International Terminal has a small, but nice patio that you can go out to and get some nice fresh air. It was a little breezy making it a bit cool. So we did not last too long.

Lounging around waiting, waiting, waiting. I took some time to brush up on the Paris Metro system so it did not surprise me once we arrived.

Us at our gate watching the ground crew work. They do lots, as it turns out.

Five years ago in April, we were taking the same shots. have we aged? You’ll have to go compare!

Denise with her two handsome nephews. She really loves being with her family a ton…no matter where we are in the world!

Nice photo of us with tower behind us. Too bad Jenny could not be in the picture with us. But good picture Jenny!

I took this picture sitting on the edge of my bed. People walk by fairly often between the window and the cars…and they kind of glance in. I hope it cools down quickly so I can close these windows as I know there will be street lights.