flying with kids

Paris Part 9 – The long road home

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Monday finally arrived, and it was time to start home. And what a day it was.

Part 9A, Apartment no more

Everyone had to get up at 5 a.m. to get dressed and get out the door. The guy showed up at 5:30 and we returned our keys and (::whew::) got our security deposit back.

Side note, when we got home and I checked my emails, I saw that they had sent a few emails during the week saying that we owed them 50€ (about $65) for “early checkout”. Now, this fee was never mentioned at any time, including when we told them what time we would have to leave and arranged for them to get the keys. So 5 days into the trip you’re going to drop a $65 fee on us? I don’t think so. It’s not like we’re talking $10 here. Of course I didn’t have email access so I didn’t see those emails, and he didn’t mention it at all when he picked up the keys. For his sake, I think he made a wise choice there.

Overall, renting the apartment was a good move. It ended up being about the same as what we would have spent on a hotel room, but it was bigger, was in a better, more livable neighborhood, allowed us to do laundry (and thus take less luggage), allowed us to cook supper, was close to 4 (4!) metro lines, let us put the kids to bed in a separate room, and, to tell the truth, felt kind of cool, like I was really living in Paris. So there were many, many advantages. However, buyer beware! There was clearly a lot of shady stuff going on, and could easily have been way, way worse. It worked out well for us, but it just as easily could have gone sour. And nothing that happened in the trip made me feel better to where I wouldn’t worry about it just as much next time.

Part 9B, The race for the flight

After turning in the keys, we had to walk quite a ways to get to the train station. When we finally got there, we walked all over looking for the bus stop that would take us to the airport. We were a little late for the first bus, but we caught the second one. Once we finally got on the bus, but the bus driver told us we should get off at terminal F, which contradicted what we had been told previously, that we should go to terminal 1. We were a bit suspicious about this (how does the same airport have a terminal 1 and a terminal F? That’s not even the same numbering system!) but he seemed confident, so we took his advice. After wandering around terminal F for some time, we finally found a person to ask. She was like, “Why did you get off at terminal F? You should be at terminal 1.”

No problem, just hop on the airport monorail and take it to the opposite end of the line to terminal 1. We were a little nervous, but we just kept telling ourselves, “There is plenty of time, we built time into the schedule for things like this.”

However, when the man with the giant assault rifle told us we had to wait in the hallway until the bomb scare was over, we really started to worry. We would have worried even more if we would have known there was a serious national security threat to Paris that day, but as it was, we were totally disconnected from the news, and didn’t really have any idea until later that day. At the time, we were more worried about the nuisance and making our flight on time.

We debated leaving the terminal and getting a cab to the other side of the airport (that can’t cost that much, right?), but they finally let us through. We had to check in, check our bags, go through security (although, admittedly, French security is a little more lax than in the U.S.), and walk through what felt like half of the airport (the moving walkway was broken of course). Finally, however, we made it to the gate. We had given ourselves 5 hours lead time, and we didn’t even have time to buy coffee, because they had already boarded half the plane!

This time we had a seat behind the bulkhead and a “real” airplane bassinet that bolted to the wall. However, Oliver wanted nothing to do with it. The stewardess asked if we liked it and we were like, “Yeah, he didn’t like it” and she said, “I know, I heard from the back of the plane when you tried to put him in it.” It did provide a nice shelf to set things on, and the extra leg room was *very* nice.

Evie was pretty set for this flight, she watched Toy Story 3 3 times in a row, back to back to back. She kept saying she wasn’t going to watch it again, but then a few minutes later, she’d be hooked. I think she might have slept through the end the first time. Oliver was pretty fussy and we were constantly doing whatever we could to keep him happy (with mixed results). So it was good that Evie didn’t take much effort. Hey, at least they had changing tables in the bathrooms on the airplane.

Finally, after a long exhausting flight we made it. To Newark. Paris travel tip #8: for international flights, DO NOT choose a connecting flight. Fly direct, it’s worth it, even if it costs a little more. We had to get off the plane, claim our baggage, and go through customs before re-checking our bags and re-going through security. So it was like all the bad parts of going to the airport, twice. Not to mention the fact that we had gotten up very early and traveled on an exhausting flight already.

Evie did a good job of holding it together all day, except for one little exception. When we were going through customs, she had an absolute meltdown. This was, of course, the worst possible moment. We’re trying to be all calm and serious and making sure we do the right thing, and she is just screaming like a demon is trying to crawl out of her nose. We strapped her into the stroller and pushed her through the airport, kicking and screaming.

When we got to customs and the guy was looking through the passports, he said, “Is there another little girl down there I can’t see?” Evie immediately answered with something like “RAAAARGH!” It was sort of like transporting a Tasmanian Devil through the airport. Luckily, the guy was very nice and understanding, and he let us through.

I think, at this point, Sara and I were delirious. We were standing in line to go through security, and we realized that we had filled our water bottles before getting on the last plane, but we were going through security again, so we would have to empty them (for the 20 seconds that we went through the metal detector, after which, of course, we could fill them up again). I just remember at one point we were chugging these water bottles and then I dropped all of the passports all over everywhere and Sara and I were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. I was probably literally insane at that point (as if taking 2 small kids on a 12 hour airplane odyssey wasn’t proof enough already).

We had 2 hours to make our connecting flight, and it couldn’t have been 1 second shorter or we wouldn’t have made it. Finally we touched down in beautiful, blessed Chicago. The second I stepped off the plane, I was crushed in the face with a big allergy fist. It was weird, how immediate it was.

So now we’re back in Chicago, our long road is ended, right? Wrong. After we got our bags, we had to take a shuttle to the parking lot and then drive all the way home in rush hour traffic. Evie crashed hard in the car and couldn’t be roused for anything. It was a long, long, rough day on all of us, and I couldn’t blame her. Of course we were all up by4 a.m. the next day, but what are you going to do?

Part 9C, The End

So that’s it! 9 posts and over 14,000 words later, our trip is complete. I don’t know which was more exhausting, coming home from Paris, or writing these posts. But it was a good trip, and very complete, much like the aforementioned posts.

So, let’s review, shall we?

You can see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 here (this, of course, being part 9).

My tips for Paris travel:

  1. Watch what wines the French people buy, and buy those.
  2. Buy a timed ticket for the Eiffel Tower.
  3. Walk to Trocodero for good pictures of the Eiffel Tower.
  4. Dress up a little bit, or you’ll stand out like a sore thumb.
  5. Take advantage of the fresh food options.
  6. Buy a museum pass.
  7. Notre Dame Paris is not equal to Notre Dame South Bend.
  8. Fly direct.

And if any of you are still reading at this point, thanks! We’ll soon be back to our regular schedule of bacon and zombie links.

Paris Part 1 – Off to see the wizard

/ Shane / 2 Comments

The trip started off very stressful.

I had been working long hours for a couple of weeks leading up to the trip to get ready on the work side. The last two days were particularly bad, with nothing going well and working late into the night, and then too keyed up to sleep very well after that. Finally, on Friday night I said, “I need to start packing!” On top of that, the maids were scheduled to come while we were gone, so we needed to pick up the entire house before we left.

So I was a bit frazzled going into the whole thing. In addition, there was some question about how to actually get to the airport. Taking anything besides public transportation meant that we would need car seats. Also, we weren’t sure if we could arrange to not need any car seats on the airplane, or on the France side of things. However, we didn’t want to be lugging them all over Paris all week.

So we decided to park in a lot close to the airport and take a shuttle (I’ve never parked in a lot operated by someone other than the airport). As a compromise, we borrowed a CARES airplane harness from someone, and took one car seat that either Evie or Oliver could use. If, by some miracle, the plane was empty and Oliver could get a seat, we would put him in the car seat and use the harness for Evie. Otherwise, Evie would ride in the car seat, because we thought she’d be more comfortable (the CARES is very small, so it wasn’t a big deal to bring it and not use it).

As it turns out, the car lot was fine and Evie used the car seat in both directions. Literally as we were going out the door, I found the strap to hook the car seat behind one of the suitcases, for easy carrying. It was still a pain dragging it to and from our apartment in Paris (particularly in Charles de Gaulle airport, which is NOT set up to move wide things around)(kind of like the rest of Europe), but it wasn’t that bad.

Part 1A, Travel:

So we actually go to the airport early, and everything was fine. Not too shabby!

The flight went pretty well. Evie only wanted to eat pretzels the whole time. This sort of began her love affair with grains that would last the entire trip. The flight was direct and overnight, so Evie slept for about 3 hours and Oliver for about 3 1/2 (Sara and I got about 1 1/2 and 1 hour, respectively).

We had reserved a bassinet for the flight, which we had heard you could do, but never actually seen before. From what we could tell online, it would bolt to the bulkhead in front of you. So we were a little surprised when we got to our seats and they were just regular seats in the middle of the airplane, with no room to attach anything. We paged a stewardess over and told her that we had reserved a bassinet, expecting her to either say, “Whoops, you shouldn’t be in these seats!” or “Well, you can’t have one in these seats.” Instead she said, “Oh yes, they’re very cute, I’ll bring it out once we are in the air.”

Okay, you’ve flown before. I barely have enough room for my feet. Where the heck were they planning on putting a bassinet?? We later heard that there is something that actually slides under the seat in front of you, like a drawer. Aside from the fact that the person would have to have no legs, and that we had enough bags to take up the room under all of the seats, I am not going to close my baby in a little coffin and shove it under a seat! No thank you! So, needless to say, we didn’t hold the stewardess to her word, and we never saw the bassinet. I’m kind of wishing we had, just to see the thing.

The big trouble was trying to keep Evie from kicking the seat in front of her. At one point, when Sara was admonishing Evie for kicking, the lady turned around and said, “Thank you for trying.” When we got up to leave, the lady said that Evie had been very good, even if she was a little “kicky”. Oliver got a little fussy at times, but we mostly just had to stand up with him and he was okay.

Changing Oliver’s diaper was also very interesting. Sara managed to change him in the airplane bathroom, with no changing table. I don’t know if you’ve been in an airplane bathroom, but there is barely enough room for me, and certainly no room for a flat surface of any kind. I’m not sure how she managed it.

Especially when Oliver had an explosive one later in the flight. It was getting close to landing time, and everyone had been told go get in their seats. Sara asked the stewardess if she could get up to change the diaper. Her answer was something like, “I can’t give you permission, but…you have to decide that on your own.” In other words, get to!

Part 1B, Paris at Last:

Finally, we were on the ground in France!

The first thing we had to do was get the keys to our apartment. We decided to rent an apartment in Paris for the week, rather than staying at a hotel. There were lots of upsides: it was cheaper, we’d be in a real neighborhood with real French people, shops, etc., and we could do laundry and thus avoid bringing as much luggage with us. However, there were downsides too. We’d read about unscrupulous renters online, who nickel and dime you with hidden fees, and try to keep as much of your security deposit as they could. So we were a little nervous.

Right off the bat, things started bad. First off they told us we’d have to pay for electricity, which hadn’t been mentioned anywhere before. Then, they said we hadn’t paid the (substantial) security deposit, which we were sure we had paid. I had to run out and find a bank to get as much cash as I could (not sure how much we got charged for that), plus give up most of our cash on hand. This made us VERY nervous! (Not to spoil it, but it ended up that they were right and we hadn’t paid the security deposit, so we can’t hold that against them. However, we didn’t know this for a few more days).

Anyway, no matter how nervous we were, we walked away with the keys and a place to put our stuff, and then we hit the town for lunch. We found a little farmers market and bought a bunch of dried fruit and a few tarts. We had no idea what one of them was, but it looked good, and turned out to be pumpkin!

We spent the rest of the day more or less just walking around trying to avoid going to bed. Conventional wisdom says to try and stay up as long as possible, to avoid jet lag. For Evie and Oliver, as long as possible wasn’t that long, and they crashed hard. We weren’t doing a lot better, considering how little sleep we had had on the plane, to say nothing of the nights leading up to the trip.

We had promised Evie we would see a marionette show, but she fell asleep before we got there, and we couldn’t wake her up for anything. She was completely dead to the world. We tried and tried, and even came back for the next show, but she was out. Predictably, she was pretty disappointed later, but there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Finally we did some grocery shopping, to stock up in the apartment. Here is where I have my first tip for travel in France: how to buy wine.

Basically, we wanted to load up on wine, but we had no idea what to buy. The French take wine VERY seriously, but it is also pretty cheap. However, they don’t have the same varieties, etc. that we have here in the states, and of course everything is in French.

So here’s what you do: loiter about the wine isle as if you are really looking hard, trying to decide. Wait until a Frenchman comes in, watch what he buys, and then grab it the second he walks away. Rinse, repeat. This works especially good if the person appears to be a discerning consumer. One guy picked up several bottles and really studied them, before deciding on a particular one. We felt pretty good about buying that one!

This worked great, as all the wine was fantastic. I suppose you could use this trick anywhere you had to buy wine, not just France. But we were very happy with the ones that we ended up with. And guess what? They were under 5 Euro each!