The only thing scheduled for Monday was the trip to Paris. We were flying Air France departing JFK at 4:10 in the afternoon. I decided it would be more comfortable to wait around in the Air France lounge than at the hotel. (The hotel wasn't too good!!). So we drove our rental car from the hotel to JFK a trip that took about 10-15 minutes. Then another 10 minutes just trying to find the Enterprise return area. The signage at JFK is terrible.
Although we were late departing, we arrived in Paris on time. It was easy going from arrival all the way to the hotel. We hadn't had much sleep on the trip over, so we went to our room and crashed.
Granny had arranged for an introductory tour in the afternoon. At 1pm we were met in the hotel lobby by our tour guide - Maria Rihte. Our walking is quite limited so we didn't go too far. Fortunately we are very close to the Palais Royale. Once you enter the "area" you have no idea that you are in the middle of Paris. It is truly amazing!
The Regina Hotel opened in 1900 and is an elegant, classic hotel. across the street from the Louvre. From our room, we have a good view of the Eiffel Tower and directly across the street is the Louvre.
Lobby of the Regina Hotel
We got to the terminal a little before noon only to find that Air France doesn't open their checkin until 1pm. So, instead of sitting around at the hotel we had to camp out at JFK for over an hour. Eventually we made it to the Air France lounge and it was quite comfortable.
Once on the plane, Granny settled in pretty quickly.
We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Although it looked close on the map, we decided to take a taxi because we had done quite a bit of walking. BIG MISTAKE!! The taxi driver had no idea of where we wanted to go and drove us around in circles trying to find the restaurant. Finally we got there and had to pay 2 to 3 times what it should have cost. We didn't make the same mistake on the return - we walked and it only took about 10 minutes even at our pace.
Dinner was at Cafe des Abattoirs. It is a small, unassuming neighborhood restaurant. Both the food and service were good - not exceptional - but good. We returned to the hotel ready to hit the hay. It had been a pretty full day.
Granny and Maria stopped at a perfume shop to get some "common scents".
Later, Maria and I walked to a store to get Granny a couple of walking sticks. On the way back we passed by the building that at one time housed the Embassy of the Republic of Texas. I had never realized that at one time Texas considered itself a separate country.
Look closely at the top panel in the picture on the right.
