quick trip to Paris

On Monday, Sept. 13, Rod needed to return to Paris so he could catch his flight back home Tuesday morning and return the rental car. I went with him. (who says no when asked to go to Paris?)

We decided to leave early Monday so we would be able to spend time in Paris. We got the kids off to school Monday morning then we got in the minibus thing for the 5 hour drive up to Paris.

The plan was to park on the outskirts of Paris and take the Metro into the center of town.

We found a parking garage, pulled in and started going down a ramp. At the bottom of the ramp was a low ceiling. Too low for our minibus. Yikes! We did not need to take off the top of our rental car.

I hopped out in the hopes of trying to find a parking attendant and Rod had the pleasant job of backing the minibus up. To my relief, I found a person who worked there. Rod was able to maneuver the minibus in reverse back up the narrow ramp.

I had to explain the problem in French to the parking guy. He told me it was no big deal and I should just pull over wherever I found room. I didn't trust my interpretation of what he said so I dragged him over to the car. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed to a wall. He told us just to pull up next the wall and park. Okay. They are a little relaxed about parking here. They will just pull up on the sidewalk park wherever they find room.

Once we got over the parking problem we spent the afternoon in Paris. Rod had a conference call at 4 pm. Here is a picture of him on his conference call in a park in Paris.

While Rod was on his conference call I walked around the outside of the park. It wasn't a big park. I found the house and museum of Victor Hugo. Just a little museum tucked in a corner.

After his conference call we went and found an outdoor cafe. It was a beautiful afternoon and the people watching was great. Really great!

Our hotel was up near the airport and we didn't want to look for it in the dark so we headed up toward the airport. We took our rental car back to Avis. We were so relieved to return the car intact. It had been a pain for Rod to drive such a big car around. We were all smiles at the Avis counter. The Avis clerk said she was going to check out the car and be right back. She came back in and told us there a scratch on the back and we had to pay for it. The scratch that was on the car when we picked it up!!! Are you kidding me? We almost took the top off the car and you are worried about a little scratch? (No we didn't tell her that!)

After some arguing it all worked out. The scratch had been on the car when we picked it up. But she was a buzz kill after our lovely afternoon.

Tuesday morning Rod had to get on his flight and I had to catch a train. It was hard to say goodbye. Very hard.