SUMMARY We dodged, mostly successfully, rain all morning. After breakfast and picnic shopping at the covered market we did have to wait for a major thunderstorm to pass over. Dropped the rental car and caught the train to Paris. Someone near us smelled atrocious! We didn’t pull out our stinky cheese until we were off the train but I doubt anyone would have noticed it. We had our picnic at the Jardin l’Atlantique on top of Montparnasse station which didn’t previously know existed. Had beautiful weather for our long walk to the RER station and long train ride out to Charles de Gaulle airport and our hotel for the night. Our good intentions to take a night off from booze went by the wayside after the incredibly hot and crowded RER (did I mention long?) ride. - Karen
DETAIL We get up and the sky is blue and the sun is brightly shining. We’re off to a good start. No breakfast this morning just coffee in the room. In bed we surf the web and relax. Outside the sky gets dark and rain starts coming down. Slowly at first and then harder. We’re displeased. Rinse and repeat. Ugh.
Hertz, on the phone, says no problem (we assume this means no extra charge) to keep the car an extra hour.
We pack and walk into town for breakfast. Everywhere is either closed or just has croissants. At the covered market we get coffee at the counter and I ask about croissants or anything else for breakfast. No, the young lady replies, but they do have chocolate cake or cookies. I decline but like the way she thinks. Karen shows up with a small quiche from across the way and I get the green-light for us to eat it with our coffee.
We stroll the market and buy stuff for a “picque-nique” on the TGV later today, a sandwich here, cheese there, olives and prunes somewhere else.
Back at the room we do some quick math and discover we’re going to be hard pressed to get the car back on time, even with the extra free hour. We scramble and just make it. There’s no parking so I just park the car, with flashers going, blocking a parking lot entrance. In the office I explain this to the girl behind the counter and get back a perfect Gaelic shrug. I gather this means it’ll all work out.
No damage to car. 414€ for three days including full insurance. Not bad.
On the train we find all the luggage space filled and so park our luggage at the edge of the walkway. It’ll all work out. We find our seats and learn the difference between SNCF’s INOUI TGV service coming down and SNCF’s 2nd class only OUIGO TGV service. The former is for business people and those better off. The latter is for the less well off, those with ill behaved children, and those who can’t afford soap or deodorant. Big difference. We left at 12:46 and got in at 2:40. Normally we would have eaten our picnic but something put us off eating for the duration of the trip.
Thankfully off the train we’re treated by sunny skies with the occasional puffy white cloud. We eat our picnic in a lush park behind on top of the train station. Who knew?
We walk to the Denfert-Rochereau station and pay 12€ each for a train ride to the Charles De Gaulle airport. We let the first train - totally packed - go by. Not everybody that even did want to get on could. We wait another 10 minutes for the next train and it was much more reasonable. Still I stood for the entire one hour trip.
At the airport, Karen was able to get through the turnstile but again I somehow demagnetized my ticket. I was trapped. It took quite a while to figure it out.
On the curb by a Taxi stand a man asks if we want a taxi. I said yes and show him where we wanted to go. He said €25 and I said yes. It would’ve been €7 cheaper if we’d gone through our hotel but our patience ran our four subway stops ago. We enjoy a quick, quiet, efficient drive to the hotel in a reasonably clean car.
If we need anything to wake us up (we do) the German-owned uber-hipster hotel where we’re staying will do it. It’s a multipurpose check-in desk, with a coffee shop and full service bar all rolled into one. We gave in. We had cocktails, then beer and watched local techie digital nomads play pool with all the cool decorations on the walls.
We have dinner and finally off to bed. We have to be up early to go to the airport for our flight to Oslo tomorrow.
Photos
Perfect french coffee au lait and "not undercooked" quiche from next door
Back to our hotel, albeit a bit late, in the gol darn rain
Rental car returned, over to the station. This is some cartoon character well know to every French person, but obviously not to us.
Awaiting out TVG train. Some other famous (but unknown to us) French cartoon character.
Off the TGV in Paris. We can breathe again.
Our hipster hotel. Lots of stuff all around to keep your brain engaged.
Yummy dinner, split.
And finally time for bed. Happy to be sleeping soon.
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