First Trip out of Paris!

Part I

Crash course on adjusting, adapting and overcoming obstacles. One of the first trips we planned while living in Paris was to Italy. Who doesn’t love Rome? It was the spring of 2010. My sister-in-law and her husband were about to go on their first international vacation. They were coming to Paris to visit us from New York. It was going to be the best vacation ever. I was determined to be a good hostess and travel guide. It would be a trip they wouldn’t forget. This was the plan: After spending some time exploring Paris, we would say “Arrivederci!” to France and go to Italy. I had booked hotels and air travel to Rome. We would stay there few days, then we go to Venice by train for a few more days and finally, take a plane from Venice back to Paris. Reservations were made and we were ready to fly. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Just about anything that could go wrong with this vacation, did! To include a natural disaster and a  train strike. This trip was a learning experience through and through. But we never considered not taking that trip out of Paris. The reason I’m starting with it is to show you that, even when it all seems impossible, with the right attitude and proper travel resources you can still have an amazing vacation that you will remember for a lifetime.

Hello Mother Nature!

About a week before our scheduled flight,  volcanic activity at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland began to puff ashes into the sky. Some of the eruptions were strong enough to create an ash cloud that loomed over most of Western Europe. Sacré bleu! Initially, flights in the general area were grounded. Before long, the danger of flying through an ash cloud spread throughout Europe and most flights were being cancelled!! Our big trip out of Paris was just a few days away and it didn’t look like the volcano was going to stop sneezing anytime soon. There was no chance the airlines were going to be fully operational by our scheduled travel date. We had to come up with another plan if we were still taking this trip!

Did anyone say “Road Trip”?

We had two options. Option #1: Travel by Train and Option #2: Drive.
Option one sounded good! In Europe, train travel is relatively easy. We could hop on a train headed to Rome. While on the train, we could sit back and enjoy the scenery while sipping on a few drinks. What’s not to like? The train is a great option when traveling with a child and family travel in general. You can get up and walk the aisles at any time. You can also visit the food cart when you want a bite or drink. It sounded like a great alternative to flying. Unfortunately, in true Parisian fashion, there was a train workers’ strike going on. Many train routes were cancelled and, thanks to airplanes being grounded, the trains that were moving, were selling out fast! So it looked like Option #2 was it. We decided to just do it! Time to load our Mitsubishi, Montero. Our family of four adults and one four-year-old, was about to embarked on the trip of a lifetime.

Two Weeks Prior

WAIT!… let me back up. It wasn’t that easy! A couple of weeks before this, my husband, son and I had driven to Brussels, Belgium for a quick getaway. Brussels is about a four-hour drive from Paris. It was lovely! Until our car broke down in the streets of Brussels. So we used the GPS app on our mobile to find the nearest service center.  Lucky for us, our car had quit approximately two blocks from a Mitsubishi dealership. Somehow, we got the car to their repair shop. But because our car was built with American standards, the parts we needed were going to take several days, if not weeks, to arrive. We ended up leaving the car there and taking a train back to Paris.

First stop, Brussels!!

Now, a couple of weeks later, our car was ready. But before we could load it, we had to get to Brussels. We didn’t have much hope because of the all the travel chaos going on. But we were determined to get to Rome in time for our hotel reservation. We were gonna get there if we had to hitchhike all the way! Ok, I exaggerated a little there. But we were not giving up. We tried booking our train tickets online.  To add to our dilemma, SNCF (France’s national railway) had stopped making reservations through the internet because of the strike. Only existing ticket holders were traveling. That is if the train was moving at all. Without train tickets, we took our chances, picked up our luggage and headed to Gare du Nord train station. To our surprise, we got tickets and boarded a train soon after arriving at the station. Turns out that the volcano eruption was having a trickle effect on all travel. Some else’s cancellations were our one-way tickets to Brussels. We were on our way out of Paris!
With my iPhone in hand and the app for Booking.com installed, I was able to make hotel reservations while on the train, so we had a place to stay for the night. I can’t emphasize enough how many times that app has saved us from sleeping in our car or on a bench somewhere. I still use it almost exclusively to this day.

Brussels, Belgium

We arrived in Brussels with enough time to do a little sightseeing.  Since we had just been there a couple of weeks before, it was still fresh in my mind and it was easy to navigate to the main sights in the Brussels Center area – who would have thought then that I’d be living here now? We went to the beautiful Grand Place, Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, towering cathedrals, and who can forget the Brussel icon, the Mannekien Pis?
When in Brussels for just one night, Mussels and Frites are what’s for dinner. Well, that’s what I had. There are many delicious choices.

The next morning, we went to Funambule Waffles. So many waffles to choose from! I ate a warm waffle stacked with fresh strawberries, drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped with whipped cream. My mouth waters just thinking of it! After breakfast we boarded a tram and were on our way to pick up our car. Our trip out of Paris had officially begun! We were on our way -from Brussels to Rome – with a good playlist and a tank full of gas.

 

This blog is dedicated to my beautiful sister-in-law, Amy – RIPHere she is by the fountains in Versailles.