Part 4: ParisI had booked us a 12PM flight from NCE-CDG (9K Flying Blue miles) on Wednesday and in hindsight that was probably our biggest mistake of the trip. We should have flown to Paris the night before or at the very least taken an early morning flight so that we had the entire day there.
Once again the flight was uneventful and by the time we landed and got into an Uber it was about 2:30. We had originally booked 2 rooms at the Hotel de Berri which is a new category 7 Luxury Collection hotel by SPG near the Champs de Elysees. It was scheduled to open on July 5 and our one night in Paris was on July 11. Unbeknownst to us, at some point after our booking the hotel pushed off the opening to July 20 and effectively left us without a place to say. We were not notified by SPG or by the property itself, but a few days before we left on our trip, a friend I had mentioned it to, told me they were in Paris and heard the hotel pushed off their opening.
I logged onto the SPG account and while the rooms were still there, a quick Google search showed that the hotel was indeed not yet open during our stay. I called SPG in a huff and the first rep I spoke to couldn't really care less and told me she can book me into the same room category in a different hotel as long as it had rewards available. Luckily quite a few hotels were still available and after speaking to a supervisor I got us booked into the Prince de Galles Hotel which is also a category 7 LC hotel near the Champs de Elysees. We had booked a deluxe room in the Hotel de Berri which was 31.5K points per room (instead of 30K for a standard room) and they agreed to book me into an art deco room with a balcony which was a category above that in the Prince de Galles. I kept requesting a further upgrade due to the situation and was told only the "relocation team" could help me with that and they promised to call me within a day or 2. I never ended up hearing from them but one of our 2 rooms was upgraded to a slightly larger room with a better view. They couldn't upgrade the second room but I did manage to get a free breakfast for that room out of the manager at check-in. In reality I didn't really care much since it was just one night but it was more the principle of the matter
When we checked in the manager nearly had a heart attack that we were only staying for 1 night and I couldn't have agreed with him more.
The hotel is adjacent to the Four Seasons Hotel and is absolutely beautiful. The lobby is very luxurious and the service was great as well. Being that we only had 2 suitcases (the other couple had 4) we decided to take our luggage with us to the room instead of waiting for the bell boy and let me tell you, we could barely get the elevator door to close; it was miniscule.
The hotel has 8 floors and luckily we were on the top. The room which is already an "upgrade" was tiny as well but again being that it was 1 night it didn't really bother me and in general I had gotten used to the hotel room sizes in Europe by then already. Our balcony was the width of the entire room though and surprisingly quite large while the bathroom was pretty big as well and just screamt luxury with a marble bathtub and a separate shower - it was almost as big as the room itself.
Our view:
Complimentary macaroons and water delivered to us after check-in:
After freshening up we left the hotel about 4 o'clock and headed towards the Eiffel Tower where I had pre-purchased tickets online for a 5PM entrance. Although many people had warned us about the heat in Paris it had rained on and off earlier so the weather was quite refreshing and perfect for a walk which was about 20 minutes from our hotel.
The obligatory Eiffel Tower picture:
As we were waiting to pass the security line into the ET, we noticed a small group of people being ushered in through a side entrance. It turned out to be Donald Trump Jr. and his new girlfriend along with their security posse
The tickets I had were to take us up to the 1st and 2nd floor. While you can buy tickets to go up to the summit, they were sold out for about a month online when I had checked and it didn't bother me in the least as I enjoy heights about as much as I enjoy boats lol.
The views:
(was a bit cloudy)
The elevator takes you straight up to the second floor where you can of course see the view, there's a little cafe and souvenir shop. Then you can walk or take the elevator down to the first floor where there's a restaurant, another little cafe and a "glass" floor so you can see through to the bottom. They also showed some kind of movie about the history of the Eiffel Tower which I didn't watch but looked interesting. We ended up having to wait like 20 minutes to get down to the bottom from here since the stairs going down were closed for some reason and the elevators were so full we had to wait for the 3rd one to arrive. That was full too but I'm from NY and if there's one thing I know, it's how to push onto a crowded elevator - or subway car
After we were done we walked back to the hotel and changed for dinner. I had made reservations at Kavod and we were running a little late so we took an Uber there. Can I just preface this by saying WOOOOOOW. We had eaten out in Rome, Venice and in Nice but nothing could compare to the meal we had here in Paris. From the appetizers to the mains to the desserts, everything just blew us away.
Our table post appetizers:
The mains were terrific as well, but wow these desserts. A mango gazpacho I still dream about:
I don't remember what else we had, but there were 6 desserts for 4 people and we had to taste some of everything:
By the time we finished dinner it was about 11PM and we started walking back to the hotel. We ended up walking down the Champs de Elysees until our hotel and from there we could see the Arc de Triomphe so we decided to stroll all the way there and snap some pics. All the shops were closed by that point besides for some restaurants and cafes and the streets so after that we just walked back to our hotel and passed out.
The next morning we checked out and had the hotel hold our luggage which they gladly did. I went to the concierge and told her we have only a few hours, what is the one place she recommend we go if we've already been to the Eiffel Tower and she said of course the Louvre. We were able to buy tickets directly from her (21Euro p/p instead of I believe 17 online) and the bell captain told us there were 2 ways 2 get there if we wanted to walk which was about 40 minutes. We could walk along the river, or the Champs de Elysees and either one is just a straight path to the Louvre.
We started out walking down the Champs de Elysees and we saw all the seats being set up and roads being prepared for closure due to the upcoming Bastille Day Parade which was the next day. We ended up going off route and passed some beautiful streets and shops and it took us about an hour to get to the Louvre. It was of course jam-packed and because we were in a rush we sadly only got to see very little of it. I for one found it fascinating and could have spent many more hours there but now I have a reason to go back.
At least we got to see the Mona Lisa:
After the Louvre we hopped a cab to L'Inte Caffe and again the food was amazing:
Insane bruschetta:
Fettucine alfredo with mushrooms (and had one with salmon as well)
Risotto:
We were too full for dessert and took an Uber back to the hotel. The hotel gave us access to the fitness lounge downstairs where they had a beautiful shower and we were able to change before heading to the airport. I had remembered that I wanted to pick up some chocolates before we left and the owner of L'Inte had recommended Damyel so we made a quick stop at one of their locations on our way to the airport. I hadn't known that they only sold pareve chocolate but we picked up a few gift boxes to take home and while I'm not a fan of dark chocolate so I didn't taste it, my family loved them.
We had a flight booked on AF nonstop to JFK at 7:10PM. I had managed to find a flight with the 787 Dreamliner and business was about 80K Flying blue points (transferred from Amex with 25% bonus) + about $300 fuel. Once you check in and go through security you have to take a shuttle to your letter terminal and we were in L. As far as I understood it, each of these terminals has a separate Air France lounge. Terminal L was a bit run down and most of it was boarded up and under construction. The lounge was enormous with a nap room, a "spa" a large beverage station and pastries, cold and hot food, etc. However when you actually looked, the glasses were dirty, the juice machines were out of order and there were many flies. When you walked in I thought it was a gorgeous lounge but by the time I left I was kind of put off. It can definitely use some maintenace and upkeep.
This plane has a 1-2-1 configuration and we had the 2 middle seats:
The seats are very comfortable with lots of space
The appetizer portion of the kosher meal was once again entirely frozen:
The main was a sea bass which I skipped (I don't eat fish) but I had the rice and veg it came with and that was decent:
About an hour before landing they also offered another portion which I think was a snack type of meal with a roll but I didn't take it as I was ahalf asleep. Overall the flight was very pleasant and comfortable and although I always say I can't sleep on planes I managed to do so on this one.
So there you have it: All 4 parts of my Europe trip. What I thought would be just a short trip report ended up being a few pages long but I hope this info helps someone else as I always love reading other trip reports when I plan my own trips and most of my inspiration comes from these pages
