A few days in Paris
Mon 27 July 2026
Summer Trip
We started a 3-week trip to Europe. The plan was to spend a few days in Paris, hit the highlights, then take the EuroRail to Brussels/Rochefort, Belgium, and join the Beer and Bikes tour.
This trip, we decided to take the door-to-door Groome shuttle to the airport since we had an early morning flight (through Montreal) to Paris. The Montreal airport was nice; there were many flights to Paris (both French-speaking, I guess), so I felt pretty secure that any delay would be easy to recover from. We had no problems making the connection and had a nice dinner in the airport.
Arrived in Paris and found our hotel. We arrived on the last day of the Tour de France, so central Paris was set up for the celebration/final stage ride to the Grand Palace. Dinner the first night was "Tuna Ribs" with an heirloom tomato platter.
07/28/2026
Today we planned on a Viator tour from the Grand Palais along the Champs-Elysees to the Triumphal Arch. The area was still set up for bleachers and barriers from yesterday's Tour de France. However, Viator didn't correctly connect our tour request to a local operator (we did get a refund). We ended up walking the Champ by ourselves to the Arch.
Had dinner at an Italian restaurant.
07/29/2026
Today we walked up to Anvers Square to meet our other Viator tour. This tour worked. We walked to the Basilique du Sacre-Cour and Montemarte. This is the artist quarter of historical Paris. Home of the first Bistro (Russian for quickly). Home of many famous artists.
Then we got on the Metro and, after a couple of transfers, walked to the Louvre. Quick tour of the highlights: Mona Lisa, famous sculptures, and paintings. A bit crowded, especially the Mona Lisa - a bit of a madhouse, actually.
From the Louvre, we took more metro transfers to the Eiffel Tower. We had tickets for the Seine boat tour, but by 4-5 pm it was nearly 100 degrees, so we opted to save the voucher for a cooler time slot tomorrow.
07/30/2026
We Ubered back to the Louvre for a more in-depth tour. We focused on the Antiquites and Applied Art exhibits in the North Wing.
After lunch, we Ubered back to the Eiffel Tower for a tour (and climb) of the inside.
07/31/2026
Today, we checked out and took the EuroStar high-speed rail to Brussels. The trip was very smooth, took less than 2 hours, and had good internet on board. We transferred to a local Belgian train to Rochefort-Jemelle (our joining point for the BeersandBikes tour. Bit of a wrinkle. Rochefort is 4km from the train station and a very small, rural area of Belgium. The bus station wasn't at the train station, but a few hundred yards down the hill. We missed the once-per-hour bus by a few minutes, so we decided to slog the 4km in the heat. Probably a poor choice; we were very hot and tired when we got to the Poste Malle hotel.
Dinner at the place next door, good lasagna.
Tomorrow we begin the tour. Found a laundry (outdoor) machine near the local grocery store and bakery. We'll do laundry until the group (and tour leader) get into town in the afternoon.
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