After killing an hour or so, we finally discovered that my guess on the gates was correct and we were ready to board, or so we thought. The departing time came and went, and still no crew. You would think that since the flight was delayed once that the crew would already be there, but no they were late. During this time our patience was rewarded with a complimentary upgrade to business-class for Natalie and myself. Finally the crew showed up and we were able to board. After a fairly lengthy stay at the gate were pulled out onto the tarmac only to receive word from the captain that there were having a problem getting the water turned on and were going to have to let a mechanic sort it out at another gate. After nearly two hours of work, they determined that the main cutoff valve in the luggage compartment was switched off, not sure why that took two hours, but oh well. Finally, 3.5 hours late, we took off for Chicago.

Air France, well to put it simply: they suck. We went to go check-in and check our bag. The lady at the desk spoke very good English, and quickly processed our boarding passes and checked our bag. She informed us of the gate and boarding times. I quickly pointed out the handwritten gate she put on our boarding pass did not match the one printed above it. She replied, “Oh assumed you were on the flight that was boarding right now.” As I watched our checked bag disappear under the rubber wall on the conveyor belt, I asked what would happen to the bag. In hindsight we should have insisted that she not do anything with the bag, but did insist that it would be easy to fix and reissued a new checked-bag receipt. As you may have guessed, our bag did not arrive in Frankfurt and Air France has no idea where it is . Fortunately, it contained only extra shoes, some gifts, and coats. Nothing that we needed at the moment, but would dearly like to have back.

Once we arrived at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Frankfurt, the front desk lady had recommended an excellent German restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel. It was a little hole-in-wall restaurant and offered a wide range of German food. Needless to say, the food was amazing and it provided a much welcome break to the exclusive-French food cycle we had been on for the past two weeks.

We met Jean-Pierre back at his flat around 2:00p, and headed for the Catacombs. For as long as he has been leaving in Paris, he had never seen the old Catacombs where in the late 1700’s Paris in order to deal with its increasing sanity and real estate problems, exhumed all the bodies of the mass graves around the Churches in the city. The remains of six million Parisians were placed in a newly dug out labyrinth of tunnels under Paris, now known as the Catacombs. The bones are neatly stacked like firewood throughout the tunnels leaving only a narrow space to walk through. Each major pile holds a plague informing you to what Church contributed the remains and when. Among the femurs and ribs, the skulls on most of the piles are faced inward, however some of the piles they are faced out or in odd decorations. It’s amazing to think that the piles represent six million people, each one having a unique story that will likely never be heard.

Later that night, we headed over the Louvre to try to get some quick night photos of the exterior, something that we realized we had failed to do. While we were able to get a few pictures, we did not stay very long. The well-below freezing temperatures and wind reminded us to much of Sweden and froze us to the bone.

By this point our feet were killing us, so we decided to head back to the flat. After a few hours of recuperation, we invited Jean-Pierre and Antoine out for dinner as the least we could do for all their hospitality. We chose a local pizza and Italian restaurant near St. Paul. While I was not impressed with the food, the company and discussion was great! Oh yeah, the dessert of Crème Bulee was very good.

We met up with Claude, Ann-Lee, Jean-Pierre, and Antoine to visit Musee Andre and their exhibits. The museum was once the private residence of the Andre’s, a wealthy couple that enjoyed collecting many incredible pieces of artwork. The museum was featuring the some works of  Donatello and others.

After the exposition, we headed over to the Claude and Ann-Lee’s small time-share hotel room for an aperitif of the usual Champagne and appetizers. They treated us to a restaurant near the hotel, which based simply on its appearance was nothing special. However, the food was great and like the rest of French food, was quite filling.

After the Arc, we caught the subway again and headed for the Eiffel Tower. The trip was easy enough, but once you got off the subway you were bombarded with street peddlers offering you rare, once-in-lifetime key chains of the Tower. In case you missed the rare deal, look no further than two feet away and you find the same item for a different price. The Tower was just as large and magnificent as I thought it would be.  The lines to enter the tower, on the other hand, were larger and much more impressive than I thought. The lines were crazy, maybe three hours later you had a chance to enter (and that was for the stairs line). Needless to say, we opted to walk around the garden and take a few pictures enjoying the wonderful weather we had.

After some lunch at a tourist restaurant, which was way over priced and not the greatest food, we headed back along the Champs-Elysees to the Place de la Concorde. This is the famous location for the guillotine during the French Revolution. The same guillotine that took the heads of much of the French aristocracy including Louis XVI in 1793. We arrived at the place just before sunset, so naturally we were treated to the best possible light and skyline conditions for pictures.

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To finish out the afternoon, we headed up to Sacre Coeur Cathedral just before sunset. Unfortunately, we were unable to photograph the interior of the cathedral, which was amazing! But the outdoor and neighborhood shots were nearly perfect with the sunset that we were given. You can see more of the photos here (please login first). After the cathedral, we headed into the nearby town of Montmartre, which is kind of the “west hills” of Paris. Within the square, are dozens of artists, all eager to draw your portrait in about every style available.

To help warm back up and being fairly tired of just sitting, we opted to walk over half the way back to the flat. This again was enjoyable as we got to see more of Paris that is not frequented by tourists. Once the walk got the best of our feet we hopped on the nearest subway and headed back to relax the rest of the night.

After a great breakfast, we set out with Jean-Pierre to head to the Christmas Market near La Grande Arche de la Défense. The Christmas markets were nothing special, except for the food that was being offered, but it was a our first chance to see the Grande Arche and try some hot spiced wine. Which was much needed since it was so warm out.

After enjoying and photographing the market, we headed back on the subway to Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral was absolutely incredible, and provided a nice break from the cold wind. The inside was immaculate, but very dark and difficult to photograph. We spent at least an hour inside the church photographing the interior. After feeling warm enough, we headed back outside to photograph the main entrance, including a picture of St. Denis. Finally we decided to walk around the church admiring it’s elaborate structure. But, the wind continued to get the best of us, so we called it a day and headed to find the nearest restaurant to warm back up. Nothing like a Quiche Lorriane and hot chocolate to do the trick.

After landing in FRA around 6:00am the next day, we tried to figure out where our Paris flight was. The problem with FRA is that unless you are flying on Lufthansa, FRA will not assign a gate number until about 30 minutes before your flight. Normally not a problem, however many of the concourses have split levels with different gates above and below, security control is at the start of the level. So if you gate is on a different level than you are on, you must exit security and go back through on the next level. Natalie and I were getting quite tired by this point, so we decided to guess where the flight was going to be and camped out near the monitors until the gate was posted.  After enduring security, we headed for the gate, and Paris.

Once we got on the flight, I was beat and decided to nap a bit. Natalie called Jean-Pierre (Natalie’s uncle) to inform him that we were on-time and all was good. I awoke about an hour later expecting to be preparing to land, only to find that we have not left yet. Apparently there was a different excuse for why we did not leave every time they provided an update on the PA. Again, over an hour later we finally left for Paris. This is the beginning of my stance that Air France sucks.

Jean-Pierre met us at the airport and drove us to his flat near the Bastille in downtown Paris. We took a much needed nap for a few hours and woke up in time for an aperitif and dinner. Finally, the end of a very long trip to Paris, can’t wait to see some sights tomorrow.