The Reason for The French Road
A reward. A (sort of) retirement celebration. Certainly both and more. We have always been a fan of the road trip, that immersive excursioning experience that allows the traveler to truly see what's out there and be part of all the places wandered through and explored. Road trips are best if you're with your soulmate, and for the French Trip we were fortunate enough to have the chance to return. You see, we've been to France before, back in the summer of 2013, with our colelctive four kids. We spent almost a week in Paris touring all the main sights and doing the primary experiences. But travelling with two 16 year-olds, a 15 year-old, and a 14 year-old is a very different kind of trip than this one.
Note that only a select few of the +1,000 pictures are here, but hopefully they give some perspective of what we saw (and you could see, if you're willing to get behind the wheel). Like the pages devoted to the 50 Trip and the journey to get the 66 Merc, this isn't so much for you the visitor, it's more for us the travellers, since years from now we'll only remember the highlights and not all the details.
The original reason for a 36-day trip to France was to kick off our mutual retirement from the world of work with a bit of a bang. We haven't been on a 'real' vacation since New Orleans back in 2019 and this was to make up for putting our energies into the cottage and being somewhat fiscally responsible. I was retired unceremoneously in April 2025. Naomi was planning to hang up her communication executive spurs in June 2026. That's why the France trip was planned to kick off September 7, 2026. But Naomi was asked by CEO Dan if she would stay to the end of January 2027, and offered to bundle 5 weeks of her vacation time to make the trip happen. So it's a partial celebration - wait for the Portugal and Spain page in early 2027 to read about the full celebration.
The Trip, In A Nutshell
The places we stayed, in order, run counter-clockwise around France: Paris, Giverny, Amboise, Sarlat-la-Canéda, Carcassonne, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Grenoble, Annecy, Colmar, Strasbourg, and back to Paris. We bought the flights early and travelled Air France Premium Economy both ways for a titch over $5K. We leased (really a tax free sale with guaranteed buy back) a brand new Renault Symbioz Gas Hybrid with an automatic transmission for about $70/day CAD for 32 days. Hotels were rather posh and I'll update the cost for each stay as we go along.
YYZ To CDG - September 7/8
Our flight had been changed a couple of times leading up to the departure date with adjustments to our selected seats each time. But on departure day flight AF357 was scheduled to take off at 6pm local and land at Charles De Gualle at 7:25am (+1 day) Paris time. Our premium economy seats were 18A and 18B on a Boeing 777-300ER which meant we were on the sunny side of the flight with a bulkhead directly behind. That bulkhead was a boon, as will be detailed in the return flight section way down below.
Limo to the airport was fine, priority baggage check in was a nice feature despite the line-jumping gent that got the hairy eyeball from all the other folks doing the queue properly. Time for a last smoke in a YYZ poorly ventilaed cancer box and then off to security. Again, bing in priority lines was a feature. Carry on backpack and Longchamps pliage sniffed for explosives, then through the quiet-guy scanner (the large security gent runnning the left line was quite a militant shouter of instructions). I got pulled aside because of the cooler can but once that was examined all good. Our security guy was tremendously helpful to a French couple ahead of us who were bringing back some items that caused some concern but in the end were fine. Wandered the terminal to the gate, checked out the Visa Infinite Lounge and saw no reason to bother with it. Sat down in some worn out seating with a view of our sky charriot and started the boarding wait.
Before boarding started, the eager beavers had jumbled the lines, so we took the "be aggressive" appraoch and cut into the priority line. Got onto the plane, admired our semi-swank seats with the integrated noise-cancelling headphones and actual hip room, and settled in for the seven hour ride. And yes, of course there was a crying baby in economy. Take off was fine, free champagne was gross (how does Air france screw that up?), lemon fresh towels were welcome, little travel packet of stuff was useless, meal was either scallops or mushroom pasta - we both got pasta - was meh and the butter for the bread was melted all over the tray, red wine with meal was gross (how does Air france screw that up?). After all that busy and a cup of coffee, it was time to settle in. Naomi used the sick bag, likely a result of not eating much for a while pre-flight and the electrolye-infused water that's supposed to help with jet lag. Once recovered, she watched some TV and slept a little, I diligently watched the live map to make sure the pilots were following the flight plan.
Pre landing there was a little breakfast. It was pretty good.
The flight touched down smoothly in the morning sun a few minutes ahead of schedule and then proceeded to taxi what seemed like eight times around the airport before arriving at the gate. Deplaning was fine, customs included scanning passports and photo recognition in an automated cattle pen setup, mini train to main terminal 2E and baggage claim. Priority baggage means it popped out in less than 5 minutes and we were off to run the gauntlet of scammer taxi drivers to have a post-flight dart and then queue for the offical taxis. Once belted in to a Toyota RAV driven by an over-cologned middle eastern gent
we headed to the Academie Hotel Saint Germain. Unbeknownst to us, the new President of Syria was in town for the week and caused a number of road closures, so what should have been about a 45 minute drive turned into over 2 hours.
The weather was warm, the graffiti was top notch and the endless lane splitting motorcycles and scooters we entertaining if not somewhat off-putting. A number of police motorcades comprised of unmarked cars and motorclycle officers wiggled through the traffic with their signature "bee-boop" sirens blaring away. All good fun, but such a long ride. We arrived at the hotel at 10:30am, well ahead of check-in time, but Patricia who seemed to tbe the manager was happy to store our luggage until our room was ready. We then set off on our first Paris walkabout.
4 Nights In Paris - September 8
First things first - get some Euros. We walked south to Boulevard Saint-Germain, then turned east at Square Taras-Chevtchenko and walked over to the BNP Paribas beside the L'embacle Fountain and withdrew €90. Now a visit to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore was on the list followed by a general meander about. We walked east, further along Saint-Germain, to Rue de Buci then up Rue Dauphine to the Seine at Pont Neuf. Then along the river to Pont Saint-Michel and reminisced a little about Saint Chapelle's windows and Notre Dame back in 2013 as we diverted along Rue de la Huchette to arrive at a rather long lineup to enter the bookstore. By now it was getting close to noon and it was hot. Very hot. One executive decision later and we skipped the bookstore in favour of a wander to Luxembourg Park and to see other spots from our 2013 trip like Hôtel Luxembourg Parc and Église Saint-Sulpice.
From the bookstore through Square René Viviani with a quick view of Fontaine Saint Julien Le Pauvre, we traipsed down Rue Lagrange, turned right at Fontaine Lagrange to take Rue des Carmes all the way for an updated look at the Panthéon, then turned right again along Rue Sofflot to the Fontaine du Bassin Soufflot and then continued along Rue de Médicis to enter the Jardin du Luxembourg on the east side of the senate building Luxembourg Palace to find a pair of shaded chairs for a sit down. Naomi kindly aquired some cold water from the La Terrasse de Madame for us both and we rested for a while to let our body temperatures recover.
Once cooled by the shade and breeze and watching a class of students be learned somewhat unwillingly about the Palace and La Femme Aux Pommes, we made our way along the southern face of the grand building by the potted orange trees, along the tree-lined path to the Orangerie du Senat, then turned north to the Musee du Luuxembourg and Rue de Vaugirard.
Crossing the street and turning right we arrived at Hôtel Luxembourg Parc where we had stayed with the kids back in 2013. Nothing seemed to have changed in thirteen years, ut we took a couple of pictures and turned up Rue Servandoni to retrace some of our years-ago steps. Arriving at the south entrance to Église Saint-Sulpice, we went in and admired the windows and architecture, exiting by the main west doors onto Place Saint-Sulpice and its fountain. Along Rue du Vieux Colombier, up Rue de Madame, complicated street crossing to get to the west side of Rue de Rennes and there it was - the Monoprix. Like a Terget with food, the main floor was clothing and housewares mostly, and the basement was the groceries. Some serious security guards intimidated our threshold crossing, but then we wandered around to get a sense of what could be had. We left as unencumbered as we'd entered and made our way back to Academie Hotel Saint Germain to see Patricia. Our room was ready so we stuffed ourselves and our luggage into the elevator (capacity 10? I think not) to rise one floor and squeeze down the hall to our room.
It was a lovely little space. Little being the keyword, but well appointed and clean. The windows opened onto the side street Rue Perronet with a view of some offices and the sounds of two primary schools full of excited children. The bathroom was quite small - closing the door whilst alit on the biffy was not an option for me who had to relax in comfort askew, and the shower required some considerable contortions to enter, avoid the corner shelf, and then close the glass door. Once in however, the shower was good. Hotels have now done away with the bars of soap, so all cleaning of your grandeur is done via body washes and hair remediation products pumped from dispensers affixed to the wall. This works well when the staff have made sure to refill them, but the body wash in particular is a poor cousin to the bar. Given the rather sweaty state we were in, refreshing was first on the list as well as just a general relax since we'd now essentially been awake for 20 hours. Once showered, there were short naps. And then fresh clothes and off again for a glass of wine before dinner.
This time we turned left out of the hotel lobby and walked up to Rue de l'Universite then left over to Rue de Bac and up again to Rue de Lille to have a look at a couple of restaurants we thought might be good dinner spots: Les Antiquaires and Bistro de Paris. Along the way we eyed a very swish restaurant with a comfy outdoor terrasse at Les Parisiens, part of the hotel Pavillon Faubourg Saint-Germain. Having reviewed the menus at overall feel of the dinner options, we walked up Rue de Bac to the Seine and then one block east and down Rue de Beaune to University and back to the corner of Rue du Pré aux Clercs to settle in at the table on the corner of the terrasse at Les Parisiens. A bottle of Domaine François Crochet sancerre, a carafe d'eau, and some cacahuète (mixed nuts). It now felt like we were in Paris.
After the relax and great service at Les Parisiens, we headed over to Les Antiquaires and got a table right on the street. The gent serving us was great and entertaining and once the bottle of Domaine Doudeau Leger sancerre had been uncorked and the sobering carafe d'eau had arrived we ordered the mayonnaise egg , shrimp avocado and beef bourguignon from Aubrac. While we were sipping the wine, a fleet of garbage trucks decended on the street and emptied what seemed like a hundred bins - the noise and traffic ongestion was something to watch as we reviewed our first day. Then the downpour. Short, intense, and cooling. The pedestrians were not happy, but that would be the last drop of rain we encountered for a couple of weeks. The food was delicious and finished with a cappucino rather than any dessert. The l'addition was was settled and we walked back along Rue de Lille to over to our hotel's street, turned toward Saint-Germain and arrived in the room around 7:30pm. Tired, well wined and dined, we drew the blackout curtains and slept. Day one complete.
4 Nights In Paris - September 9
Big day.