Friday 10.1.2010


Skipping to Paree


We must be leaving Brussels today because we wake up to a beautiful sunny sky. It will be a great day in our absence. We get down to breakfast early by our standards (8:00) but late by everyone else’s. This is definitely a lower-end business class hotel with most of the real people out early getting to work. The usual for breakfast this morning and we expect we will see less meat and cheese for breakfast in France so we make the most of it.

Mary has a bit of shopping to do so John gets some time on the computer while she returns to the Grand Place for chocolate immersion. There is a flower market in the square, reminiscent of pictures we have seen with the entire square bathed in flowering colors. Very impressive even at this level.

We check out at 11:00 and start walking to the south terminal where we will catch the high-speed train to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It is a more pleasant walk back to the station this morning with the sun shining, the streets cleaned up from the earlier protests and tons of locals well into their day’s tasks. The smells are fantastic with chickens rotating on spits, breads baking in the Moroccan bakeries and lots of exotic spices mingling in the pre-noon air. Our slightly nervous 20-minute walk on Wednesday has turned into a delightful 15-minute amble this morning. With apologies to Mack Davis, our best view of Brussels might be in the rear-view mirror.


We are again more than an hour early for our train so John has coffee while Mary browses. She finds all the places where we will eventually need to go so it is time well spent. The train is about half full and we can move from backward-facing seats to a four-seat configuration around tables where we can get some more work done. We stop in Lille, France where more passengers fill up our car so we’re back to our original seats, but because the train has changed directions we are now facing forward. We’re surprised so many people are on the train to the Paris airport, but it is an important hub.


We see the planes before we see the station and eventually slow to a rolling stop where the doors pop open. No one moves. What’s going on? A couple more people get on and if anyone is getting off we have missed it. We have now moved up by the door and Mary asks a young woman if this is Charles de Gaulle and she says “oui.” Mary then asks if this is where we get off, and the woman said, “you had better.” We jump off just in the nick of time before the doors close and the train continues it’s journey to Marseilles in the south of France. Guess they weren’t all going to the airport.


Sister Pat is joining us for the next two weeks and she has been patiently waiting for us for the last couple hours. Again, wasting no time she has scouted all the details of catching the shuttle to our hotel in the little village of Roissy. Roissy is to the Paris airport what Bloomington is to MSP, but it remains a quirky small walkable village with a row of big hotels on one end. We are staying at the Mercure where the Priceline Princess has extended her reach into the international marketplace. We each have a spectacular king-bed room with an American style bathroom and all the comforts of home including free Wi-Fi. The price for all this comfort you ask? Fifty bucks per room per night. The absolute steal of our entire trip—so far.

We go for a walk around the village just as (say it all together) it starts to rain. We duck into the Village Brasserie for a couple pression bierres (tap beers) and make reservations for dinner this evening. It reenergizes us to feed a bit off Pat’s excitement for her vacation. After our 5:00 PM nap we’re back at the Brasserie where Pat has a nice looking steak with a potato “muffin,” Mary a nicely presented seafood salad and John has the crayfish ravioli in a bisque style sauce. All nicely done for less than 20-euros per plate.


A drizzly walk back to the hotel where Pat crashes while John and Mary catch the big debut night of “Strictly Come Dancing” on the BBC. It is a 6:00 AM wake-up tomorrow so we better get to bed.


Today's weather: Sunny and warm in Brussels; Cool with clouds and rain in Paris. Low 48, high 62.