#LeCircus – Hank's Blog – Musings of a Wandering Mind

No. Not the Olympics or even the Paralympics.

Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to be able to experience any part of the Olympics as I am a self described Olympics whore. I soak up all thing Olympics during the games. I will watch sports I really don’t care about just because it’s part of the Olympic games. But, since getting to Paris for the Olympics wasn’t in the cards, I soaked up as many minutes of it on television that I could.

This post isn’t about my disappointment in missing out at all, but it is about a short visit at the end of October, 2024 with my bride.

One of the reasons my wife, Lynda, and I had thoroughly enjoyed out European vacation for our 25th wedding anniversary back in 2022 was we were able to stay with my sister, Lucille, and her husband, Curtis Moffat. We hoped that we’d get back there one day but at the end of July, we got the news that Curtis was to be transferred to Houston, Texas by years end so we weren’t putting much faith in being able to go.

I hadn’t booked any holiday destinations for our planned time off at the beginning of September as I just wasn’t feeling any destinations calling to me. Usually, Jasper, Alberta is our go to if we need a break from the real world, but with the devastating wild fires that roared through the town and park, I didn’t believe it would be a wise thing to even try to get to Jasper this year. Not even if we just volunteered to help clean up as I doubt there will be any places to stay.

We were drinking some wine and while watching the men’s cycling road race for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Lynda was recognizing some of the places we had been to when suddenly she asked me; “Where’s that? Why didn’t we see that? I’d like to see that.”

So, I kept checking flight to Paris to see if prices got inexpensive enough for me to jump at them. Sadly, nothing was in the price range to entice me, but if I was willing go for 10 days (really 8 days and 2 half days) at the end on October, I could get flights for half the price we paid 2 years ago. Well, damn, seems like a sign. I even sent Lucille a message to see if it would be okay to come visit so close to their November 7th moving day.

Checking our work calendars showed us that no one else was off on those dates, so, I booked the flights and we put in our requests in to change our vacation time. My sister got back to me afterwards to say it was okay to come and she’d sell the couch after we were there and not before. I was glad to hear that as I really am getting too old to sleep on the floor.

So, on October 21st, our son, Adam, worked until noon, came home, drove us to the airport (he promised he’d pick us up in 10 days) to catch our 7:40pm flight, drove home and went back to work to help out a short handed crew.

After 17 hours on the clock but only 9 flying hours, we arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

My sister, Lucille Moffat had pre bought our train tickets and met us after we cleared customs and we headed to the RER to go to her apartment. The walk to her place is all downhill from the RER stop at Cité Universitaire and since it takes no longer than a taxi but at about 1/7th the cost, I thought it was worth it.

We dropped off our luggage and went in search of a really late lunch.

Having visited Paris just 2 years ago, of course we “knew our way around the neighbourhood” and ended up at a “familiar place” – Le Circus on Rue Tolbiac. It’s only about 4 blocks from Lucille and Curtis’s apartment so convenience was part of the plan.

So, I bought my wife a crispy chicken ceasar salad for her birthday meal as we hadn’t gone out to celebrate it when it happened, just 4 days before.

Of course, we ate outside.

@spookie_bugz came on this trip and of course, he had to have a photo or two taken.

He wanted to get a feel for the streets, so we went out back to check it out.

By the time we were done, Curtis was off work and on his own for supper.

We went back to the apartment have some French bread and Champagne and a bit of a visit before an early bed time.

Disappointingly, I got less than 5k steps in on my long day. We’ll strive to do better tomorrow and the rest of the trip.

I can’t dance so it’s not like I’d be doing a tango on my last morning in Paris.

Monday, October 3rd had arrived. Lynda and I would be going home today; on what would of been my dad’s 82nd birthday.

We were up early enough to see Lucille before she left for school to thank her profusely for having us these last 3 weeks.

We headed out to find somewhere to have breakfast before we had to get to the airport.

We ended up on Rue de Tolbiac at Le Circus. It was cool enough that we decided to eat inside for a change. It wasn’t overly busy so I took a few photos of the place.

Still needs the phone to translate the menu

After an hour or so we headed back to the apartment to be all packed for when the taxi arrived.

We weren’t setting an land speed records on our walk back and I took photos of the neighbourhood along the way.

Gas was $0.40/litre higher than yesterday

We got back to the apartment and made sure we gave Curtis his key back before we finished packing.

We said goodbye to the cats; Bella and Casper. I had visited with them in Beijing back in 2015 and I was still allergic to them. I was happy the antihistamine my Doctor had prescribed had worked great.

It was time to say goodbye to Curtis and thank him for everything and putting up with us for the last 3 weeks.

It seemed surreal that our adventure was coming to an end but it was time to head back to reality.

We could of taken the RER to the airport but lugging 2 suitcases and carry on bags didn’t make that prospect very appealing so we had booked a taxi to pick us up around noon.

When the cab came, he had half his trunk full of kitchen appliances and could only fit one of our suitcases in there. He wanted to call us another cab but we were on a schedule so I told him to put the other suitcase on the front seat. He didn’t seem too happy about it, but he went with my suggestion.

Our driver seemed to be a bit surly during the drive and the slow moving traffic didn’t seem to help his mood.

We came to an overturned van in the oncoming lanes and Lynda wondered how that could of happened. Our driver wondered the same and he seemed in a more talkative mood after that and traffic sped back up afterwards.

Soon we were doing 140km/hr in a 90km/hr zone to make up time. He said that the police were too busy with terror threats to really worry about enforcing the speed limit.

We got to the airport unscathed and on time.

We checked in and waited for boarding time. I met a young couple from Vancouver while Lynda was off looking for something to drink. We were on the same flight but they were a lot closer to the front than we were.

It was a long uneventful flight on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The seats were the biggest ones we’d had on any of our flights. A nine hour flight in slightly bigger seats is still a 9 hour flight in one place.

We got into Calgary just before 5:30pm and took a little over half an hour to clear customs and get our bags.

Our son had agreed to pick us up but he had a bit of a hectic school schedule and my friend Steve had come to get us.

It was sunnier and warmer than it had been in Paris all those hour ago. It was nice to see there were still plenty of yellow leaves on the trees and that fall wasn’t over.

Steve got us home just after 8:00 pm and we managed to stay up until around 9:30 pm before getting to bed.

Only managed to get around 5700 steps today. Seemed pretty low for such a long day.

Back to the real world tomorrow as I had to go to work but Lynda had taken a recovery day off before she had to go back. (She is smarter than me.)

It really was a trip of a lifetime for us and we enjoyed every minute of it. (Well, I did but I’m betting the ferry rides in the Canary Islands weren’t so good for my bride.)

We ate and drank whatever we wanted and all in all I think we ate pretty healthy. (Lynda lost 15 lbs. on vacation.) (We walked a lot and we really didn’t snack very much.)

We went with the flow and did and saw so much. (And didn’t see so much at the same time.)

I tried to narrow down what I enjoyed the most and I think the overall experience itself is it. I liked how it wasn’t real life. (We took mini vacations while on vacation.)

l really loved spending every waking moment with my bride for three weeks.

We had good food pretty much everywhere and I think Hotpot was my favorite in Paris. The Indian food in Amsterdam was fabulous. Every place we tried in the Canary Islands (with the exception of on the ferry) was fantastic.

I really like that we could walk or take a bus or jump on the subway and get somewhere in no time at all.

I loved walking along the promenade in Nice while holding my brides hand.

I loved walking along the beach on Gran Canaria watching my bride and my sister laugh their asses off while jumping around in the surf.

Best vacation ever doesn’t even come close to summing it up for me.