Paris 09 Ancien - Quartier Hôtel-de-Ville

We made it to Paris for our connection. No sooner did we sit down when the captain tells us in multiple languages (and I think I understood the French better than the English) that there is an electrical problem on the plane and they need to get a part so we are delayed an hour or two. Ok. No big deal. We are in no hurry. The ship sails in two days. He did say two hours not two days, right? Oi.

We made our way to the restaurants past some beautifully displayed French Macaroons, a delishly displayed case of seafood (but not at 8 AM) and there it was...Paul! Who, grinning from ear to ear, spots the place to eat? A restaurant bakery called “Paul.” Ooo La La. Paul got himself a chocolate croissant and I, an espresso. What two things do not go together? French pastry and Gluten Free. Oh well. Neither does French pastry and bikini. Wink. They had nice cushy chairs so we plopped down and vegged. Layed like broccoli for a while. After a while, we made our way back up to our gate to see if there were any changes when no sooner did the captain say that he was not satified with the outcome of the repair. Everyone perked up to hear what the next delay would be. You could almost tell by the wave of sighs as everyone listened to the announcement in their native tongue. Everyone is looking at everyone else like “What?” Then the mad scramble started as everyone was trying to get on the next flight to Venice because he had cancelled the flight. Delta had already texted us saying they were in process of rebooking us. We weren’t too upset because we weren’t in a hurry. We just needed to know if we were having croissants for breakfast again. All part of the adventure.

After a bit, we saw there was a flight out in 15 minutes so we ran back to that gate to see if we could stow away. We ended up at our gate where another family was working with an agent to get on a flight to Amsterdam to Venice as another agent came running up. Paul worked is magic. That agent, Silvia, wanted us on that flight. Her fingers were typing a mile a minute while reassuring us that our bags will make it to Venice (from a different flight? we will see). Then she said, “Come with me.” You have never seen little legs move so fast. We bolted through the airport, concourse after concourse leaving the other family at the other gate in our dust. We never saw them again. I don’t know if we bumped them out. Yikes. We could hardly keep up. She was the sweetest lady determined to get us on that flight. She handed us our tickets with a smirk and said, “Business class.” Thanks!. Wish it was on a longer flight. To Amsterdam.

It is all part of the adventure.

We made it to Amsterdam and hopped the flight to Venice. We were getting tired for sure. I fell asleep while we were delayed on the tarmack and slept until about 20 minutes left in the flight and watched our decent over Italy and into Marco Polo Airport. A little unnerving on my side of the plane where there is mostly water and bits of land. Very strange land and water formations and nothing that looks like a runway. Eeesh. We landed and our adventure continues.Read more