7 September, Paris France
After reviewing our flight plans out of Lexington and back before this trip, I had decided a few weeks ago to look for other options because the connections were tight just like the last trip. On our last trip we had our final leg connecting in Charlotte from Newark with under an our to walk from one terminal to the next to find our gate for the flight to Lexington. It was already late and even if we made the flight we would still arrive home after midnight. In total, since we had been up in Milan for our trip home we were going on 24 hours of travel time. It was exhausting enough but the rush and stress to make our final leg from Charlotte to Lexington was the last straw. The plane was boarding when we got there. I had previously booked flights for this trip to and from Newark from Lexington with tight connecting times so I decided to make a change. After searching without results for better options on other airlines out of Lexington, I searched for flights out of Covington/Cincy and Louisville. To my surprise, Louisville had great, nonstop flights to Newark and back nonstop at reasonable hours. The flights were even cheaper than the ones I had booked so I canceled our Delta flights, received ecredits for future use and booked our trip to Newark and back out of Louisville.
We arrived in Newark and made our way to the La Compagnie business class lounge. It is under renovation, which made it crowded but we found a table and helped ourselves to the free food and drinks. For some reason, our flight had been moved up an hour to a 6:00 departure. We are not fans of the food served on the flight, so we took advantage of the free buffet and cocktails or wine at the lounge before the flight. We fly La Compagnie because of the low business class fares, not the food.
The flight was a little rough just before landing but ok after we got below the clouds. L’Eldorado hotel is on the edge of Montmartre in a residential neighborhood off Place de Clichy, about a mile walk to Montmartre and the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, the last leg of the walk is up hill. We made it to Relais de la Butte, a small cafe with a sunny terrace that looks down the steep street we just climbed with a nice view of the city. We found a table with an umbrella to shade the sun and ordered a gin and tonic and an Aperol spritz. I ordered a plate of frog legs sautéed in garlic, olive oil and parsley. Janet had a tomato salad followed by a sautéed chicken breast in a supreme sauce with mashed potatoes. Everything was tasty. We finished up with an espresso for me and headed up the garden behind the cafe to reach the Place du Tetre, a plaza with a restaurant inside surrounded by numerous artists and portrait painters exhibiting their wares and offering to paint or draw anyone who wanted to have a portrait made on the spot.
Montmartre is on a hill, originally a village outside Paris, it eventually became a neighborhood of Paris as the city grew. It is very popular with tourists and with young people who head there to enjoy the view of the sunset over the city and the party atmosphere from the wide steps leading up to the Basilica. There is a lot of music but we had no interest is hanging around for the festivities so we headed back to our hotel. We had dinner a few blocks away, nothing special. It had been a long day and we returned to our hotel to catch up on our sleep.
