We left from SFO on our adventure on June 29. We had a United flight straight to Paris. I booked way in advance so I could get my 6'6" husband a bulkhead seat. Well turns out they can bump you from those seats. When I went to check in online 24 hours in advance they had us in the last row of the plane! And we had paid for Economy Plus! So I called and I got my husband back in the bulkhead seat but i was nine rows back. At least I was in Economy Plus. Anyway, the flight was fine and we arrived in Paris at 10:35am on June 30. I had read on this website that we could get an Uber. But, we could not find an exit that took us to the street! We went back and forth and ended up taking a taxi from the real taxi line. I knew not to listen to the guys trying to get us to take their taxi. I heard later we could have gone out the bus exit and the uber driver would have found us. Live and learn.
Got to our Marriott hotel on the Champs Elysees and it was perfect. Talk about a great location! Our room wasn't ready so we left our luggage and went to an ATM down the street (because we forgot to do it at the airport). Then we walked around and came back to the hotel. We were going to go out again for lunch but ended up eating a light lunch in their lobby bar. I was so tried that this was perfect! Our room was then ready and we freshened up and changed and left to get on the metro to go to the Catacombs. I knew not to crash in the hotel, and to try and stay up, so I got tickets ahead of time for the Catacombs. It was easy to get there using my Google Map App and we got 20 metro tickets for future use. The skip the line tickets at the Catacombs was WONDERFUL! We walked right up and walked in. We were surprised how few people were down there with us. They don't let a lot of people down there. It was chilly but luckily a blogger had told me to take a sweater! It was also wet and slippery so beware. We took it slow and did fine. It was very interesting and cool to see all the ways they designed the bones in artistic ways.
After the Catacombs we went went back to the hotel area and got some sandwiches and waters and found a bench to eat them and people watch. A cute french girl was sitting on the other side but ended up sitting with us and talking about her family who owned some restaurants there. She was only a Freshman in high school but was going to go to college in NYC. We then walked around, got some dessert, went back to our hotel and called it a night!
Day 2 - Giverny
We got up early the next day and took the metro to the St. Lazare train station. I had gotten a 1st class rail pass which we didn't need. I had also gotten seat reservations where I could. Looking back I should have just gotten 1st class tickets with seat reservations for each leg I needed. Oh well. So, we got on our train to Vernon and then a bus (you pay on the bus), then you walk a little ways (just follow the people). Again I had skip the line tickets. If you have these don't go to the front of the long, long line. There is a gap between buildings before the main entrance with a sign that says something about tours and pre-bought tickets. We went in this back entrance and then I was in heaven. I love all of Monet's paintings and to see his gardens and the lillies and the bridges that he painted over and over again gave me chills!! We spent a while in the gardens and I took a ton of pictures. Then we went to the gift shop and then stood in a line to go into the house. The line wasn't long and it went fast. I have a backpack purse so they had me put that on my front which was fine. The house was a little crowded be we were able to go through and take pictures and I enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to the little village nearby and had lunch. We went to the cafeteria type place and I picked out food and wine while my husband got a cute little table in the shade outside.