G&T's Excellent Adventure

FRI., MAY 15th thru TUES., MAY 26th, 2026

Gary and I are headed off this evening, Fri., May 15th (2026) to France, England, and Norway for 5 weeks. Our first stop is Paris. Once in Paris, we’re planning on traveling via train for three weeks thru France and England before boarding a Celebrity ship for a 14-night Norwegian Fjord Cruise.

To make it more of an adventure, Gary is dealing with a hamstring strain that he got 6 days before our trip! A walking stick is his new best friend. Some times life throws us curveballs and you just have to adjust. 

The first leg of this evenings’s flight was Houston to Dallas. Houston International Airport has started a new program called “Harmony in the Air.” Different musicians perform at different times of the day. We heard a classical group performing, and they were fabulous. What a treat! Our next flight was DFW to Paris (9.5 hours). We had an uneventful, if long flight, and landed in Paris. We ubered over to our AirBNB. Our mistake was accepting an uber ride from someone at the gate as opposed to the usual pick-up point outside the airport. We were tired from flying all night and Gary’s leg was bothering him, so I jumped on the first one. I won’t tell you how much it cost because it was embarrassingly expensive, which, of course, we didn’t realize until we arrived at our apartment. Learned that lesson the hard way! 

Our 4th floor apartment is quite nice and on a narrow street. It has everything we need. The only thing that’s a little strange is the low light in the “water closet.” The walls are painted dark blue, no natural light in the room, and a dim overhead light from a very high ceiling. You can’t see what’s in the toilet! A weird sensation. And, there’s no sink in the room with the toilet! You have to wash your hands across the hall in the bathroom or at the kitchen sink. All of this is probably TMI. lol. The quirks of an old building! 

After our long flight and a nap, we headed out to get a few groceries from the nearby market. Then headed out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We’re in a convenient location. French Onion Soup was Gary’s first course! 

On Sunday, May 17th (2026), Gary & I had scheduled a guided walking tour of Montmartre (the art district) in the 18th arrondissement. Our guide was Christina, who was a complete delight, and we had her all to ourselves. This area was home to Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, Degas, and Renoir to name a few, and was quite busy on this Sunday morning. Nearby is the famous Moulin Rouge and the Red Light District. There is a wonderful mural at the entrance of the Moulin Rouge, a reproduction of the original, showcasing some of the celebrated dancers. 

We meandered our way up a well-known historic street, Rue Lepic, that winds its way to the top of the Montmartre hill to Sacré-Coeur (the basilica of the Sacred Heart) and breathtaking views of Paris. Every year cyclists in the Tour de France have to bike this same hill, and it’s a killer for them. 

Along our walk we saw a famous windmill that was built in 1622. Artists like Renoir and Van Gogh have used the windmill in their paintings. In the 19th century, the Debray family, who were the owners and millers, made a brown bread galette, which became popular and was adopted as the name of the windmill. It’s now called Moulin de la Galette, and there is a restaurant on the site along with the original windmill. 

Christina educated us on many things including how to tell a delicious croissant from a mediocre one… crunchy on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside. A fun walking tour with our lovely guide!

Afterwards we headed back to our apartment to rest and then it was time to meet up for our tour of the inside of the Eiffel Tower. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower from our apartment, and then, of course, the rain began. After wandering around for awhile trying to find the tour guide and texting the Viator operator, we had to admit defeat. Quite disappointing. I’m not sure what happened, but we did receive reimbursement for the tour. We still enjoyed seeing the outside of this iconic landmark. It is a marvel… a lattice tower of wrought iron. It was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair and named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who finished building the tower in 1889. It’s considered one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Overall it was a wonderful start to our Paris adventure! But, unfortunately things soon took an unexpected turn… 

I didn’t think our Paris adventure would include a ride in an ambulance. Oy. After the Eiffel Tower visit and Gary walking too much over the last few days on his bum leg with the strained hamstring, he couldn’t put ANY weight on that leg Sunday night. Not good. It didn’t help that he’s been having to sit in the back seat of tiny Ubers like a pretzel. We canceled an evening Seine River Dinner Cruise we had scheduled for Sunday, and managed thru the night. I was hoping his leg might improve by the morning. But, alas no, that did not happen. So it was time to attempt to call for an ambulance. 

I was up before 4am showering (because really who can sleep) and making a mental list. We waited until daylight (7am) to try and start arranging for an ambulance. There were a few false starts with that but we eventually got there and finally had someone English speaking. We’re told a doctor will make a house call today. Great! He arrives a few hours later and manipulates Gary’s leg and declares yes, he needs an ambulance to get to the ER. He suggests the American Hospital of Paris because the other public French hospitals can take forever to run tests. 

The ambulance arrives 90 minutes later with two young men who couldn’t have been sweeter, and spoke about 15 words of English between them. Thank goodness for Google Translate which they were way more adept at than us! The ambulance is tiny but there was room for me to ride along in the back. The streets the ambulance navigates thru are also tiny. I shut my eyes so I don’t have to watch the oncoming traffic and crazy Paris drivers. 

We arrive at the American Hospital. I fill out paperwork. We wait 5 minutes and are seen by the nurse and 5 minutes later by the doctor. All spoke English with lovely French accents. Three tests were ordered… one to check for blood clots in Gary’s leg after the long flight, one an ultra sound on the knee, and the last being an MRI which we had to wait 3 hours for. We got served a very nice lunch while we waited. Upshot is Gary was told he has a bruised meniscus. He’s sporting a large rigid brace on his left leg and using a walking cane. He needs to keep the brace on for 7 to 10 days. He was able to walk out of the hospital about 6 hours after we arrived. Then we had to get all 6 feet of him into the backseat of an uber without his knee bending. That was a chore!  

For anyone interested, cost for the whole experience including doctor’s house call and ambulance ride was about $2,400 USD, which we had to pay upon leaving and before being handed all of the files from the various tests that were completed. Of course all the paperwork was in French. lol. We do have travel insurance so we should be able to get that expense reimbursed to us. We’re also claiming some Trip Interruption costs. It’s a work-in-progress at the moment. No check has arrived yet, but we’re optimistic.  

We will be having some very relaxing days while we’re here in Paris. Now we’re figuring out what changes to make to our schedule… never a dull moment! We are planning on staying the course (sort of) but with changes to our itinerary. First order of business is to extend our stay in Paris a few extra days to allow the big guy to heal a bit longer. This will make a great story a year from now. Right now we just have to get thru this little adventure!

While Gary’s been resting his leg the last few days, we’ve been rescheduling various future stays to accommodate the new reality of his needing to rest more and sightsee less. That means we’re having to cancel our stops in Normandy and London. It would have been too much walking for Gary. We had them jam packed with activities. Instead we’ve extended our Paris stay by 6 nights making that a total of 11 nights. Then we’re headed to Folkstone, UK on the English Coast for 4 nights then on to Portsmouth, UK for 4 nights, which was an original stop of ours. Lastly we’ll be in Southampton for 2 nights, which was also on our original agenda, where we’ll then catch our 14-night Norwegian Fjords cruise. Still an amazing trip, just not what we originally planned. We’ve learned to be flexible with this nomadic lifestyle we continue to live. 

I’ve been feeling a bit like a local Parisian… visiting the “supermarket” daily and the pharmacy on occasion. Google Translate is a handy app! We’ve also mastered ordering dinner thru Uber Eats.

I’ve been out walking the last few days. It’s quite safe, and feels good to be walking in the city soaking up the atmosphere. I took a walk to the impressive Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon to celebrate France’s military triumphs. The first stone of this majestic arch was laid on the Emperor’s birthday, August 15th, 1806. However, its construction stretched over three decades, finally being completed in 1836, long after Napoleon’s death in 1821. Hard to believe I’m gazing at a monument that Napoleon started. Mind-boggling. 

I love all the historic buildings and seeing the charming cafes. On a side note, watching the locals park their cars on the tiny street where our apartment is located is highly entertaining. Every parking space is taken and virtually no space between each vehicle. How they manage to wiggle their vehicles out of the parking spaces is a miracle! 

I spotted an Equestrian Statue of George Washington on one of my walks. It was a gift from the Daughters of the American Revolution to the city of Paris on July 3, 1900. Not far from George is a statue of Comte de Rochambeau. This is the man who sailed to America in 1780 and was in charge of thousands of troops sent by King Louis XVI to help the Continental Army in their fight for Liberty. (If you watched Ken Burns The American Revolution, then you’ll be familiar with the name Rochambeau.) On the pedestal of the statue are the words General George Washington wrote to Rochambeau in May 1783, eighteen months after they joined forces at the Siege of Yorktown: “To the generous help of your Nation, and the courage of its troops must be attributed to a great degree, this independence for which we have fought and which, after a difficult conflict of over seven years, we have obtained.”

Google Maps worked great for helping me to find my way on my walks… except when it didn’t. It failed to work one day when I restarted it to head back home after one of my wanderings. I think the tall buildings were blocking the signal. I took a few deep breaths and then figured out where I was, and where I had to end up! This directionally challenged Stapp still managed to find her way back home! 

We’ve had a lovely stay at our AirBNB. It has large windows that open out to the street, and no screens. Apparently Parisians view screens as unsightly.  One evening music drifted in from the street thru the open windows. It felt very Parisian! 

By the 3rd day of confinement, Gary was begging for a little release, and we made the short walk to the market together. After that we walked a bit each day together. 

We were able to extend one day at this AirBNB but other guests are expected today, Friday May 22nd, so we’re moving to a hotel for 2 nights. After that is our final AirBNB in Paris with a balcony view of the Eiffel Tower for 3 nights. Temps have gone from rainy and in the 50s when we arrived, to mid-80s and quite warm now, if not hot! It’s the beginning of a heat wave! 

We ubered over to the Pullman Hotel in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris on Friday, May 22nd, and ended up with a bit of a walk to the hotel, but Gary managed fine. Our room has a beautiful view of the city. In the afternoon, we took about a 1/2 mile walk over to an outdoor cafe and enjoyed a Quiche Lorraine. Paris is having a heat wave. We’re fortunate to have a hotel with air conditioning! We had dinner at Fi’Lia at the hotel, which was quite good. 

Saturday’s walk took me to Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. Established in 1824, the cemetery is 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. It has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1,000 people are buried there each year. I don’t even know how that’s possible. The graves are so closely packed. It is the resting place for a variety of political figures, philosophers, artists, actors, and writers and has some very interesting grave markers. It is a quiet oasis in bustling Paris with many large trees and songbirds. A very enjoyable place to wander. 

Before and after my meandering through the cemetery, we worked on our claim with Faye Travel Insurance. We’re beginning to gather paperwork together to submit online. Not how we thought we might be spending our time! 

Saturday evening we had dinner at a nearby restaurant where a jazz pianist was playing. Quite lovely! 

Next we move to another AirBNB for 3 nights with a balcony view of the Eiffel Tower. Gary is slowly making progress in his recovery from his bruised meniscus!

On Sunday, May 24th (2026), we moved to a darling apartment (AirBNB) in Paris with a balcony that has a view of the Eiffel Tower. The only thing making this not absolutely perfect is that Paris is in the middle of a heat wave with temps around 90 and most apartments don’t have air conditioning… including this one. Did I mention we’re on the top floor? Oh my is it hot! We have all the sliding doors open. Parisians do not believe in screens and luckily there doesn’t seem to be any bugs. Our stellar view mostly compensates for the lack of a/c. 

We heard church bells chiming throughout the day on Sunday. Utterly charming! (They also chime during the week… just not as often.) The church, Sant-Jean-Baptiste of Grenelle, is just down the street. Every evening we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from our balcony and seeing the Eiffel Tower in it’s golden glow. But the real spectacle occurs for 5 minutes every hour, on the hour after sunset. The tower sparkles with 20,000 lightbulbs, and the summit’s searchlight scans the Parisian skyline making for a rather magical scene. On a clear night the searchlight can reach 50 miles. The last sparkle happens at 11pm. It used to be later but they’re trying to save on energy bills. 

Sleeping the first night was a bit of a chore with the heat! Felt a little weird to sleep with sliders wide open and no locked screens for safety. But we’re on a 9th floor balcony and aren’t too worried about cat burglars. Everyone else seemed to have their windows open as well! Our AirBNB hostess reached out the first evening asking if we needed anything, I very nicely said a fan might be helpful. She said she would bring one the next day, and she did. Sweet. (Forgot to mention earlier, I had to obtain the key to the apartment around the corner at a convenience store. The proprietor, who happened to be an immigrant, launched into discussing French vs USA politics with me. The USA came up sadly lacking in his eyes!) 

On Monday, May 25th (2026), we had dinner at Picchetto, a lovely Italian restaurant. As we were finishing our dinner, a couple from Boise, ID sat next to us, Kathy and Todd, and the 4 of us spent the next 40ish minutes discussing all of our various travels. So fun! Then it was time for Gary and I to pay our bill and head to our 1-hour Seine Evening River Cruise. As it turned out the restaurant’s card reader wasn’t working, and we didn’t have enough euros. Hmmm. The server laughingly said “would you like to wash dishes?!” I said we can pay with a combo of euros and dollars. He says “that’s fine… I trust you. Leave whatever you want.” Then we had to figure out the conversion. lol 

After that we walked down to the Seine for our boat ride with 10,000 of our closest friends. OMG it was busy! We were supposed to go on the 10:30 pm cruise, but that one was cancelled so we went on the earlier (10 pm) one. This is a night town, particularly when it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm this time of year. The City of Lights put on a show. There are 37 bridges and footbridges that cross the Seine River within the Paris city limits. On our boat tour we passed under several of the bridges plus passed by many beautiful buildings all lit up… the National Assembly (located in the historic Palais Bourbon), Musée ďOrsay (a 1900 train station, now a museum), Place de la Sorbonne (a historic square in the Latin Quarter of Paris, named after the University of Paris or the Sorbonne as it’s commonly called), the Pavillon de Flore (part of the Louvre), and, of course, the Eiffel Tower! 

We also passed by the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), which had become a work of art a week before our arrival. Contrary to the name, this bridge is more than 400 years old, and is the oldest bridge in Paris. The French street artist known as JR transformed the famous bridge into an illusion of a giant, rocky cave using fabric and a whole lot of air. Cool to see it at night all lit up. Apparently during the day, you can walk thru it. Eventually the art installation will be dismantled. After that we ubered back home.

On Tuesday, May 26th, we headed to Musée d’Orsay. One of the advantages of Gary sporting a cane and leg brace at the moment is that we tend to get to the front of the line quickly. Always an upside! The museum houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world and is located in a train station. Built in 1900, the building is a piece of art in its own right. Designed by architect Victor Laloux, it operated as a bustling train station until 1939. Following a nearly decade-long renovation, it was reopened as the Musée d’Orsay in 1986. The building still retains the station’s grand vaulted glass ceiling and its iconic, original railway station clocks. Absolutely stunning architecture! 

The scale of the building is immense and gorgeous with a Grand Reception room, spectacular public dining room, and a bird’s eye view of some of the building’s underpinnings including the faux “walls” to hang artwork in the original train station. It was interesting to see how the building was transformed from train station to magnificent art museum. 

The top floor housed the masterpieces and, oh my, was that crowded! We did take the time to see Claude Monet’s striking Blue Water Lilies, 1916-1919. At the end of his life, Monet produced hundreds of works featuring the pond which he created and planted on his Giverny property with the patience of a true gardener. “The motif became the laboratory for a multitude of pictorial experiments by Monet.”

After seeing that masterpiece, we breezed in-and-out-of that section of the museum and focused on the lesser visited areas, which still housed some masterpieces from Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet and lots of large world-renowned sculptures. I took a photo of one woman intently sketching Claude Monet’s Chrysanthemums, as she stood in front of the original painting from 1878.

After exploring the museum we walked across one of the many bridges over the Seine and visited Jardin des Tuileries, a lovely green oasis in the city with lots of seating and a lovely carousel. Initially the seating was full-up in one area, and one very nice French woman pantomimed for us to take her seat and one adjacent so we could sit down. She saw that Gary was using a cane and had his knee brace on. People are kind! After resting there for a while, we then passed a very wealthy shopping area where every Louis Vuitton window was eye catching! And lastly we had a delicious ‘linner’ at Cafe Alice. Then it was time to head back to our warm apartment. Temps in Paris are still in the 90s.  

Time to pack up! Tomorrow we leave Paris, and head to the town of Folkstone (pronounced Folkstun) on the English Coast.