Portland – SFO – Paris via air; Paris – Milan – Monterosso via train

Portland to SFO 8:05 am September 18, 2018.

Our SFO to Paris tickets were a score at $460. When I booked my flight for myself and my youngest sister Suzanne, I was not concerned about finding a cheap flight between Pdx and SFO because they simply are usually well priced. I have never flown this cheaply to Europe!

The United flight to Paris was perfect. Suzanne and I had aisle seats across from each other. She met her neighbors and chatted with them throughout the flight. We hope to share photos and check in with each other during our trips. We’re walking in Italy and they’re painting.

Landing in Paris was so awesome! I was excited to step away from the seats that we occupied for 10 hours and 50 minutes. Nonstop flights are the best, and the worst!

It took about an hour to exit Charles de Gaulle airport. We had cash machines to use, customs to pass through and a train to figure out. Suzanne now has her first international stamp!

Taking the RER (train) from the airport to the St Michele-Notre Dam Station was a great idea and only required the one RER ticket. The first thing we saw upon exiting the station was the beautiful Notre Dam! We will visit the inside and perhaps climb the tower in search of gargoyles when we return in a few weeks. I wanted Sue to see a little bit of Paris before falling in love with Italy.

First view of Notre Dam

From there, we stopped for a beer to celebrate a safe landing and new adventures. It was a delicious Belgium beer, quite potent at 8% alcohol! One will do merci beaucoup!

Delicious Belgium beer

We decided to walk to the Gare de Lyon train station for our night train to Italy so we could walk along the Siene and stretch our bodies. With our backpacks it may have been more like compress our bodies but we made it!

Gare de Lyon station. All trains roll south!

Just outside the train station we stopped at a neighborhood cafe for lunch. The waiter was actually quite rude and pressed us to decide on a meal with hardly any time to look at the menu. I spotted the quiche immediately and already knew that was my choice but Suzanne didn’t have time to read since she had been looking for her reading glasses. The waiter gave her a look and she politely said she didn’t want anything. I do believe he was not happy and from then on he was rude. Oh well. Come prepared to the table and don’t try to order food when the cook is apparently done for the day!

By this time as long as I was moving I was fine, but the minute I sat down the tiredness of the trip with no sleep tried to take over. No espresso in the world would help me today!

It was finally time to catch our night train and get some sleep. It was the most exciting feeling to climb onboard and see our room and know we were minutes from laying down.

I find it interesting that once you know you can do something you can put it off a little longer, but the anxiety of waiting can be difficult. We found two small bottles of chilled proseco waiting for us, along with some crackers, orange juice and bottled waters. We toasted to success so far and shared one bottle. The second bottle will make its way to Vernazza.