I went to Paris for 9-ish days. Here’s a review.

The Flight There

I took a United metal B777-200ER from EWR to CDG in economy, sitting in the left aisle seat of the center aisle section. I was fortunate enough to the seat next to me, so I was able to stretch out a good amount- a much appreicated blessing as a somewhat tall individual. Seats were… fine. They have this weird bump in the lumbar portion of the seat that was just uncomfortable enough to be annoying. Whatever. Another thing to note is that the 772ER was built in an era were carry-ons were not the norm, so overhead bin space is extremely limited (it was designed for luggage to be placed with the front facing out instead of the top facing out, which drastically reduces capacity). Fortunately, my flight was quite empty, so this wasn’t an issue, but it’s good information to know.

The Food

This was my first international flight in just about 8 years, and from what I was remember from being a kid, I recall the food on these flights being extraordinarily mid. T’was excited to see what 8 years of food science could do to reheated meals!

Dinner

Appetiser: Breadsticks and Cheese

The mini breadsticks were crunchy and slightly sweet. The cheese was nutty and not too too strong. A solid start to the meal.

Drink: Two Hearted IPA

A solid IPA; a little savoury at the end kind of like a Blue Moon. Somewhat hoppy.

Main

I had a choice between some noodle dosh, horseradish beef, and chicken polenta. I went with the chicken polenta.

The bread was dense and moist; surprisingly difficult to cut into. No strong flavours- adding butter with a little vinigrette from the salad plus some salt and pepper id the move.

The salad had two cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and a cucumber slice. The vinigrette is tangy and sweet; I felt that half the packet was enough.

The polenta was slightly oniony/garlic and texturily mush, but not in a bad way. Chicken was tender and the tomato sauce was mildly acidic and sweet. Mixing them together gave a surprisingly good combination of flavoura- I would even go as far to say that I wouldn’t be upset if I had this has a regular meal!

Wine: Red

T’was slightly acidic and almost sweet. Generally one-noted. Not bad, not great. But hey, it’s a drink.

Dessert: Cheesecake Brownie

Very chocolate forward, cheese was more there for creaminess than as a flavour. Not overly sweet, although I wish it was more bitter. If I saw these at Costco, I’d consider buying them.

Overall, I was pleasently surprised by the quality and flavour of the food- a huge step up from the weirdly unseasoned flavour mush I remember.

Landing

CDG is a really nice airport with weirdly mushy yet fun moving escalators and this dystopian-looking crossing tube core thing.

The new EES customs stuff is quite nice; it works fine if you aren’t an idiot. Unfortunately, it seems that most people are quite lacking, so the line moves a little slower than it should.

I don’t have a phone plan with international data roaming, so before I left the United States, I bought a 20GB eSIM from Orange Travel with a French phone number. I had no issues with it during my duration in France; I’d highly recommmend it.

I saw a lot of things with only a select few I have anything novel to say about, so I’ll list the things I saw, and then make select comments after.

Things I Saw/Did

• Sacre Coeur
• Musée d’Orsay
• Musée de l’Orangerie
• Champs Elysée
• Tour Effiel
• Parc de Belleville
• Parc de Buttes-Chaumont
• Petit Ceinture
• Akwa Boating
• Château de Versailles
• Rennes
• Mont Saint-Michel
• Bayeux
• Omaha/Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Saint Mére-Eglise, etc.
• Not the Louvre because we messed up the ticket date :(
• Tuileries
• Catacombs

Unsolicited Commentary

Paris Metro/RER/Translien (Metro/Commuter Rail)

As an avid train nerd, I was extremely excited to finally get to experience the acclaimed public transit service of the European lands. And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. Nearly consistent 4-6 minute headways? No random “oh hey we’re just gonna stop here for a million years” incidents? Generally clean subway stations? Service that goes pretty much every where you need to go? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The local rail service here makes the CTA look like the becomings of a drunkard playing Sims. The MTA can barely lay a finger on it.

SNCR/TER/OUIGO (a little late) (Long Distance Rail)

As part of our plan, we wanted to see Mont Saint-Michel. To do this, we were going to take a train from Paris Montparnasse Station to Ponterson, with a transfer at Rennes. The first train would be operated by OUIGO (SNCF), while the connecting leg would be operated by NOMAD, the regional train operator of Normandy. Unfortunately for us, our first leg was delayed by 1 hour 10 minutes, making it impossible to make our connecting train. After a bit of consideration, we made the executive decision to instead stay the night in Rennes, then take the earliest train out of Rennes to Ponterson. This had the unintended (but in retrospect much appreciated) side-effect of giving us some time to explore Rennes.

The frequency and number of routes really stood out to me; everything is so well-connected.

All the train rides themselves were quite nice; I would say a half or so click above the Amtrak. It was generally quite smooth, although it seems that the bathroom wasa little lacking in the cleanliness and toilet paper department.

Biking

Coming from a land where some blindly painted lines on a road and a half-asses prayed is considered biking infrastructure, biking in Paris a fantastic experience. Many roads have a dedicated lane either on the sidewalk or the road, and drivers here seem to be a little less vengeful on the existence of bikers.

Velib, the city run bikeshare system, is quite good. Stations are decently plentiful, the bikes generally work, and perhaps most significantly, it is extremely cheap. For us, one day’s needs for biking could be solved for under 10 euro.

Velib bikes come in two flavours: non-electric and electric. The non-electric bikes are generally cheaper to rent than the electric ones. The electric bikes are really nice not only because they are less tiring on the legs, but also there is a good amount of stop-and-go action, and the electric motor is greatly helps with the initial bit of torque you need to get going. One of my friends did have electric motor wire detach while riding though, so I suppose thats something to look out for. The bike dot matrix display can also be in pretty rough shape/dim, which makes the bike a little hard to activate.

Tour Effiel

Buy the tickets to go all the way up; it’s worth it. Also, when we went, we didn’t buy tickets ahead and instead gambled on them having reserved tickets to be sold the day of. It seems that they have plenty of tickets; we lined up around 8:30 outside the security gate and despite a good number of people being ahead of us, we were still able to get three tickets for immediate ascention.

Parc de Belleville

If you search this park online, you’ll get these stunning views overlooking the Parisian landscape. Maybe the city hadn’t gone to cleaning it up yet or something, but exactly none of the views with the Effiel Tower and the cityscape were visible. It was just kinda overgrown with random trees and such, so don’t waste your time.

Parc de Buttes-Chaumont

This park is really worth it. A cool cliffside, a waterfall, and great places to sit and chill.

Mont Saint-Michel

It’s a real cool castle with stunning views. I recommend buying a ticket so you can go up the church thingy; there is a nice terrace to look around and rest at. Otherwise, it’s a only few hour activity.

The Flight Back

The CDG Terminal 1 is really nice; the public waiting areas are super comfy.

Also, I got to see the cockpit! The pilots were super nice; they gave me a bunch of the United trading cards :)

(insert carousel here)

The Food

Almonds and Olives - No surprises; quite good. Almonds were crunchy and salty; olives were standard if not a little bit bitter.

Horseradish Beef - The salad and bread were the same as the flight here. The peas and carrots were surprising structure-ful and not a mushy mess. The beef was a little tough and dry but still flavourful. The potatoes were rich, creamy, and cheesy. Very satisfied with the meal!

Cacao Truffles - As expected, a banger. Dusted with cacao powder, providing a nice bitter contrast with the sweet chocolate.

Chicken and Pepper Pizza Twist - My first bite was all crust. The crust is soft and slightly sweet and savoury. Flavours are generally a little light and lacking, despite there being pieces and chicken and onion.

Fin.