Monthly Archives: March 2023

Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France

Posted on March 29, 2023 by 2btravel

Return to International Travel – Introduction
Review: SWISS A340-300 ORD-ZRH and Marhaba Lounge ZRH
Lodging Review: Sina Villa Medici, Florence, Italy
Our Time In Florence, Part 1
Our Time In Florence, Part 2
Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France
Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)
Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)
Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)
Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre
Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny
Our Time on the Normandy Beaches
Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq
Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France
Review: Air France A350 CDG-ORD

While we could have flown home after the final morning of our cruise, I found I could use significantly few Air France miles if I returned the day after. So we decided to stay one extra day and booked a hotel in a different part of the city. The Park Hyatt Vendome is in the 2nd arrondissement so we booked the Renaissance Republique, a Marriott property in the 3rd arrondissement which cost us 70K points for the night. While the two hotels are only about 5 miles apart their neighborhoods have an entirely different feel.

Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel

The area around the Renaissance Republique has much more of a local feel, with many small restaurants, grocery stores, laundromats and other types of stores that you’d need if you lived in the apartments above some of the shops.

Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, France, Hotel, Lodging Review, Marriott, Renaissance, Trip Report | Tags: France, Hotel, Hotel Review, Lodging Review, Marriott, Paris, Renaissance Hotels, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq

Posted on March 28, 2023 by 2btravel

Les Andelys

Our next port of call was the town of Les Andelys. This quaint town was founded in the 6th century and its church has parts that date to the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. I recall touring it but apparently did not take photographs. I would have enjoyed touring the town more but with my knee situation I slowly walked with the group to the chateau.

Château Gaillard was the primary attraction for this stop. It was a medieval castle and its ruins now overlook the town.

Chateau from the town

Continue reading →

Categories: Attraction Review, Cruises, Europe, France, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Attraction Review, France, Historical Site, Napoleon, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny

Posted on March 27, 2023 by 2btravel

La Roche-Guyon

When we awoke after our second night on the boat, we were docked near the small town of La Roche-Guyon, named for the 12th-century chateau that sits near the river. The town is quite small, with only about 500 inhabitants.

The castle was built to control the Seine river crossing and traffic going between Paris and Normandy on the river. “La Roche” means “The Rock” in English and it’s easy to see how it got its name. The castle is hollowed out of a cliff and the keep rises at the top of the hill. The fortified manor, the chateau, was added in the 13th century.

The Chateau, Keep and Gardens

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Categories: Attraction Review, Cruises, Europe, France, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Attraction Review, France, Givenchy, La Roche-Guyon, Monet, River Cruise, Seine, Tours, Trip Report, Vernon, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time on the Normandy Beaches

Posted on March 27, 2023 by 2btravel

The next stop on the cruise was the town of Rouen. Unfortunately I was not able to experience this town due to the injury to my knee. For me, the highlight of the cruise was the following day, the beaches of Normandy, and I wanted to be sure I was able to go on that tour.

We stayed docked in Rouen and boarded motor coaches for the trip to the coast. Viking offers two day-long tours so you must choose whether to visit Omaha Beach and the American cemetery or Bayeaux (where the Bayeaux Tapestry is) and the Commonwealth Beaches. I’d loved to have done both and would absolutely welcome a return trip to the area when I can stay longer and explore at my leisure.

Caen Memorial Museum

Our first stop was the Caen Memorial Museum which walked us through the battles in this area. We watched a short film and then filtered through the exhibits at our leisure. Our lunch was included at the museum’s restaurant and it was quite good.

The inscription on the outside of the building reads:
Pain broke me, brotherhood lifted me up
From my wound flowed a river of freedom

Caen Memorial Museum

Continue reading →

Categories: Attraction Review, Cruises, Europe, France, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Attraction Review, France, Normandy, River Cruise, Seine, Trip Report, Viking, World War II, WWII | Leave a comment

Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre

Posted on March 26, 2023 by 2btravel

Viking Kari

In Paris, Viking ships dock at Port du Grenelle on the Seine River, just southwest of the Eiffel Tower. It is in the section of the river that is divided by the Isle of Swans (Ile aux Cygnes). To reach it by car, take the Rue de Boulanvilliers and turn on Port du Grenelle such that both the river and the island are on your left. The Viking port is just at the end of the ramp.

This is a very easy-to-reach port and you’re still within walking distance of the metro and other commercial enterprises so if you want to get out and explore the city on your own it’s easy to do so.

We found the Viking Kari docked right against the shore and were immediately assisted with our luggage while we went on board to check in.

Viking Kari

As I’ve reviewed two Viking European longships before, I won’t go into detail here because it was identical to the Bestla and practically identical to the Njord, though without that see-through shower wall!

But with it being identical it made it very easy for us to know where to find things and we had a familiar routine we fell into, which was just the way we liked it. Even though we’d specified twin beds in the room, we found they were joined into a king when we arrived. But we went ahead and unpacked and when the staff came by for turndown service they split the beds for us as promised. Continue reading →

Categories: Attraction Review, Cruises, Europe, France, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: France, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Napoleon, Paris, Sacre Coeur, Sorbonne, Tour, Trip Report, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)

Posted on March 25, 2023 by 2btravel

On the day we were to board our Viking river cruise we spent the morning doing laundry and then caught a taxi over to where the boat was docked. Fortunately our cabin was ready so we dropped our bags there and set out for the Paris Catacombs.

Paris Catacombs

The Catacombs is in an area that was once a quarry outside the city. During the health crises in the late 18th century bones were shipped to the quarry for storage in the ossuary. Before being opened to the public in 1809 the bones, which had been carefully piled around, were organized to form walls in a number of different formats as you can see in the photos.

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It it a truly fascinating site and you are not supposed to touch any of the bones. Sometimes this is difficult as they’re on both sides of your path and you can’t seem but help to brush against them. Continue reading →

Categories: Attraction Review, Europe, France, Trip Report | Tags: Attraction Review, Catacombs, France, Historical Site, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Check for bonus categories on your Chase and Citi cards

Posted on March 24, 2023 by 2btravel

The Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex, US Bank CashPlus and Discover cards all have quarterly rotating bonus categories in which you can earn 5x points/5% cash back for the specified quarter. What some folks don’t know is that often your airline or hotel co-branded Chase cards will have bonus spending as well. To see if you’ve been targeted, go to http://chase.com/mybonus and fill in your name, last four digits of the card and your zip code and you may be pleasantly surprised. I got the same bonus on four of my Chase co-branded cards: Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and United. All offer 5x points on gas, groceries and restaurants. These bonuses are valid April 1 – June 30, 2023 and for up to $1500 in purchases.

In addition, I received a piece of mail from Citi offering bonus points on my Premier card from now through May 31. My mailpiece gave me a website and an invitation number to register. You can also register via the phone or with the provided QR code. The 5x points are for purchases from Consumer Electronic Stores, Department Stores, Home Improvement Stores and Home Furnishing Stores. You may earn up to 2500 bonus points which works out to bonuses on $500 in purchases. Remember that, in particular, Home Improvement stores sell gift cards so you can buy gift cards there and essentially earn 5x points at many other places!

In the end

Regardless of whether you actually use one of these cards for any of these categories on a regular basis, go ahead and sign up for the bonus. You never know when you might use it and there’s no sense leaving points on the table!

Categories: Chase, Citi Premier, Citibank, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, IHG Rewards Card, Marriott Rewards Card, United Card, World of Hyatt Card | Tags: Chase, Chase Hyatt, Chase IHG, Chase Marriott, Chase United, Citi Premier, Citibank, Credit Card Promos | Leave a comment

Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)

Posted on March 24, 2023 by 2btravel

Versailles

While our Viking cruise offered a paid half-day excursion to Versailles, we decided to do it on our own before the cruise even began. It was cheaper and we could explore at our leisure…and there is a LOT to explore! We bought tickets online ahead of time a few days in advance. Since the tickets are timed, this allowed us to get a morning time to tour the palace and then we had the rest of the day to explore the grounds and the Trianons. Had we waited to buy tickets on-site we would have toured the palace later in the day. Based on our experience I would advise touring the palace either first thing or last thing. The grounds are massive and you will spend a lot of time walking. There are several different ticket options and the one we bought included the palace, the grounds, the Trianons as well as an official guide book. I don’t know if there are other places to get this guide book but we went into the bookstore to get ours. The staff was not familiar with this book but after asking around we were given a book that costs €20 so we thought that was rather a good deal.

Chateau de Versailles

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Categories: Attraction Review, Europe, France, Historical Site, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site | Tags: Attraction Review, Europe, France, Historical Site, Paris, Trip Report, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Versailles | Leave a comment

Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)

Posted on March 23, 2023 by 2btravel

I’d never been to Paris so all the usual tourist stuff was on my list. I’d also heard the reputation of Parisians to be unwelcoming of those who don’t even try to speak French so I worked my way through all of my French I and a couple of disks of my French II CDs before departing. I realize we were in the touristy areas but I found folks very welcoming and friendly and was glad to see that this particular generalization was not true.

We arrived in Paris on a Saturday evening and wouldn’t be boarding our Viking longship until Wednesday so we had 3 full days plus some time on our own on Saturday evening and on Wednesday. While Viking offered a paid excursion to Versailles, we decided we’d rather do it on our own. We also noticed that there was no time allocated to visit the Louvre, which was also high on our list. To ensure we got to visit, we pre-purchased timed tickets to the Louvre for Monday (it’s closed on Tuesdays) and Versailles, which is closed on Mondays. As it turned out, I believe that was a wise choice for the Louvre but not quite as necessary for Versailles, though we went in October when it was not quite as busy as it would be during the summer.

On Sunday, our first full day in the city, we took the hop-on/hop-off bus and got a lay of the land, found some gems we weren’t aware of and basically just explored around parts of the city. Continue reading →

Categories: Attraction Review, Europe, France, Historical Site, Trip Report | Tags: Arc de Triomphe, Attraction Review, Eiffel Tower, France, Historical Site, Louvre, Paris, Sainte-Chappelle, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France

Posted on March 22, 2023 by 2btravel

I admit it. I’m influenced by travel bloggers when looking for places to stay when I travel. So many of them have raved about the Park Hyatt Vendome that I figured we had to try it out.

We made reservations for our October 2022 river cruise back in the summer of 2021. We knew we wanted to get to Paris a few days early but we weren’t sure exactly how many days in advance we’d arrive. Then I learned that Hyatt was increasing the prices in each category. So I went ahead and booked the night prior to our cruise for 30K World of Hyatt points. The prices did increase to 35K per night and once our plans were nailed down I booked three more nights at that price. So we got four nights for a total of 140K WoH points. The hotel has since been elevated to a Category 8.

Paris has an official rating system for each hotel in the country and hotels must post their rating near their main entrance. The scale is typically 1-5 stars but there are eleven hotels in Paris that exceed five-star and are rated as “palace hotels”. The Park Hyatt Vendome is one of those and is the only one in Paris that’s bookable using points. You can read more about the hotel star system here.

Location

The hotel is located on Rue de la Paix in the 1st Arrondissement, an area that is convenient to the Tuilleries Gardens and Place de la Concorde to the south and the Palais Garnier (opera house) and the Opera metro stop to the north. It’s a bit of a longer walk to the Louvre but it’s an easy one. There are lots of shops and cafes in the area and the office of the Big Bus (the hop-on/hop-off bus) is right on the way to the Louvre. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, France, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Trip Report | Tags: Award Travel, France, Hotel Review, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Paris, Park Hyatt, Trip Report | Leave a comment

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Monthly Archives: March 2023

Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France

Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq

Les Andelys

Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny

La Roche-Guyon

Our Time on the Normandy Beaches

Caen Memorial Museum

Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre

Viking Kari

Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)

Paris Catacombs

Check for bonus categories on your Chase and Citi cards

In the end

Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)

Versailles

Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)

Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France

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