Paris Trip Report – Arrival and Eiffel Tower
Paris Trip Report – Notre-Dame de Paris, Catacombs
Paris Trip Report – Louvre & Musée d’Orsay
Paris Trip Report – Versailles
Paris Trip Report – Departure
As I wrote about earlier, I managed to score a couple of inexpensive (relatively speaking, of course) tickets to Paris that I managed to confirm upgrades on from Economy to Delta One by using my Global Upgrade Certificates. Out of curiosity, I looked at what Economy vs. Delta One tickets would go for across another holiday — the 4th of July. Two tickets in Economy cost almost as much as one ticket in Delta One; not a bad savings, eh?
Business Class over 4th of July (1 pax)
Economy over Fourth of July (2 pax)
A few days before it was time to depart, my girlfriend and I received an email to pick our meals prior to departure. I opted for the bass while my girlfriend opted for the beef.
Meal Selection
JFK SkyClub and SkyDeck
Since we were flying on an international flight, my girlfriend and I were able to visit the JFK SkyClub in Terminal 4 on status alone (my Diamond and her Gold). This offered us a chance to get a quick bite to eat and see the planes come and go from the SkyDeck.
Lunch Menu
Chicken with Pineapple
Lemon Rice
Bowtie Pasta Salad
Whenever I route through JFK or ATL and weather permits, I make sure to take a detour to the SkyDeck. As an AvGeek, it is a wonderful experience!
JFK SkyDeck
Planespotting
JFK-CDG
Finally, it was time to make our way out of the club and to our gate. Thankfully it wasn’t a long walk (B38, with the club being at B32), and we grabbed another snack before boarding.
404, Plane Not Found?
Nah, it’s there. Whew!
The Delta One cabin on the Airbus 330-300 is configured in a reverse herringbone configuration. I prefer this to the Boeing 767-300 configuration – not only are the seats more comfortable, you have much easier access to personal temperature control and a more user-friendly tray table.
Delta One Cabin
Delta One Cabin
6C
Entertainment and Seat Controls
Tumi Kit!
Collapsible Tray Table
Unfolded
Personal Air Vents and Lighting
Mmm, champagne.
LSTN Headphones
Massive screen!
Though the LSTN headphones are not active noise-cancelling, keep in mind that you need to use an adapter if you want to use your own headphones with these seats.
Once we were situated, the purser greeted us and distributed menus. Not all passengers pre-selected their meals so she collected orders and double-checked that nobody wanted to change their minds. Thanks to a helpful tailwind, we made the flight in just over 7 hours.
The Macallan 12 Double Cask
Warm nuts!
Chilled Shrimp with Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette
Baby Romaine Salad with Roasted Squash and Maple Smoked Pecans
Sweet Potato Soup with Pumpkin Seed Crumble
Braised Short Rib
Slow Roasted Striped Bass
Cypress Grove Midnight Moon, Kaltbach Gruyere, and Buttermilk Blue Affinee
Smoked Gouda Frittata with Cotija Cheese and Ancho Chili Grits
Icing on the cake: the flight was equipped with GoGo’s Ku (not 2Ku) WiFi.
The food was excellent, as I’ve come to expect from Delta, and the flight itself was smooth and we arrived without any issues at CDG. Though there are a variety of mass-transit options available from CDG to the hotel we were staying at, we opted to grab an Uber because of the number of bags we were traveling with. The route took us right by the Concorde, though!
Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile
Hyatt reached out to me a few months ago to inform me that the hotel that I was planning to stay at would be undergoing renovations and wouldn’t be ready for my stay. They were kind enough to rebook us at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, however, and I was able to modify the booking to a club-level room.
The hotel is attached to the Le Palais des Congrès de Paris, a major exhibition center, and also had easy access to the mall there. It also offered ready access to both the Metro (line 1) and RER (line C). One of the first things we did was pick up a pair of Navigo cards for easy access to all public transport in Paris – since we were staying through Sunday morning, it worked out perfectly.
We knew we would be taking a chance since our flight was arriving at 7 AM and check-in time was 3 PM, but we were very pleasantly surprised that not only was a room available, but it had a view of the Eiffel Tower!
Not a bad view, right?
The Regency has two restaurants: Mayo and Windo, as well as a Regency Club. Thanks to the Club access upgrade I purchased, we were able to visit it for snacks in the evening as well as breakfast.
Mayo To-Go as well as Mayo itself
To the Elevators
Check-In
The Room
The room we got was on the 33rd floor of the building, with the Regency Club and Windo located on the 34th floor. Given the height of the building, the Hyatt Regency has an innovative elevator solution. The elevator alcove on each floor has a series of touchscreens where you enter your floor number before you get on an elevator. The screen will then tell you which elevator will take you there. This way, the work is more evenly distributed between the elevators and riders get to their destinations in a more timely manner. I hope more buildings take a page from their book and implement similar systems!
A word to the wise: these rooms are fairly tight fits for two for an extended period (particularly for storing clothes), and the bed might be a little firmer than what travelers are used to at American hotels. Overall quite a nice room, though!
Entering the room
Somewhat a tight fit for two
Two sets of shades!
Nice, firm bed
Coffee, tea, and water
The Regency Club
The Regency Club offers breakfast, snacks, and Aperitifs throughout the day, so once we were functional, we knew a visit was in order. Needless to say, we were thoroughly spoiled by the convenient access to excellent meat and cheese.
34th Floor
Evening snacks
Delicious cured meats
Comté
Flatbread
Fresh bread!
Self-serve beer and mixers
Self-serve wine
Orangina!
The Fitness Center
The fitness center at the hotel was more comprehensive than any I have seen. Not only were there treadmills and bicycles, there were also rowing machines, weight machines, free weights (dumbells as well as kettlebells), and a cable cross machine!
Arc de Triomphe
Though not visible from our room, the Arc de Triomphe is a short one mile walk from the hotel. We passed it on our way to the Eiffel Tower, though we never ascended to the summit.
Eiffel Tower
Before arriving, I noticed that virtually every visitor to Paris recommended buying skip-the-line tickets to attractions. I cannot emphasize the importance of this. Though not as long at the Eiffel Tower, lines at other attractions (like the Louvre and Versailles) can easily eat up hours of your day. Don’t make that mistake – buy tickets in advance and walk right in!
From the summit, we were treated to expansive views of the Paris skyline. They also offered champagne! Warning: they only take cash.
Les Invalides
Arc de Triomphe
Les Invalides and Notre-Dame de Paris
Champagne!
Back at the room, we managed to see the Tower lit up – truly a marvelous sight.
Paris Trip Report – Arrival and Eiffel Tower Paris Trip Report - Arrival and Eiffel Tower Paris Trip Report - Notre-Dame de Paris, Catacombs…