I decided that I wanted to put a little more effort into documenting this trip for posterity than just the quick bytes I shared on Instagram. This is going to be a multi-post series here on the blog detailing pretty much every aspect of our trip, so feel free to jump around to just the topics that interest you! Full list below will be updated with links as I publish each post.

• Getting to Paris (this post)
• Itinerary
• Our Airbnb, neighborhood, and transportation in Paris
• General sightseeing and walking tours
• Games and venues
• Food
• Giverny and Versailles
• Lyon
• Marseille
• Vienna

Now onto the topic of this post — Getting to Paris

Our original itinerary started on July 30th with a quick evening hop to Dulles to catch the overnight flight to Paris with United, arriving around noon on July 31st. I was a little nervous about the short layover (under 2 hours) but I’m familiar enough with the route and the airports that I decided to chance it. Turns out, I had a reason to be nervous.

We left the house early to give ourselves plenty of time for traffic, parking, checking our bags, security, etc. with the knowledge there is a great Priority Pass lounge inside security where we could get drinks and dinner if we didn’t encounter any delays. We made it to the lounge about 90 minutes before boarding was set to begin, grabbed hot food from the buffet and drinks from the bar, and tried to switch our brains into vacation mode.

Unfortunately, about 20 minutes later we got the first flight delay notification. This one was only 20 minutes, giving us about an hour and 20 minutes to make our connection. Tight but still doable. 20 minutes after that, we got another delay notification that shortened our layover to 45 minutes. I pulled up the flight tracker for the incoming flight and realized the plane hadn’t even taken off yet! At that point, I realized we were going to miss our connection because the incoming flight was about 2 hours long. We still had to wait for the official delay update to be able to change our flight, which came at 7:03pm for our 7:42pm flight.

The United app quickly notified me we would miss our connection and gave me one option for rebooking, the same exact itinerary the following day. However, after this delay I was no longer comfortable with the short layover in Dulles (especially after noticing the incoming flight hadn’t taken off on time a single day in the past week), so I immediately called United directly from the app and the helpful agent rebooked us on a different itinerary the next morning through Newark (with a longer layover) that would get us to Paris only 19 hours late (vs. 24) and still had Premium Economy seats left. Side note, I’m definitely too bougie (or too old?) to sit in economy for 7+ hours these days, especially on an overnight!

With our new itinerary secured, we headed back to the ticket counter to notify them of our change so they could have someone bring our checked luggage back out. Thankfully that only took about 10 minutes, and then we were on our way home to sleep and try again tomorrow. Luckily, the flight from Dulles took off as expected and Hannah and Andrew made it to Paris on time and were able to connect with our Airbnb host and get checked in. I was worried since I was the one who made the reservation, but our host didn’t mind and didn’t give them any trouble.

After an extra night’s sleep in our own bed and some bonus kitty cuddles, we set off again for the airport at 8am the next morning. We decided to carry on our bags this time to minimize waiting time once we arrived in Paris, so we skipped the check-in counter and went straight to security. We made it back to the lounge for breakfast and mimosas and thankfully this time our departing flight was right on time! We even had an empty middle seat between us for the flight to Newark. When we landed there, we headed to the terminal for our next flight and stopped in at the United Club near gate C123 for lunch. Our Priority Pass doesn’t get us in here, but Josh’s active duty military status does! Shout out to United for this amazing offer. Lounge access was key for this layover since it was nearly 5 hours. We made good use of the comfortable seats, wifi, and Coke Freestyle machines, and made several trips to the buffet before we reluctantly headed off to our gate for boarding around 6pm.

The plane taking us to Paris was a newer/updated Boeing 777 with a great Premium Plus cabin. Our seats were bulkhead seats, so we had even MORE legroom than the others in our cabin, plus these nifty leg and foot rests that made the seats much more comfortable. Not having anyone recline back into your space is also a plus for that row and makes it so much easier to get in and out to stretch your legs or go to the restroom. Our main goal on this flight was to sleep, which is always a challenge on a plane, but I managed a few hours between all the meals and snacks they served us.

The flight took off a little late and landed in Paris about 40 minutes later than scheduled, but we were in an Uber on the way to our Airbnb just a few minutes after 9am. Unfortunately, that delay coupled with our Uber driver taking the literal SLOWEST ROUTE POSSIBLE (the trip should’ve taken 35 minutes according to Maps when we first got in the car but it took 70 because our driver decided, without asking, to go right through the center of Paris instead of taking the loop around, literally driving us through the Louvre grounds) meant we missed our first Olympics event. We took an Uber to expedite our trip vs. the RER, which I usually take from the airport, and in hindsight I think the RER would’ve been faster… We had tickets for the US mens team’s water polo match that morning at 10:30, but it was at the aquatics center about 45 minutes away from our Airbnb, where we had to drop our bags off (no luggage storage near the venues for security reasons), so by the time we dropped our bags and got to the venue, we would’ve missed most if not all of the match. We decided to get some food and do some sightseeing instead.

So that’s it for our adventure in crossing the pond, but of course this vacation is just getting started! Next up, some thoughts on our Airbnb and neighborhood in Paris, transportation around the city, and the sightseeing we were able to fit in on our whirlwind trip.