Tuesday, November 11, 2025

France Here We Come!

 France the 6th go round!  France Magnifique through Collette is a trip with a history.  Hubby and I first scheduled this tour for the Fall of 2021.  Covid hit, it was postponed until The Spring of 2022, then again postponed until the fall of 2022.  As Covid was still a problem it was postponed yet again for the Spring of 2023; but things were not yet really safe........so it was scheduled for the Fall of 2023.  We did actually arrive in Paris a day early as we always like to give ourself a buffer due to travel and time to settle in due to jet lag.  

However, on the day we arrived; hubby came down with Covid.  So, we sat in our hotel room for 5 days for isolation and the tour went on without us.  We then had to scramble to find flights home, as our previously scheduled flight was slated for the end of tour.

Feeling like this tour was jinxed, I decided we could not book it again the next year in 2024.  We needed to take a different tour to break up the bad mojo.  We went to Sicily in the fall of 2024.

AND drum roll
Here's hubby in the airport lounge as we depart for Paris France to take the same Collette Tour, France Magnifique.  It's Billed as a 12 day tour, includes 16 meals.  10 Breakfasts, 1 Lunch, and 5 Dinners.  We  did our own airfair, so that's not included in the tour price, nor is the travel insurance that one really needs to get.  We did manage to get our funds back from the ill-fated attempt in the fall of 2023.

I rarely do selfies, because I'm not good at it; but here's one of me once we got on board our flight to France.  We did opt for business class seats which for a long flight, an overnight flight to Europe is certainly more comfortable.
Hubby took one of me, you can see the seating arrangement a bit more,
And I took one of hubby.  We scheduled 2 additional days at both the front and back end of this tour.  As we age, the travel seems a bit more tiring; so we wanted extra time.  And, we wanted to spend more time in Paris then the tour allotted.  

The tour has you fly in and out of Paris, but the tour actually starts in Versailles.  So we booked 2 nights in Paris on our own.  At this point we're still holding our breathe that we will get there and both remain healthy and get to actually take the scheduled tour.

We started our with our glass of Champagne and as we hit altitude the dinner preceding's began.  We both had a good meal with wine, watched a movie; then reclined our lay flat seats to get some sleep.  And while doing that is nice, you really only get a few hours because of the difference in time zones and they have to wake you for breakfast before landing.


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5 comments:

  1. This sounds like a wonderful trip and a much better time than the covid trip! I love the set up of the business seats - much more comfortable!

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    1. Right you are Mari. We kept our finger crossed all the way there and congratulated each other when we made it past the first day, lol.

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  2. Here’s hoping this time France truly welcomes you both with good health and clear skies

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  3. What bad luck with Covid! I managed to pick it up last year on a week long trip in the Finger Lakes. Thankfully, I was only sick the last 2 days. The seats look amazing and I'm sure your trip was fabulous!

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  4. How wonderful you were able to attempt round 2! I can't wait to follow you on this trip of a lifetime. I think it was such a good idea to schedule extra days on arrival so you could recoup from the flight. Your plane ride looks pretty posh!

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