Does anyone recall the freakish blizzard that hit Europe in December, 2010? When the arctic winds come to visit? I recall it vividly. It was unnaturally cold.

I can now add remember when that freakish heatwave that hit Paris in early June 2015, to my travel stories. When it was was 90f + degrees (32-36c)?.

It’s not a secret that I do not like extreme heat. Especially for sightseeing. I figured I would be safe visiting Europe in early June, because it’s technically late spring. WRONG.

This trip I had booked a room at the Hilton Paris Opera. It’s more centrally located and I was able to take the RER to Gare Nord and change to the Magenta line to Haussamn St. Lazare which is right next to the hotel.

**TRAVEL TIP***-do NOT use Google Maps in Paris. It’s a little wonky when it comes to public transportation. A good alternative is RometoRio

After refreshing, I hit the streets to do a little shopping.  Again, don’t trust Google Maps. What should have been a 10 minute walk took me 30 minutes.  Did I mention it was starting to get a little warm?

First stop Chanel, for Pursegate 2.0. (Whitney and Katy- that same bag is still sold out!). I am happy to report, no major damage done on my credit cards.

Bruce and Will were able to change plans and come to Paris a day early.  We made plans to meet for lunch. Somewhere, again in case you miss it the first 2 times, don’t use Google Maps. At this point, it was no longer just warm, it was hot.  There was an insane line for taxis, so I did what anyone with a smartphone would do, requested an Uber. It was only 3 km away, how long could it take? 1 hour and 24 euro……

 

We had a nice lunch and took a stroll along the Seine. The guys were fading and I had plans to meet up with my friend, John for drinks,  so we parted with plans to catch up again later.

It was now hotter then before. And you would think by now I had learned my lesson with Google. Nope. I started to walk over to the Park Hyatt. Bad idea. I lasted about 3 blocks before I hopped in a taxi. I met up with John and few of his friends for some champagne.  And I got a present!! Thanks John!

I headed back to my hotel for a mandatory refresh because it was just HOT. Then off for more champagne, dinner and walking around Paris.

I finally made it back to my hotel ready to crash around 1.30 am. Only to be woken up by the hotel alarm clock at 6.30 am. It actually worked out well, as I had planned to visit Versailles.

**TRAVEL TIP*** If your hotel room has an alarm clock, make sure the alarm is off before going to bed.

I hopped on the Rer C to Versailles. I had pre-booked my ticket online, so upon arrival I was able to just show the ticket and walk in. I suggest going as early as possible, if you want to avoid crazy crowds.  Versailles was great, but between the selfies sticks and tourist playing professional photographers, it was hard to get pictures. And it was HOT,  worse then the day before.  And there were loads of people and well, I probably saw like 10%.  I actually started to feel ill, pretty sure dehydrated, so I took a break got some juice and went back out to explore the garden. I want to say I lasted about 10 minutes, before I admitted defeat.

I headed back to Paris, where I met up with Bruce and Will before heading over to Orly to catch my flight to Florence.  I tried to Uber but they were having a crazy surge, so fares were 2.4 times higher then normal. I ended up taking Le Cab, which is like Uber but with fixed prices, nice cars, tablets with wifi. And much better prices.

Of course the next day in Paris, the weather was normal like low 70’s…………

Stayed tuned for my Italian Adventure.