Welcome to my next trip report, a brief series that will recount my autumn trip to Germany and France, with flights on Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue and a nice stay at Hôtel du Louvre in Paris.

Autumn Trip To Germany, Switzerland, France On Virgin Atlantic, Eurowings, JetBlue

A very dear family member on my wife’s side of the family passed away, prompting an immediate and unplanned trip to Germany for her funeral. Although Heidi considered going alone, we determined it was a perfect opportunity to pull the kids out of school and travel together…a choice that, now in hindsight, we have zero regrets over.

We booked the day before we left. Virgin Atlantic had award seats from Los Angeles to London for 12.5K Virgin miles each way. I then booked a connection on Eurowings from London to Stuttgart for 6K United miles each.

The funeral was very meaningful and it meant a lot to Heidi’s side of the family that we flew in all the way from Los Angeles for it. We then spent four days in Baden-Württemberg, mostly spending time with Heidi’s parents.

I did bike to Basel, Switzerland for coffee and church, and our brief stay was quite relaxing. When you only stay for four days, you don’t overstay your welcome!

Paris is called the City of Lights. This nickname was given to the city in the 19th century due to its early adoption of gas street lighting, making it the first major European city to illuminate its streets.

We took a TGV (France’s intercity high-speed rail service) from Mulhouse, which is just over the French border from where we were in Germany, to Paris. We spent a night in a family suite at Hôtel du Louvre, part of the Hyatt Unbound Collection.

For the return, we flew JetBlue from Paris to London on a cheap paid ticket. I won’t review the New York to Los Angeles flight since we just slept on it. I also won’t review the Eurowings flight from London to Stuttgart since we were seated in the last row and there was no service onboard.

Here are the segments for this trip report:

• Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 Economy Class (LAX-LHR)
• Great Coffee In Basel, Switzerland
• TGV Train Mulhuose – Paris
• Hôtel du Louvre – The Unbound Collection by Hyatt Review
• Photo Essay: Autumn In Paris
• Great Coffee In Paris
• Our Eiffel Tower Experience In Paris
• JetBlue A321LR “Core” Economy Class (CDG-JFK)

As always, let me know if you have any questions and I’m happy to add specific details to this series based on your feedback.