Friday 21 October . . . PARIS!!!!!
WOW!!!!! Such bloody luxury!! We got our first return on the extra investment when we were allowed to board the plane at the front entrance. We swarmed aboard, straining to see the de luxo seating but all we saw were regular seats!!! Oooh No. We had row 11, which showed up on the diagram as the front row. I was just rehearsing “we have paid a whole heap of money to have reclining seats and no bloody way are we going to cramp up in these for the next 13 hours.” But there were only 10 rows and then we passed through a small galley area and . . . there They were. Bright red and beautiful. So much space. We sat on the runway for a long time and then it takes about 20 minutes before you get up to 38,000’ and the captain turns the seat belt light off, which is the all clear to recline seats. Truth be told, one of us had begun covert experimentation with the knobs already . . so many controls to fine-tune your absolute comfort. They brought us around plush quilts . . not those flimsy economy class micro-blankets. And there were soft pillows in the well behind our seats. Don’t know how we will ever be happy back in cattle class.
We didn’t get up to cruise height until 1.30am and immediately set our watches back to 7.30pm Paris time. They brought us chicken cordon bleu and we were very well ready to sleep. I don’t remember anything after that until 4.30 by which time I had had a full 8.5 hours of very good sleep. J did not stir for a while after that. At 7am they brought us chicken bonne femme and the captain then announced that we were flying over Vienna and that the weather in Paris was fine and 1 degree Celsius. 1 degree!! Bloody hell.
J maintained a running commentary from the window seat. Crossing a shoreline . . mountains . . snowy mountains . . mushroom cloud . . jet trails. We were tracking another jet at the same altitude and then turned towards it, climbing right over the top of it . . barely 100m away. Then another one flashed past and now there are a couple away to one side. Pretty crowded. (Janine says “Shouldn’t have watched so many air crash investigations episodes with you Steph” Bit nervous, lol)
Captain just upgraded the weather report . . MINUS 1 at Paris Orly and fog!!. A moment later he told the Malaysians that it is -2c. Just as well we have the mountain wear with us.This has been the first time change of our holiday, until now we have still been on Perth time.
Our bags were the first off and we shot straight through - they just stamped our passports – no arrival forms at all. We took the challenge and dragged our bags through 3 train changes on the metro to arrive at our hotel. Very proud of ourselves. The first train came complete with a couple of buskers who began playing smouldering tango tunes on the piano accordion and tambourine. How very Parisian! As Chris said “That was our First Tango in Paris”.
Afternoon walk to river, where almost immediately I spotted the top of the Eiffel Tower. Woohoo! and then realised we could see Notre Dame. Walked along river past 'en plain' sculptures, crossed a few bridges and went into the Cathedral. This is awesome, inside and out. Such lovely streetscapes with the tops of various domes and towers to be seen off in the distance in all directions. Chris was pretty unwell and we came back to the hotel to check in. (2pm) So, hopefully tomorrow he will be feeling better and we can go and fully explore.
Bateaux Mouches - Notre Dame
Padlock bridge at Notre Dame. Couples place padlock- some engraved to show love.
The hotel is really nice and so are the staff. Far more expensive than China but very elegant and a brilliant position for us. We have to exit via the Gare de Lyon in 3 days and it is 200m away. That also includes mainline and metro trains and we are right next to the river (Seine). It took us about 30 minutes to walk back from Notre Dame. There is free wifi and, although the French have strange round power points, the hotel loaned us an adaptor. We have been living on baguette (.55c) and cheese and tomato and ham. Tomato much cheaper than Perth. No ‘Romas’ here – just “round” or “elongated”. Not very romantic. We did very well in 2.5 hours today and look forward to the next 2 days, hopefully with better health. I think last night’s chicken did me in. I promised not to mention Linda Blair but “sick” does not begin to describe it.
It was pleasantly warm during the day as long as we stayed in the sun – the sky was quite clear. We went for a short stroll tonight and it was cold – quite disconcerting to go into a heated supermarket. The French tend to dress very elegantly and it is funny to see them freezing their asses off sitting in pavement cafes, which is the “in” place to be seen. So many cafes and restaurants of all sorts – this is just SOOOO French. I have to retract all those anti-Gallic coments.
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