I’ve been up for about 20 hours so my battery’s starting to run down. Even if there were a lot to say about this leg of the journey I’d have to be brief.The day started with one last meal of pastries and fruit before the cab ride to the airport. We left at our usual conservative time — 2:40 before our flight — but encountered miles of traffic snarled due to an accident along the way. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle, checked in as quickly as possible (my mother still has no idea what was on her screen; I was punching buttons at top speed), threw our bags on the belt and snaked through security. Just as we cleared security we saw on the board that they had just closed boarding; luckily we happened to be right next to the gate and ran through. As it turned out we weren’t even the last people on the bus used to ferry people over to the plane, but it was all enough to twist Nellie’s guts into a ball.

The flight home was uneventful; I barely remember it, though it’s been just a few hours since we de-planed. I was still in a bit of a haze, really; all our experiences in France will come rushing back over the next few days as I pore through the pictures, and many of them ran through my head today on the flight home. Tonight our main concentration was on relaxing, welcoming my mom & dad to Toronto and showing them our new place, saying hello to our cats and getting some sleep.

[tags]paris, france, toronto[/tags]

We’re back in Toronto, along with my parents. More details on our escape from France later.

[tags]france, paris, toronto[/tags]

This morning started as all mornings should: with pastries. Freshly stuffed, we were on the go by 9:00, heading toward the Eiffel Tower. We walked down the parc du champ de mars and got pictures of the tower — currently cradling an enormous rugby ball — from up close. I’m glad we didn’t want to take the elevator up; the lines were already miles long.

Instead we ducked out of the cold and onto the batobus, a hop-on-hop-off bus tour up the Seine. Really we were just using it as a water taxi from the tower to Notre Dame and back. We hopped off near Notre Dame and had a look around (impressive, but way too crowded with yahoos), had lunch at a nearby tourist trap and had a look at the stained glass inside Saint Chapelle as well.

Back on the batobus we went and looped around to the Champs Elysees stop. We walked the avenue for a bit, stopped so my mom could buy a bag and jumped in a cab back to the hotel. Nellie, my dad and I went ’round the corner to the Rodin museum to admire the sculpture and gardens, before scoping out some dinner options and grabbing afternoon snacks.

Dinner was at a brasserie down the street, and it was nice to have a reasonably proper French meal before we left. Everyone enjoyed their meal, our waiter was crazy and fun, and we were finished nice and early so we could relax for the rest of the night, just the way we wanted it. We finished off the chocolate and wine, packed all our stuff (re-packed in some cases; my big suitcase was pushing 25kg) and Nellie filled out her postcards. We were ready to go. One more night in France and then it’s back to Toronto.Yaaay?

[tags]paris, eiffel tower, notre dame, champs elysees, rodin museum[/tags]

After a wait, and being accosted by a little old French lady who was upset I didn’t speak her language (rightly so) our train arrived. We had a little trouble finding room for all our luggage and Nellie had to kick an old lady out of her seat, but we made it.

We pulled into Paris’ Gare Montparnasse about half an hour late, and it took another half hour to get a cab. It would’ve taken only a few minutes to reach our hotel except military-type guys kept turning our cab away. We eventually had to just jump out and walk the last few blocks…in the rain, of course! Anyway, our hotel seemed reasonable and we immediately set out for some dinner and to catch at least an hour or two at the Louvre. To get there we walked through a good portion of St-Germain, a beautiful part of town.

Dinner was pretty good*, and quick, which is what we needed. A few minutes later we crossed the Pont du Carousel — an amazing sight at night, by the way, and entered the Louvre. We had less than two hours so we did speed runs to some of the biggies. The Mona Lisa was swarmed and the Venus de Milo was beset by photographers, who Nellie and my dad and I decided to mess with a bit. At this point my parents were bagged so we decided to call it quits. Someday I’ll come back to Paris and spend an entire day here.

We still haven’t figured out how taxis work here in Paris, so we decided to just walk home. Unfortunately it was a cold night and my mom’s feet were hurting, but we eventually made it in one piece. Nellie and I then plopped down on the bed with some gourmet chocolate and a bottle of wine (which we nicked from my brother’s wedding). Vive la France!

*I ordered the jumbo prawns. I forgot that in france they arrive with the heads and legs still attached. It went against my preference to only eat things without the eyes remaining but I managed.

[tags]france, paris, montparnasse, louvre, saint germain[/tags]

Having a computer with proper internet access is a beautiful thing when travelling, even if it is French (who knew the French don’t use QWERTY keyboards?), for finding things out. My Blackberry has served us well, but it just can’t match the speed with which I found out the weather in Paris and Toronto, located a nearby gas station, updated some Facebook crap, moderated some blog comments and confirmed a train departure time + station. Not to mention all the camera maintenance we were able to do last night.

We gassed (diesel’d?) up the car and drove to the train station in Libourne. We erred on the side of caution, which was a mistake, ’cause by the time we returned our cars and got to the station we still had nearly two hours to wait. Sigh.

[tags]france, chateau franc mayne, saint-emilion, libourne, the internets[/tags]