Paris

 On Saturday, we packed up our fabulous apartment in Rue des Trois Conils and headed to the train station. Before I had time to take a good nap, the TGV (travelling at 310kms per hour) had us in Paris. It took approximately 10 mins before our decision to not spend too much time in Paris was confirmed. The taxi drivers are so rude! The hotel staff are lazy and dismissive. Not a great start.

We didn't have a lot of time left in the day and I had one job to do - buy some souvenirs for my students. We headed out in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. Found a souvenir shop and did a deal to buy 21 "I Love Paris" pens. Job done. As we were close to the ET, we thought we would have a look at it. We got a shock when we realised there is a huge fence around the base of the tower! The last time we visited Paris (28 years ago), you could walk under the Eiffel Tower. There were no big ticket gates. Just an orderly queue. Things have changed a lot since our first visit.

The crowds in Paris were insane. Seriously insane. Even stopping to buy a bottle of wine at the supermarket took forever. We are so glad we spent our week in France outside of Paris. Bordeaux was so relaxed compared to Paris.

Eventually, we got our bottle of wine and a Korean take away and spent out last night in Europe in our hotel room.

This trip has had lots of great stuff and some not so great stuff (Ian getting sick). Over our last 3 visits to Europe, we have now seen most of the big name capital cities (at least Western European capitals). We have seen some of the smaller cities and towns as well. We have seen lots of amazing buildings and beautiful landscapes. The overwhelming impression is that people are really the same all over the world. Going about their business, doing their stuff. You could easily transplant populations from country to country and find the same trends and behaviours wherever you go.

In future, I think our travel will be more like our time in Bordeaux. Picking a location and staying there for a while and really getting to know it. No more whistlestop tours for us.

Right now, we are looking forward to getting home, seeing the kids, sleeping in our own bed and getting back to normal. That is enough travel for now - except the lovely business class flight home 😊








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