We had such an amazing two weeks with Ali and Sophie, it was hard to say goodbye. However, they both had work to get stuck into (especially having taken two extra days leave for our Tahoe weekend) and J&I had a train to catch. It's just a 10-minute walk from their place to the train station, and the link went direct to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time. Given it was my birthday I thought I'd give it a whirl at seeing if we could get upgraded. The woman manning the checkin counter was lovely but could only offer us Premium at an additional US$700 each. We graciously flagged that, but she did make sure that we had a spare seat between us, so we could occupy all three seats on our side of the plane if we wanted to. There were in fact quite a few empty seats on the plane but we were grateful all the same.
While biding our time at the airport we managed to message with Bella. It was her birthday in NZ (14th) while at the same time it was my birthday (13th) in America. We had a lovely chat and it was great to catch up.
The flight ended up leaving an hour late, at 4pm, There was plenty of legroom and the rice and chicken, or pasta lunch served at 6pm was really tasty. We immediately put on masks, ear-phones, blankets etc and attempted to sleep but neither of us did very well, perhaps dozing/sleeping for around four hours. A remarkably nice breakfast a few hours before we landed saw us landing at 1am San Fran time/10am Paris time. The flight went well, but we were both a little cold. I had two blankets wrapped around me.
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| Descending towards Paris airport |
A quick and simple trip through immigration and baggage claim and we were onto the airport shuttle, then the RER train to Paris.
This turned into our second drama of the week, after the seizure on the walk of two days before. The trains were all delayed due to an accident elsewhere, and we had to wait in the steaming-hot below-ground station for a good half hour before we could leave Charles de Gaulle for Paris. As previous trains had never appeared, ours was rather full, and over the next couple of stops got progressively more full. A group of 4 North Africans got on and crowded us a bit, then a couple of stops later all hell broke loose. Two or three very large North Africans bulldozed their way into our carriage, deliberately trying to separate us from our bags. We, and a New York woman we had been chatting to, had to really heave our bags back towards us. I was having to make sure hands were not straying to my pockets for phone and wallet. The guy next to me was huge, not overtly threatening, but manoeuvring to try and separate me and my bag, and gain access to my valuables. Everybody was sweating profusely as the train had no discernable air-conditioning, nor opening windows. Not a pleasant situation. A couple of stops later on, the pair or three headed off out of the train, again trying to take our bags with them, and trying to get into my pockets. There was a fair bit of argy-bargy and shouting, as others could see what was happening and were trying to make sure nothing went wrong. I wasn't particularly scared, but it was thoroughly unpleasant, and could easily have got nasty. Thankfully, as we reached the centre of Paris the train emptied out.
A simple transfer at Châtelet-les-Halles for the 11 line to Pyrenees, and we popped out in Belleville, Paris. How lovely. The Belleville area seems to be very busy and interesting. Cafes and eateries everywhere. We had to pop into Le Mistral cafe to pick up our key, then only a few steps to our 5th floor apartment. Very nice to arrive in one piece, though a bit frazzled and well short on sleep.
A very quick minimal unpack, and back downstairs to pick up a pastry and sit at Le Mistral for a little coffee. Pastry disappointing, coffee exactly what we expected and quite reassuring!
Cafe Le Mistral and Belleville
We wandered 100m up Rue de Pyrenees and back, then collected 4 days worth of groceries at the Carrefour directly below us - salad makings, bread, cheese, ham, milk and so on. We weren't up to going out for dinner, so made a baguette meal.
