Notre Dame & Other Places

We are gluttons for punishment. Again we set off on what was to become a long walk.

We walked to the Notre Dame through many back streets, via the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Palace Gardens.

The Gardens are impressive with a small lake in front of the Palace. They are used for jogging, picnics or just strolling. There are chairs everywhere for people to sit on.

Using our meagre map we found our way to the Seine River and the Notre Dame Cathedral. When we were here in 1977 we took a photo of the front with not a person in sight. This certainly was not the case this time. The queue for entry was long and slow moving. We did not join it!!

We then headed back to the Hotel but were interrupted by some souvenir shops. Dave bought a hat (can you believe that?) and Joyce bought a few things. We were not far on our way when we discovered Joyce’s Ipad was missing. We retraced our steps and found it in one of the souvenir shops. They had found it a kept it. Joyce had to put in the code to access it and show a photo of one of us – lucky Joyce had taken one of me.

Our feet are sore again and Joyce’s hips are seizing up but what we saw was fantastic.

Paris is a very leafy, clean and attractive city.

We are meeting our Globus rep tonight and going to dinner with the Tour Group. We met an American couple from New Hampshire at breakfast that are going on the same tour as us.

 Guess what!!

 Luxembourg Palace

Picnicing in the Gardens

Notre Dame & The Queue

A Travel Experience

This could only happen to us!!!!

After a shower and unpacking a bit, we laid down for a well overdue rest after the long day flying to, and walking around Paris.

We were woken by the sound of the phone ringing – it was a lady from the Front Desk explaining that we should be booking out of the room today and moving to another one. I looked at the clock and it was 9:30.

I explained that we were with Globus but had booked an extra night before the Tour started. The man booking us in had understood this and did not require any vouchers supplied by Globus etc. The lady then checked and apologised for ringing.

Looking outside we thought it a little overcast, so dressed appropriately. We then realised we only had 30 minutes before breakfast finished so we hot footed it downstairs. We could not find the breakfast room so we asked where the breakfast was and were pointed to a restaurant/bar. There were a couple of people eating in there but there was no breakfast buffet. Oh well, we’ve missed it, we thought.

So back to the Front Desk to ask where the Breakfast was and had we missed it (we did get some funny looks…). In the ensuing, rather comical as it turns out, conversation we came to the realisation it now was 9:40 pm, yes pm, that’s at night!!! It looked like daytime outside to us.

OK, let’s go back to bed. Then….The room key cards did not work so back downstairs we go. Oh, we thought you were booking out so we blocked the cards. They fixed it up so back up to go back to sleep.

But!!! As we thought it was 9:30am Dave had taken his morning pills (No, not the morning after pill), he then realised he should have taken his night time pills, which he did.

Another Travel Experience!!!

In Paris

We reached Paris a little ahead of schedule. Our Shuttle got us to the Hotel after 2 other drops. We got quite a good tour of Paris in the process.

Our rooms where not ready (we were too early) so we parked our bags and decided to go for a walk aided by a map that was short of detail at times. We were a bit ambitious and ended up walking quite a distance. We did see the Eiffel Tower and many other nice buildings – Museum of the Army, National Assembly, Museum D’orsay -  and walked along the Seine River.

We got ourselves some lunch from a Delicatessen in a little back street.

So after a total of 22 hours flying and 4 hours walking we are pooped. Having a rest tonight!!

At the Airport

The Bus ride to the Airport was OK. Not my preferred mode of transport but very convenient.

We stayed at Rydges at the Airport. We would recommend it.

 Just 2 minutes walk to the international terminal. They provide a free shuttle to the domestic terminal for their guests.  Our flight leaves at 3:15 pm so they gave us a 1 pm checkout.

Now it is just waiting time until our flight leaves.

With regard to something that happened last night – as Basil Fawlty said – do not talk about the war!!!!

Off we go

We fly out on 29th May - to Paris.
Will attempt to keep you up to date as to where we are, what we are doing, and post some pictures.