We're in Paris and boy, are we jetlagged! The flight took 21 hours, in two stages: nine hours from Sydney to Bangkok, where we waited for two hours for another plane to take us on the 12 hour flight to Paris. The photo on the left shows us at Sydney airport with the Thai Airways airbus waiting for us to board. It must be 100 metres long and they cram you in in cattle class - very little legroom though the food was very good. We landed at Charles deGaulle airport at 6.45am Paris time. The first surprise was the heat: it was 30 degrees today and humid as well. It was hotter than any September day we've experienced in Sydney.
Our first quintessential Parisian experience was the shuttle bus trip from the airport, with us and a few other Aussies. They say Parisian drivers are "fou" and our guy drove like a maniac - reaching 150kmh in a 90kmh zone and tailgating anyone foolish enough to to move away from "his" left lane!
But we arrived at our hotel unscathed and it's a very nice little hotel.
Trois stars, as you can see and in a charming little street (Rue Cadet and it's near the Opera Garnier, hence Opera Cadet) that seems to typify Paris: there are at least three boulangeries (bread shops), pâtisseries, fruit stalls, two or three librares (bookshops - libraries are bibliotheques), fromages (cheese shops, so Nettie is in heaven), bistros, charcuteries, brasseries and wine cellars.
As this blog's entries says, nous étions très fatigués by this time, but we couldn't get to our chambre until 1.30pm, so we embarked on our first stroll à travers les rues de Paris. And what a city for walking! We got as far as the Place de la Concorde but spent the most time in the huge shopping centre, the Galeries laFayette with its magnificent ceiling:
We got our first view of the Eiffel Tower from the sixth floor of this department store - Net was very excited! We also took a quick peek at the Opera Garnier, which is a huge building that will need a more thorough examination later on:
We got as far as the Place de la Concorde but then had to trudge back to our hotel and collapse.
Later we explored some of the fabulous arcades around our area (9th arrondissement), had a nice meal in a rustic-style bistro - Net had steak and I had fish and we both had very rich chocolate mousse - and then trudged back to our hotel again.
Tomorrow we should have more energy!
