Bonjour Paris!

So Saturday June 23, 2012 was a stunningly sunny winter's day in Sydney. It's comforting to know there will be a lot more days like that when we get back. So Mum and Dad dropped us off at the airport and we checked in. Having previously had a couple of experiences where we have suddenly been robbed of holidays because of passport problems or other issues, I now don't rest easy until I'm through customs and on that plane. So I fought off a heart attack when the check-in girl asked us whether we had a visa for Paris. Um, no coz we don't need one. True - we are using our 90 days in the Schengen visa area to the full extent, but I double and triple checked that we were all above board. Anyway, angina aside, I pulled out a copy of my trusty google document with our planned itinerary and this seemed to alleviate any of her concerns. Phew!

So the flight to Abu Dhabi was painfully long (14 hours) and once we got there we discovered our next flight was delayed 3 hours so we had to kill over 4 hours there. Not fun, but what are you going to do. We arrived in Paris before 9am Sunday morning. Following the spanish inquisition in Sydney we were prepared for some tough questions in Paris. Instead, not only was the queue for immigration less than 2 minutes (astounding compared to Heathrow and LAX) but no questions were asked nor were our passports scanned - a quick stamp and we were in! Full marks to Paris CDG for efficiency!

We got the train into Paris to Gare du Nord, just near where are hotel was. It was still pretty early so we dumped our bags and set off, in what was now some light rain. But hey, nothing was going to rain on my Parisien parade. We wandered around - being a Sunday a lot of places were shut - but we stopped in for some coffee (Ryan had his first croissant) then continued wandering the Paris streets, which even in the rain are beautiful. Since it was raining I thought it might be a good idea to go to one of their big department stores to look at their gourmet produce, but even they are shut on Sundays!

We came across one of the many cafe/ristorante/brasserie type places - this one called La Rotonde Trinite - and had a glass of wine and our first French meal - fittingly a baguette with saucisson and emmantal cheese (that was for you Audrey!). It was yum! I could happily live on bread, cured meats and cheese for the next few weeks. So we continued to wander and by now we could check into our hotel, which was a cheap and cheerful little thing. Small and no frills rooms but hey, it was clean, the location was good and it was cheap!! Plus I finally got to have a shower after the horrid plane trip.

After a quick nap to recharge, we set off back out into the rain (which had settled in now) and after getting damp stopped in at a little non-descript bar which had a few men smoking in it (the no smoking inside law here is just a guideline). We had a little glass of wine (it really was small) then set back off and found a bistro near our hotel (the rain and the jet-lag meant we were starting to fade). Ryan had the duck, and as they were out of the mussels, I had a ham and cheese omelette, all accompanies with a half carafe of wine of course. We made our way back home and hit the hay at 9:30pm while it was still light!