Back in Paris (Thursday 1st August 2013)

Sadly the French leg of our adventure is quickly coming to an end. Sadder though is the fact that Emily's trip is coming to an end. We will miss her as we travel on but there is study to be done and even with the power of the internet and Facebook :( she is really missing her friends at home.

While I think of it I'll make a comment about accommodation. The last few nights we have stayed at Ibis Budget hotels. They are part of the Accor Hotels Group, the mob who Liz works for. Quiet often one hears the phrase, “the hotel is not that important. After all, we'll only be sleeping there 'cos we'll be out and about all day.” If that's your travel modus operandi, then these hotels are for you. They are fresh, clean and comfortable enough. You get an OK bed, a shower and toilet in your room, a TV, a chair, a writing table and free WIFI and parking. Not much else. But it only costs 45 Euro for the night for the room. That's about AUD$65.00. No extra charge is levied for the third person. Breakfast is available for 9 Euro. The only issue is that they are rarely in the centre of town but if you are traveling by car that's no problem. Oh, they are everywhere in France. They have a unique system, which I won't go into here, which allows you to check yourself in at anytime and let yourself into your room.

We headed off from Lille early to make the 200kms drive back to Charles de Gaulle. Things were going well until we stopped for a break. I was fiddling with the GPS and it broke. The screen went blank even though we could still hear the radio and GPS-girl. I had plugged my memory stick in to try to download the trip information. Eventually the screen came back and all looked good until GPS-girl directed away from the motorway, down country lanes and through small villages. Something was not right with her. Surely this was not the quickest way to CDG especially with a motorway just a few kms away. Anyway, when I saw a sign to the A1 I dumped GPS-girl and headed there. From the comfort of the motorway, traveling at 130kph, I worked out that the GPS must have rebooted and defaulted its settings amongst which was “don't use toll-ways”. No damage done, we arrived at the drop off point 10 minutes before our scheduled time. The diversion through the the small towns was nice actually.... for a while at least!

We said good-bye to a very grubby Clio. It had been the perfect car for us. Plenty of power. Plenty of room, despite our three large cases, three backpacks and other assorted small bags. We used about 270litres of diesel over almost 5700kms in 23 days at an average of 4.7l/100kms. Each tank gave me more than 1000kms range. Diesel is about 1.40 euro/litre, in Spain it's below 1.30 euro so fuel costs for the trip were not high. BTW Unleaded is about 1.65 euro/litre. So, can someone explain to me why diesel is more expensive in Australia than Europe?

We had a light lunch at CDG, Emily checked-in and got her seats all the way through to Melbourne and we said our good-byes at the entrance to immigration. A few tears from Mum, but not too many. I am sure Emily was keen to do the whole “getting home from Paris to Melbourne thing” by herself. Safe travels, darl. Take care.

We are so happy to have been able to do what we had long wanted to do.. have our European holiday together. Thanks Aunty Verna and Uncle Jim. We will be forever grateful for your generosity. We saw this trip as part of Emily's education so, while we're on the subject, thanks Aunty Dorothy and Uncle Charlie for taking care of the other part of Emily's education at St. Mary's.

We were now on our own to tackle the French rail system. Luckily we had been well taught! We caught an SNCF train back to Gare de Lyon which was a breeze. The hotel I had book was only 100m from the station. It was hot and humid so I'm glad it wasn't much further. After we checked in we were back down in the Metro and back in our old stamping ground at Place de la Republique. It really is a great place to stay if you are every in Paris for few days. It almost felt like being “home”.

I had read about the Canal St. Martin before we left but only remembered about it a week ago. Research uncovered that it was only a 5 minute walk from out old hotel Meslay Republique, so that's why we we back in that part of Paris. We found the canal with no problems. What a shame you missed it, Emily. It is just so Parisian!. The canal is about 8 kms long, long lined with ancient, shady plane trees with dozens and dozens of little arched footbridges, road bridges (that lift up) and 29 locks. We sat for a while on the side of the canal and watched the world go by. A couple of young lads were jumping from the top of a nearby arched footbridge. I think a tourist had paid them so he could take a photograph of them in action. Emily, sadly (for you) we spied an Irish pub across the canal. Naturally, we strolled over there and enjoyed a pint or two while watching the world go by from a different, more refreshing vantage point. Just to top it off, the Third Test was on inside the bar and Australi were doing well on 3/261 with Pup on 83 no.

We headed back to the Bastille district and found a nice little brasserie near the hotel for a lovely dinner of canard (duck) on skewers, plus a glass or two of vin rouge for me and an Italian salad with prosciutto,melon and mozzarella for Kerry. We strolled home for an early-ish night to prepare for the next phase of the adventure. BTW, the view from our 6^th floor balcony looking up and down the busy Boulevard Diderot was something to behold as evening settled on the street.