A romantic weekend in Paris – sort of – 14th March 2020

To start we appear to have everything in place to be able to travel at the end of the month, as long as we are not prevented from doing so due to the COVID-19 virus. We are hopeful that we will still be able to get to Australia this month.

As last weekend we were due in Paris due to the fact that our original flight date was the 10^th March, we had booked 3 nights in a nice hotel at CDG, with the plan of relaxing and hopefully getting up to the top of the Eiffel tower. Well we did get to do these things, with a slight variation. We were joined by 2 friends from the UK who we had not been able to see during our farewell tour (as they were both out of the country) so they basically came for a day trip to say goodbye. So they joined us for our Sunday trip into Paris, a walk around Montmartre in the morning, lunch at our favourite Bistro near the Eiffel tower. Pat and I ordered the same dessert – which made one of our friends go “oh wow” when they arrived – she considered changing her dessert – but by that stage they were flambéing her crepe. Then off to the Eiffel tower, unfortunately by this stage the rain and wind had started. We did get to the top of the tower, but did not enjoy a glass of champagne on the top because the wind was just too strong. We did get to have a drink on the 2^nd level while watching the rain from inside a bubble! But it was great to see the view from the top – especially as the clouds and rain waxed and waned the pictures that we got were incredible.

On Monday Pat and I had a late start to the day and a big breakfast, we then went to look at how to get between the train station, hotel and Terminal 1, after this exploration and a discussion with the hotel reception staff the decision was made that we would be best using a taxi to get to and from the hotel because we will have so much luggage – it will just make our journey easier. After that the day was ours to do as we liked, which basically meant we headed to the heated pool to swim and have a sauna. We relaxed for an hour or so down by the pool (it was deserted) and then headed back to our room to sit and read in the little bit of sunshine that was streaming in through the windows. We did do a quick trip out to buy some snacks.

Dinner that night was a walk to one of the nearby hotels as our hotel was incredibly expensive for food and the previous night we had spent a small fortune on our dinner and wine. We had pizza which we enjoyed and then walked back to our hotel to sleep. Tuesday was our return journey to Limoges – a little bit of a lie in and then down to breakfast. We packed up and headed back to Paris. We weren’t going to have a large lunch, but found a restaurant near our train station that had some lovely salads so we stopped and had our lunch and then walked through a nearby park to head back to the station just as our train platform was announced.

So we are back in our rural part of France, hoping that the next two weeks don’t cause further delays for us.

For now, à bientôt, from our wonderful part of France – Delia