London to Paris

After four days in freezing London it was time for us to fly to freezing Paris. Our original plan was to use the London Underground to get back to Heathrow. The route necessary would require 3 changes of train, but we had researched it, and there were no steps to navigate, and so we decided to give it a go. We changed our plans after experiencing the incredible crowds on the Underground and how often various lines and stations were closed. So we saved up our pennies and took a taxi back to Paddington Station for the Heathrow Express. En route in the luxurious Mercedes taxi, we negotiated a price to go all the way to Heathrow for less than we would have paid on the Express train. It still totalled 60GBP! But we enjoyed the drive in heavy traffic. One thing staying at Docklands is that you get a full city tour on the way to Heathrow!

Heathrow Terminal 4 departures is showing its age and the effects of one too many security scares. Despite that, our British Air hop to Paris got away just a bit late, and we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport 40 minutes later, and, after a scare, our bags arrived too! We rang our apartment manager to let him know we had landed. Our research had warned us that catching a train to Gare du Nord may involve a lot of steps, which scared us, so we thought an Air France bus or a taxi would be a better bet. We couldn't find the way to either, but while looking, a hotel shuttle bus driver whose passengers had not all showed up approached us and took us to our appartment door for 45Euro. This took hours, Paris traffic being atrocious, made worse apparently by some demonstrations going on. After experiencing Dubai, London and Paris, it seems that it's not only Sydney which is choking itself on traffic.

Our apartment is a delight, and we'll say more about it in another blog. We were exhausted on arrival, so we had a walk around our neighbourhood. Boy, was it cold! The photo shows us on the Ile St Louis - if we look cold, it's because we are!