The final day of our short Paris break arrived all too soon. After waking, slowly (I do love the midday checkout), we wandered to La Beaujolais for the final time then went for a walk around the Eiffel Tower and surrounding streets before heading back to the hotel. We quickly checked out and hopped in a convenient taxi for the trip to Paris Nord and the Eurostar.
Traffic was a nightmare. It took us ages. In fact, it would probably have been quicker if the taxi had taken us all the way to St Pancras.
At one point we were stuck, bumper to bumper, with two lanes of traffic, inching, slowly forward. We entered a long tunnel, still moving at about an inch an hour. Upon leaving the tunnel we found out what the problem was. A car with a flat tyre was sat, useless, in the outside lane. After passing it, the taxi moved ahead at a reasonable clip.
Not that it lasted very long. It was still very much stop and start all the way to the station, including being stuck behind a couple of trucks that figured it was perfectly okay to park next to each other, blocking both lanes of the street.
Anyway, we made it with a little time to spare and were soon happily seated in our standard premier seats.
As the train started to leave Paris, we heard the (not so) dulcet tones of an Australian woman who was determined to talk to a French business woman for the entire journey. Apparently, according to the Australian woman, a French accent makes the English language sound beautiful. I thought it was a pity she didn’t have a French accent.
Apart from the incessant chatter, the trip was uneventful and we were soon pulling into St Pancras which we swapped for a Tube train to Bank where we went our separate ways as Mirinda headed for the flat and I set off for Waterloo. As I waited for the next train home, she texted to say she was already at the flat having been shopping for food first.
Eventually I made it home (I even took a taxi from the station because of the suitcase) where I set about starting the washing machine before heading off to Sue’s place to pick up the dogs. Sue was busy with a hairdressing emergency so a strange woman helped me with the dogs.
The hairdressing emergency concerned a young girl who was going to a party and needed a 1940’s hair style, which it seems, Sue is rather good at. I left them to it, wishing them all good luck.
Back at home, I fed the dogs then we all settled down for a rest.
Our short stay in Paris was exactly what Mirinda needed and gave us a lovely break before the Christmas onslaught to come.
