Home safely

Tuesday morning started off OK. I had breakfast at the normal bistrot over the road and said goodbye and thank you to the very pleasant young man . He always patiently waited while I ordered or asked questions  about Paris or whatever in very slow, bad French.  His English was good.  A few hours later , after I had packed up I went downstairs to order an Uber. Trouble was I could see the cars loitering ( a nearby hospital helps) but it would not connect to any of them, just dropped out. Maybe tall buildings are a problem. So I went over the road, less tall buildings. The bistrot owner was standing outside. He came over to help.  Finally I got connected to one. Sit down, he says, and I will get you a coffee while you wait. How nice, but  I couldnot because it was almost there. He disappeared and came running out as I was getting into the uber with a bottle of water for me. 

Charles de Gaulle airport was packed and disorganised. Maybe they had just bought in a new system,  whtever, I got conflicting advice,  went up, alonb, then back down to here i ws before etc, and the signage was very poor. For example, at one point, eu passport holders went in one queue, according to the flag on the sign, the next queue hd a sign with a UK, US and Canada flag on it and the next queue said ' Everyone else'. I got in this queue, but I was told to go into the US, UK, Canada queue. I get what they were trying to do but couldn't they do better than that?  I followed all the signs, carefully, i had hours to fill in, but still I ended up getting my passport stamped twice. I did stop and have some of my water at some point. The lounge was good. When I finally got to the departure gate there were a group of 4, all completely overcrowded, no seats, people sitting all over the floor. To get a good deal  ( thru Lufthanser) I had to fly through Frankfurt. So going into Frankfurt , the girl who was going to stamp my passport took ages looking at it. It was new for this trip, so not many stamps. She was puzzled by the 2 exit stamps from Paris. I carefully, politely,  not being critical,  told her. Frankfurt to Singapore, Singapore  to Melbourne all went smoothly. But the timing was very bad because I ended up having 2 nights, the first I slept a bit, but not the second, last night. The plane to Melbourne got in about 10 minute early at 5.30. I got through quickly, went straight to the Qantas domestic lady and asked if I could get on an earlier flight. After a phone call, her shepherding me through security, and me running through a fairly deserted terminal I got onto a plane that started  boarding just before I started to talk to her. At 6am.  It is going to be hard to stay awake today.

Photos. Waiting in Singapore

I am currently  waiting in Singapore for my flight to Melbourne. So far so good. 2 flights finished, 2 to go.

Below are a few photos from my last days in Paris.

From boat on Canal St Martin about to go into a lock and then tunnel

Reflections from boat going through tunnel

Notre Dame without its spire

From Butte Bergeyre looking toward Sacre Coeur 

I am sure other big cities must have tiny houses like these, but several locals told me to go and 

look at them because they are rare in Paris.

Monday Last full day in France...

... this trip, I hope. I am due to fly to Frankfurt at 6.25 pm tomorrow.  I know i will not settle in the morning so will go to the airport when I am ready in the morning. My travel agent got back to me and said it was expensive to change the ticket. The airport staff should have sorted themselves out by the evening.

This morning I went out at 8ish, there was no one around. Public holiday for 1 st  May. Workers day.  Again, no usual cafes open. But some have opened later.  The place I had brunch yesterday was open , I went there and got talking to a local who is a tour guide. He was meeting a group from Houston. We talked for about an hour. He has been to Australia and knows how vast it is compared to European countries. Earlier I was talking to the lady behind the bar. She told me to be careful, there were many manifestations , the French word for protests. I said i was going to look at Place de Bastille ( having just read Tale of 2 cities ( read is a loose term, I read probably 2/3 to 3/4  of each page. Dickens is very wordy))  She waggled her finger at me ' No, No' nor Place de Republic etc . So she told me of some nice little places to the NW of here. The first was a garden like others I have seen,, which are only open to visitors occasionally  but locals have a key.  Usuually vegies and flowers all muddled up. i donot think individual allotments, sort of joint. There was a good view of Sacre Coeur  photo coming, maybe) . Then I walked on to Buttes- Chaumont ( butte =hill) which is a big park, 25 hectares. I walked though it. The half of Paris who were not protesting were there walking/ jogging / picnicking  families, groups of friends, couples old and young. I was heading for another area of what were described as little houses, same as a few days ago.  Most of the land is covered with apartments, but these houses were usually 2 storeys high, often only 1 room in width and only 1 family ( going on the doorbell) Quite cute and interesting.  Another thing which I saw the other day as well was narrow streets called Villa such and such. I think villa such and such used to be a grand house with a big garden  but apartments were added with access from what we would call a laneway. So they each had a small garden,  and were sort of at right angles to the main street.  There were usually about 6 on each side of the lane way (villa).  Not sure if that makes any sense. A diagram would be better, but too hard now.

Then I stopped for lunch and walked back a different route.  The nice man over the road where I have been several times wasn't open earlier, but he now is so I might go and have a glass of wine and some salad. I think I can do better than rice crackers on my last day in France.