31 May

After a few false alarms, I finally got up about 8, prepared and had breakfast. I was able to have Vegemite on toast, but the white bread here just does not taste the same as at home (and it doesn’t taste as good as white rolls here, and of course nowhere near the taste of baguettes). After that I sorted out a few things from the car and went to walk from here to the airport station and … guess what, you CAN’T walk! There is no pedestrian access into the airport.
I had a little look around the centre of the town of Roissy de France, which was a small sleepy town near Paris until the Charles de Gaulle Airport was built. Now it’s a large sleepy town, and that makes it far nicer than it would be if it all had moved with the times.
I went back to the hotel and caught the shuttle bus to the airport, then walked to the station. Standing in line to buy my ticket (as the ticket machines won’t take my credit card here and I still haven’t been able to reverse charges call to Australia for Westpac) I was able to help two American students from Missouri who are studying in Milan and taking weekends to explore Europe. They ended up getting the Paris Visité card, an all-day card which is for nearly all public transport in Paris. I got mine and then caught the electric subway train into Notre Dame. A quick look at the crowds lined up convinced me that firstly, I had been correct in planning my trip for early in the year and secondly, I was visiting Paris too late to miss the crowds.
After much and deep thought, I decided to take one of the hop-on, hop-off buses and chose one with what seemed like the best coverage, the Paris L’OpenTour. As it happens, one of their stops was right near where I was, so it was only a matter of minutes before I was on the green (Paris Grand Tour) route, which was quite comprehensive in what it covered. At home I will scan in the supplied map so you will be able to follow it as a picture in flickr.com, as an addendum to the photos.
I was off that and on the yellow (Monmartre – Grands Boulevards Tour) route, for a different look at the city. On this one, I was reminded of one reason not to travel on the upper deck on the pavement side – a tree branch got me on the forehead and knocked my cap off. I had to climb to the lower deck to retrieve it and when I went to put it back on, I found it had lacerated me just above the eyebrow (more scars!). The bleeding stopped after a few minutes (hey, I’m still healthy) and things went on.
I changed back to the green route to then catch the blue (Bastille – Bercy Tour) route which went around the St Martin’s Canal and the Bastille. Fortunately the French are not as crass as some others and have NOT put an amusement park on the site with fake beheadings and other forms of execution (and torture, that always sells), simply a monument and a traffic circle where current-day French can abuse each other with the same enthusiasm as in the old days, but less dire consequences.
I changed to the orange (Montpasse – Saint-Germain Tour) route for the last of the day (and of France) to have memories of Peter Sarstead sing “Where do you go to” in my ears (but not actually, as the iPod was back at the hotel) as I went along roads familiar in name but not in sight.
After that I got off and went to have my last real meal in France and went to a Quick restaurant, a copy of McDonald’s, and was horrified to hear the girl on the register ask if I wanted French Fries (I thought she would at least have called them Pomme Frites). I told her we called them chips in Australia. They weren’t ready and she had to bring them over later and said, “Here are your chips”, for which I presented her with a koala stickpin.
During the tours I met up with some fellow Australians and we chatted about touring, swapping notes on where to go and what to see, especially with limited time. One couple was ex-Melbourne, now in Brisbane, but with business links to Laverton.
After that it was onto the underground, locate the B line to Charles de Gaulle (B3) and as luck would have it, I got an express. Back at the airport I caught the shuttle back to the hotel (only had to wait five minutes), but then had to wait longer as the electronic key malfunctioned (too many magnetic strips in my pocket) and I had to get it replaced.
Then it was process the photos, upload yesterday’s blog and then yesterday’s photos, process today’s photos, upload them and then upload today’s blog.
Then to sleep, hoping that all my yesterday laundry will be dry enough to pack and that I can fit everything into my bags and keep within the weight limit.