Paris

We’ve had a very relaxing day in Paris doing what each of us wanted to do. This included walking the parks in late summer (the trees are now starting to turn), and allowing the day to unfold. 

                                                         

We could have gone back to places we went to nearly four years ago- Musee d’Orsay, or the lovely l’Orangerie. Instead we walked and fell upon le Petit Palace (opposite le Grande Palace) and spent an hour or two wandering for free through the galleries. Here we could still see Monet, Seurat, Renior, Pissaro, and others but what was interesting to us was to find out more of the sculptor Dalou who was responsible in the 19^th century for many of the monumental sculptures around Paris  We were also very captured by the interior and exterior of the building itself. There were rooms in it for Louis XIV.  In the centre is a gardened courtyard and café where we ate our lunch.

Afterwards we walked in the direction of the massive army headquarters, and around the back, the army museum which houses Napoleon’s tomb among others. Napoleon gets centre tomb spot with a high gold dome above him which you can see for miles across Paris. It was this that attracted us in this direction in the first place. We didn’t go through more of the museum, but sat in the gardens for a while which are also available for les Invalides who live within these massive grounds. The cool winds had abated today and it was very hot. Sitting in the shade and watching the world go by was very much appreciated. When we had regained our energy, we took a walk in the direction of Tour Eiffel. Even though we had climbed it in the winter, S was keen to fully understand where the new building of Paris was situated. We queued for what seemed a lot less time than last time, and took a lift right to the top for €14 each. We spent quite some time taking pictures of this massive city and enjoying the views and sunshine.

Once back on Terra ferma, we decided to find the metro and hunt down our last and very favourite hotel- Hotel Dehly. We knew this hotel was closed for renovations, but we also remembered that there was a nice Italian restaurant next door. We found it and settled to a meal in the warm evening air.  Afterwards, we hung around la Sienne and looked over towards Notre Dame for a while then headed for our studio flat to get organised for the flight to Berlin.

We were impressed with the rail system which took us right to the airport doors. So easy. So straightforward.

In the morning the trip to the airport was relatively straight forward. The ticket machines sell tickets all the way to Orley Sud where we were headed. Surprisingly, we only needed to negotiate one staircase with our bags and that was because a lift wasn’t working.

Checking into Easyjet was easy as pie.  The people were courteous and didn’t behave as if they were luggage police trying to catch us out.  Ryanair caused us so much grief with their highly unreasonable charges just for not ticking a box when booking our fares. We are still gritting our teeth over that nasty experience and advise anyone looking for cheap fares around Europe to avoid them.  In contrast, dimensions for luggage with Easyjet were fair, booking online was clear and straightforward, staff didn’t walk up and down inspecting people’s bags and they didn’t expect passengers to stand in multiple queues for ages. Much more civilised.

We have now checked into our hotel in Berlin and look forward to the next two days exploring the city. This will be a last tourist run before my real work begins.