Tuesday 19 May

Up at 5.15am. Hotel has provided us with a bag breakfast. On the bus to the airport we have an elderly fluffy bunny moment. A person asks elderly fb how long their flight back home will be. The reply, “About 10 hours depending on whether we leave on time”!!!!! Even Tina rolled her eyes at that one!

Our suitcases are too heavy, especially mine. All she wants us to do is to lose 2kgs from the case into the carry on, which we gratefully do. We have 3 hours to “kill” until the flight which is an hour forty minutes (no food) followed by another hour wait for the shuttle. The shuttle takes an hour twenty to get us to the hotel and some death defying driving. The day has gone.

We are staying in the Hotel Brighton (room 201) on the Rue de Rivoli. Without asking they hand over the parcel with my licence in it. Well done Kirsten!!! The hotel is literally opposite the Jardin des Tuileries, 200m on the left is the Louvre and on the right about 500m is the Place de la Concorde and the start of the Champs Elysees. The location is great. Our itinerary describes our room as “one superior room with a large bed on the courtyard side”. Don’t get me wrong, the hotel is very nice but:
1. the bed is not large, and
2. there is NO courtyard. I doubt if there ever was one by my definition of a courtyard but at the moment there are renovations so when I look down I see a builder’s hut with scaffolding.

We immediately eat at the café next door (of course “Pokerface” is playing) and then set up our nest for the next 5 nights.

For dinner we go to an Irish pub around the corner (where else would you go in Paris?) and we have a Chinese waiter who doesn’t speak much English OR French! Excellent French Onion Soup. I follow this up with shredded chicken in whisky sauce! I saunter downstairs to the toilet and this excellent music is being played in the basement. I follow the sound and find 4 Frenchmen playing Irish music!

We go on a lovely stroll as Paris is still light late into the evening.

On the streets I am seeing motor bikes/scooters (I can’t tell the difference with some) with two front wheels – one normal, quite wide back wheel and two thinner front wheels. Why?

Tina organises laundry for tomorrow. I have 11 shirts to wash! She keeps telling me this. Tina has been washing the drip dry no creases shirts – she does washing every night/day. There Ross, I said something more about washing. The laundry bill comes to €159 ie $NZ318!!!!!!!

Tina keeps say “grazie” to everyone in Paris – it’s the Italian word for thanks.