First Day Out

Today we started with a look around the streets near us, locating the Paris Opera and the huge La Madelaine church.  We saw a poster advertising a free concert that evening, so decided to return to attend it later.  We spent the day getting the feel of our area, wandering down to Rue de Rivoli near to the Seine, then back through the nearly empty Place Vendome, and back to La Madelaine for the concert, which was very good.  It took me a while to realise we were listening to a touring American choir, rather than a french one as I had assumed.  I did wonder why they were singing in English...

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Arriving in Paris

Our Air France 777 landed just before 5 pm in Paris, where it was pouring with torrential rain.  It took an hour and a half to escape the airport - most of that time was waiting for the bags to emerge onto the luggage carousel, while trying not to fall asleep.  The roads outside were several inches deep from the downpour, but we had our umbrellas.  The "Roissybus" ride into the city took another 90 minutes instead of the advertised 40 or so, inching forwards through rush hour traffic, but eventually we were on the ground outside the Paris Opera House, and the rain had almost stopped.  The last leg involved towing our bags a few hundred metres along Boulevard Haussman to the hotel, which was no trouble.  In the street we always feel like conspicuous aliens when we first arrive in a foreign place like this, and today was no exception.  It takes a day or two to relax and remember that no-one else is taking the least bit of notice of you.

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Flying to Paris

Left Auckland at midnight for the 11h 35m long flight to Hong Kong.  Woken by the crew about 8:30 NZST for brekky, which started nicely with a strawberry smoothie!  Stopped for about 3 hours in Hong Kong where we were transiting to an Air France flight for the second leg.  We had a rest and a shower in the Air France lounge.

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Above this point - PARIS 2013

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Below this point - JAPAN 2012

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