Day 34 & 35 Tuesday 30 April 2019 & Wednesday 1 May 2019 – Paris to Melbourne

A funny thing happened this morning, I had checked out of the hotel at 5.00am and I was waiting in the little foyer area for my taxi to arrive.  The taxi turned up at 5.10 and then the night manager couldn’t find the key to the front door.  Here am I inside the hotel behind a locked door, the taxi driver is outside looking in and can see me and the night manager is running around frantically looking for the key to the front door.  After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 5 minutes he found the key, probably where he had been having a kip, and let me out to get to my taxi.


As I was sitting in the taxi I was thinking wouldn’t this be fun if I was catching the Eurostar to London and then reality kicked in  and after that it was an uneventful trip to CDG and quick check in and I am in the Qatar business lounge chatting to some fellow Australians.  The Australians were a middle aged couple from Brisbane (the husband had an uncanny likeness to Rob Sitch and I couldn’t stop staring at him) and a elderly lady and her daughter from Melbourne.  These people met on a APT Rhine/Danube river cruise which they said was fantastic.


I am sitting in a Boeing 777-300ER at an altitude of  35,000 feet, travelling at 600mph (979 kmh) on a heading of 109 degrees with an outside temperature of  -68F or -56C having just crossed the Black Sea slightly north of Istanbul.   I am enjoying my first V & T of the flight.


The food, the drink and the service has been fantastic so far, but this is still the Paris to Dohar leg, the biggun is still to come. The flight has got a bit bumpy so I will have words to the Captain about that who by the way has a very pukka British accent, probably flew Lancasters over Germany at some time.  If he didn’t I betcha his dad did (or possibly grandad).  The co-pilot is probably Ginger, the wireless operator will be Sparks, the engineer is a Scot, called Scotty, the navigator is a Kiwi called Trevor, the bomb aimer is…………sorry forgot, we don’t have a bomb aimer on this flight, if we had a mid upper gunner he would be an Aussie known to one and all as Digger.  Anybody work out that I am bored and I have had a couple of drinks.


1.20pm Melbourne time and about 4 hours out of Melbourne, about to hit the West Australian coast at about North West Cape. Got about 5 hours sleep last night which wasn’t too bad, it has been a smooth flight.  The Qatar crew have been fantastic and I would highly recommend Qatar as an airline.  The airport at Doha is incredible, they have obviously spent a lot of money on it and it wasn’t terribly busy.  I think they have the soccer world cup sometime in the near future so the investment in the airport is probably in preparation for that.

Observations and lessons learnt;

• do not linger too long outside French military facilities
• do not get lost in Vienna airport ( or probably any airport for that matter)
• I still hate cobblestones
• As you get older the lighting around hotel bathroom mirrors gets harsher
• Do not linger too long near the Polish - Ukraine border
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I have managed to get some photos downloaded from my phone so a random selection of those follows.  I have also included some photos from my visit to the Przemysl forts that have been sent to me by Marcin, my guide for the day.

Cold night in Krakow

The archdukes last car ride

Gypsy fiddler giving Waltzing Matilda a red hot go

Hey, how did this sneak in!

Still cold in Krakow

Amiens cathedral

Easter Saturday night service Amiens, this is just after fire in Notre Dame Paris, note fire extinguisher to the right.

Note doggy sitting up enjoying a night out

Restaurants on Somme River, Amiens

Day 33 - 29 April 2019 Monday - Paris

Lunch today was the fixed price special at Le Colvert Bistrot, entrée was a delicious espuma de tarama avec pancake de potates dous followed by a ‘pave’ of salmon with a crispy skin with julienne carrots and then a dessert of a bavaroise with chocolate sauce with shards of chocolate and lashings of cream (some of this may not be exactly correct as I am having trouble reading my notes from the day).  To prevent dehydration I had a small beer and a glass of white wine.


At the table next to me was a French man and his primary school age daughter who also had their dog with them.  The dog was one of those funny dogs with a wrinkly face and although the dog was only 12 months old it looked a lot older.  An unfortunate characteristic of this breed of dog is that it has an erect and curly tale which meant that as the dog was facing away from me I spent most of my time eating my lunch looking at a most unattractive dog’s bum.  It also had another unattractive characteristic in that it farted a lot.  The dog’s owner was considerate enough, in a French way, to warn me of the possibility of this happening prior to the dog demonstrating her considerable capabilities in this area.


Post lunch I spent some time sorting out luggage and getting rid of unwanted paperwork and repacking bags for an early start tomorrow.  I have to be at CDG at about 6.00am for a 9.00am flight which means leaving the hotel at about 5.15am which means getting up at about 4.15am.  Luckily I will have about 23 hours to sleep on the plane.


Dinner tonight, and wait for it, was fish and chips and a pint of Guinness at Corcoran’s Irish bar.  I discovered it today on my walk and feeling like something simple that really hit the spot, no buttery sauces, no trying the decipher the menu, just walk in and order a pint of Guinness and the fish and chips, too easy. The barman was Irish so he spoke a form of English.

Back to the hotel and after watching some of the snooker world championships (into the semi finals and getting exciting), an early night in preparation for an early morning.

Just some random Parisian pics.

Fun Fact: Although not particularly cold lots of Parisians still wearing scarfs, although hardly necessary I reckon they do it so that they can look 'jaunty'. Same as having their sweaters loosely draped over their shoulders.

Step count: Lots but didn't record the number.

Observation: I appeared to be the only person in the restaurant the took any notice of the dog farts.