Above and beneath Paris skies

Well that felt like the longest night ever.  We whiled away the first few hours at the Tune Hotel, walked over to the airport, walked back, went up and down the lifts a few times trying to find internet access and then caught the shuttle back to the airport about 10.30pm.  Boarded our flight about 12.30am but didn’t take off til about 1.30am (the screaming baby across the way wasn’t impressed with the delay either) then flew for the rest of the night.  We had loads of leg room as we were row 1 (!) but extremely narrow seats meant you kept waking up with pins and needles in your arms.  But, thanks to a Restavit, I did manage to sleep/doze for about 7 hours so the flight didn’t drag too badly. 

Arrived Orly airport and eventually found our shuttle bus (despite Margaret planting the seed of doubt that it wouldn’t turn up).  We shared it into the city with a couple of Queenslanders who had just married on Lombok a couple of days ago plus his sister/brother-in-law/nephew aka the screaming baby from the plane.  So the abominable traffic plus two stops at their various accommodation choices which were a long way from ours meant a LONG but reasonably scenic trip to our hotel.  Eventually made it about 12 noon but room not quite ready so we headed to a nearby bar/cafe (La Flamme) for a croque monsieur and coke followed by a cappuccino for an extra caffeine hit.  Back to Royal Magda for a shower and (finally!) a change of clothes.  Ignored the temptation of a quick lie down and headed out again.  Caught the metro to the Trocadero so we could have a “Look it’s the Eiffel Tower – we’re really here in Paris” moment.  Lots of photos from all sorts of angles and perspectives –either side and under it but couldn’t quite handle the queue to go up it in our sleep deprived state so sat on the grass and absorbed it from afar instead.  A beautiful clear, warm, autumn day so lots of other people doing the same.  

Feeling strong enough to handle a bit more sight-seeing so headed along the rue St Dominique past lots of yummy patisserie and boulengeries to the Hotel de Invalides.   Went and gawped at Napoleon’s tomb and its opulent surrounds and then visited the various army museums.  The WWI and WW2 wings were filled with uniforms, paintings and audio visual displays which was all very interesting in a kind of dry, musuemy kind of way – nowhere near as good as the War Museum in Canberra.  The wing containing Arms and Armoury from centuries ago was far more interesting as far as I was concerned.  Amazing detailing and engraving on Louis XIII and XIV’s  armour and also lots of displays of jousting armour for knights and horses.  There were rooms and rooms stuffed with armour and chainmail as well as loads of swords, pikes etc.  It amazes me that once they were weighed down with armour plus wielding a huge, heaving sword that they could move at all – let alone fight!  Didn’t leave until just about closing time and then headed over to the gardens of the Rodin museum in the vague hope that they might stay open a little longer but looked like it had closed for the day too.  We were both starting to shimmy with fatigue at about that stage in any case so caught the metro home and flopped on the bed.  I am now typing this to resounding snores!  Hunger will eventually drive us back out and then the plan is to go up the Arc d’Triomphe for some twinkly night time vistas.