Peter's Random Travel Blog: And now for something completely different...Paris

Up early this morning to get everything packed for our flight to Paris. A nice easy drive out to the airport got us there in plenty of time to return our hire car. We drove our little Skoda a total of 2,714.3 miles in the four weeks that we had it. It was then just a matter of checking our bags in, getting through security and then sitting back and waiting for our plane. For a small airport, Aberdeen is well connected...not only were we able to fly here directly from Birmingham, we are able to fly directly to Paris.

Two hours after taking off, we were on the ground at Charles de Gaulle Airport...Paris. The airport is huge...although we fly out of their three years ago, we didn't appreciate the size of it...Terminal 2 in particular which was where we had come to. Once we had cleared Immigration...which took no time at all...and collected our bags...which took a little before they appeared...it was then Customs...which was those people we just walked past back there. Then we walked...and walked...and walked to the RER B station to catch a train into Paris itself.

We would be staying at the Hotel Observatoire Luxembourg which is most conveniently next to Luxembourg station on the RER B...so we were able to go directly from the airport to our hotel without needing to change to the Metro or catch a taxi. Our room is on the second floor at the back so it is quiet...and spacious...although we did pay extra for that.

Our hotel

Our room

The view from our window

A Welcome present

After catching our breath, we went out to enjoy Paris. Just across the road from the hotel is the Jardin du Luxembourg...huge gardens that are the playground for this quarter of Paris. As it was now rather late, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sun and the atmosphere.