Day 31 : Early Start, Leave Luxy For Paris, Uber Lessons, and a Rest In Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.

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This morning we woke to a light frost. It was below zero overnight, and that hits you after 5 weeks of warm sunshine. The bags were packed, they were overweight, so some careful rearranging will take place in our hotel room before we go to the airport on Friday. I jettisoned some books, alcohol, and like a boxer weight cutting before a bout, I think we will make it.

Tim and Natalia had to go into their respective offices this morning ( so they do really work ) , so we dropped Natalia off, Tim unloaded us at the station, and continued on.
The traffic is a slow crawl in the morning, and this is the norm. So I can only assume that we have a sister city thing with Luxembourg, and a study group of government officials flew to Melbourne to copy our traffic flows.

The railway stations in Europe have a user pays system, or should that be cistern, and the 70cent charge in Luxembourg changed at the whim of the sour, unhappy lady at the desk. Sue paid a Euro, and I paid 80 cents, but I was initially sent to an area without any toilets. It was like a maze of short walls, arrow stickers on the floors, and three turnstiles of plywood, with cutouts of very small people , who visit for free if they don’t have to limbo rock their way through. You would need to be less than three foot tall; no one pees for free.

Well, I’ve just come back to this after dosing off and waking at 1.30am. I must have some sort of virus or such, not covid, so the energy levels are low. It’s an inconvenience that I’ll try to overcome , because we have one day in Paris to look around, and get our final packing weights balanced, before catching the train to CDG Airport for our 22hour flight home.
I slept most of the train ride to Paris yesterday, so other than being disturbed by the ticket checker, immigration officials, and armed security guards, I can’t tell you much about it. It was fast, comfortable and even in second class, there’s ample room, a foldout tray, and if it had a TV screen, it would be better than flying.

We decided to Uber it to our hotel rather than go from Gare d’Est to Gare de Nord to change trains. It was confusing trying to find where the pickup point was as Uber doesn’t have direct access to the station. The driver looked a bit put out when we arrived, but politely loaded us in and set off for our hotel. Road diversions and heavy traffic made it a long slow drive, so as a gesture, at the end, I gave him a 5€ tip. It was the first time that he smiled. I know you can tip through Uber, but nothing beats cash in the hand. What I have since learned is that there is an extra charge if the drive takes longer than expected, and you are charged waiting time if you take too long to locate the driver; a lesson learned.
It was still the best way to travel.

Our check in was delayed due to our early arrival, so Luxembourg Gardens was the obvious choice to kill a couple of hours.

The Luxembourg Gardens is a large draw card for locals and visitors , and covers 23 hectares, with the Luxembourg Palace its most prominent feature. Originally a priI ate residence, it now houses the French Senate, who also controls the Gardens.

They are beautifully manicured, rows of trees border the long entrance, and the centrepiece is a circular garden and a large stone pond.

The pond is a favourite with children who sail the small model yachts that you can hire, while their parents take in the gardens, seated in iron chairs supplied by the Gardens. There is also the opportunity for aspiring influencers and supermodels to hone their posing skills around the pond and gardens before, no doubt, posting on TikTok.

Dinner was early and local. We ate at a pizza restaurant that seemed to ring your order through to somewhere else, and they cook and deliver them to the rest. You can image what they were like. Lots of cheese won over taste, hand down.

Anyway, as I said earlier, this is a late edition, it’s 10am here, and today’s post might be put together on the plane.

Bear with me.

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Photos

Gates to Luxembourg Gardens
What a day. It’s wet here today so it’s good we took advantage of it.

Luxembourg Palace
Now the home of the French Senate

An Aspiring Model??
It was great to be young and shameless. Good on them.

Classic Timber Doors…..
…..turning yellow. There should be a law against it.

We had a change of rooms.
Our view.