The Shock of The Big City

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Given what the traffic was like in Germany last Saturday, we thought we would make it an early start to try and get as far as we could before the roads started to get too busy. We therefore left a dark, wet and cloudy Rauris at six in the morning for the 500 mile drive to Paris.

There is not really a lot else to say about the day except that there was driving, driving and more driving. The roads through Germany were mixture of fast and slow, and of busy and not so busy, although there were nowhere near as bad as the journey to Austria.

We stopped at the border between Germany and France briefly and then it was time for the French toll roads. Again, they were relatively empty, which again went some way to make up for all the times that we had to stop and shell out yet more money.
We then had the joy of driving in Paris, which has its reputation as being a driving nightmare and it was a bit of a free-for-all, although not as bad as we expected. Things were going quite well until we got to the street that the apartment is on and then some roadwork’s prevented us from going where we wanted to go. After a couple of circuits and some hasty u-turns, we finally managed to find the car park that we needed.

The end-to-end journey, including the breaks, was almost exactly 12 hours.

We are staying in an apartment that the owner rents out for short breaks. She owns the apartment opposite, so she let us in and showed us around. It’s on the fifteenth floor and the view is absolutely fantastic. We can see Sacré-Coeur, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the business district, which includes one building that is apparently the highest in France.

As with arriving in Las Vegas last year after the peace and quiet of Zion, we have found it a bit of a shock arriving in Paris after the peace and quiet of Rauris. Never mind, lots to do and see tomorrow and we are just waiting for the hourly sparkling of the Eiffel Tower now that it is getting dark.

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Photos

The Apartment View
Now that is what I call a view - can you see the Eiffel Tower on the left?

Germany France Border
The flags as we cross the border between Germany and France.

Wild Flowers
Some wild flowers near the border that were worth a photo.