A Day of Travelling

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Sunday 11 July

We have arrived at our final destination, Club Med in Phuket, for five days of much needed rest and relaxation. But before I go into that, I need to finish off our Paris stay. On our final morning in Paris, we had just two hours between packing and leaving to catch the train to London, so we decided to do something very local and visit Hotel des Invalides, which was a fifteen minute walk from the apartment. This magnificent building, which was the first sight that greeted us when we stepped out of the metro station on our arrival in Paris, was built in 1670 by Louis XIV to house and care for veterans of his wars. Today it houses the musee de l’Armee (Army museum). The Dome, which is gilded with 12kg of gold, houses a pantheon, the main attraction of which is the tomb of Napoleon, whose body was returned from Saint Helena in 1840. The massive tomb is in the centre of the dome, and I wondered why such a big coffin for such a diminutive man? I learned that there are in fact five successive coffins within the monumental sarcophagus! We had a VIP visit the tomb while we were there - the Chinese prime minister’s wife, with her entourage.

We then walked through an exhibition to General Charles de Gaulle and the Free French movement, and learned a little about the important role he played in France’s history. We saw a vast collection of WWII memorabilia, such as uniforms, medals, and weapons, all housed in glass cabinets. By then the boys were hungry, so we sat outside in the central courtyard, surrounded by cannons, and ate the baguettes and snacks we had brought with us. By then it was time to return to the flat and head to the station, so unfortunately we didn’t have time to see the Two World Wars exhibition, nor the Antique Armour and Arms, much to Ryan’s disappointment.

We had a quick shower, finished packing, and then headed for the station. The first train arrived as we got there, and at St Michel we changed lines, onto the most jam-packed train we’d been on yet! Once again we blessed the fact that we had left most of the luggage in London. I still don’t know how we managed to squeeze onto the train - thank goodness Russel evicted Dean from the stroller and folded it up just in time. Within two minutes we were drenched in sweat - so much for our showers! On arriving at Gare de Nord station, we managed to find the way to the Eurostar terminal, to find a long queue (surprise, surprise!) to check in. What a contrast to the smooth and easy check-in five days earlier in London. Then there were further queues for French and British customs, and eventually we got to the platform and found our carriage, which was a long way down. After the train left, there were still passengers who had had to get on further back, walking through the carriages. The voyage went smoothly and we arrived two hours later at St Pancras, where we followed the signs to the Underground and took the Piccadilly line to Earl’s Court. We had lunch at Dino’s, the same restaurant that we had eaten at on our arrival in London fifteen days earlier. Then it was back to our London flat to pick up the suitcases we had left there. One of the large bags was packed with everything we needed for Thailand, the other with all the bits and pieces we wouldn’t need. We wheeled all the bags, five in total, to Earl’s Court station and caught the tube to Heathrow. Check-in was quick and easy, and our bags were tagged through to Phuket, although we were warned to check in Bangkok to make sure that weren’t taken off there. There was time for a little duty-free shopping before boarding QF2 to Bangkok.

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