Arrival in Paris

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Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097

Finally, Natalie has been delivered safely to Paris, our last planned solo destination. The safe part is a relief, given our choice of airline; Transavia. Yeah, who? They are a Dutch based airline operating independently under the Air France-KLM Group. Getting to Marco Polo airport was no problem. We hiked from our room to checkout, grabbed our packs and boarded a pre booked coach to the airport. The flight went smoothly, again after an expected frisking heading through security.Upon arrival in Paris Orly, we finally got to use some wifi. We found our planned cruise hopes dashed, as the tour agent had now sold out the tickets. Great, more rescheduling.Getting to Paris from Orly took a while, but was relatively straight forward, apart from a stupid lack of ticketing for metro trains? Our hotel is near Juares station, just a couple hundred metres from the Peace and Love hostel I stayed at 7 years ago. The hotel room is nice, but I fear the construction and scaffolding outside our window. Dinner for our first night was excellent, a nice cheap steak at a local cafe around the corner, complete with salad and potatoes for just 9€!The next day we decided to go to Versailles. It was pretty much a full day excursion, we did ourselves via public transport, saving heaps. The journey there took around 2 hours via 3 trains, and a short walk. A weird experience occured on the trains on the way. Silence, then a crazy alarm, up goes a screen and a loud trashy puppet show bursts into life (busker). No idea what was going on. Lots of shaking of puppets (creepy looking) in dire need of maintenance. Occasionally one waved around a telephone receiver. When it ended we said no to his request for money. So did everything else. Now fix those puppets. At Verseilles, another 2 hour wait, queuing. Finally, we got the chance to tour this world famous royal palace. Exploring the staterooms with audio guide took us around 2 hours. They were glamorous indeed, opulent, the Chamber of mirrors and Kings bed chambers the highlights. All in all though, having explored so many royal residences, with Versailles being the benchmark and most famous, I was slightly dissappointed, especially in the dusty gardens.The train back from Versailles required a stop over right at the Eiffel Tower. What choice did we have? We went for an evening visit to really make Natalie feel and appreciate where she was! Afterwards, we spent 90 minutes in the evening, wandering the streets around Juares our local station. Either there was just bars, crappy fast food, a glare for a welcome, overpriced, dank, or limited options. We ended up with maccas which was sad, but cheap. At least we found that one affordable local, and can explore elsewhere now

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