We didn't need to rise early today, checkout was at 10am so we decided to snooze a little longer, having already packed last night. Our flight isn't until 10:40 tonight, so writing in Charles de Gaulle is my last Parisian activity before the long haul home to see our boys in about a day's time (or two if you count the day we lose crossing the international date line).
We had hoped to see the Catacombs today, but left it too late to book tickets, but we plan to come back to Paris, so it's a "next time activity". Our friend Suze recommended checking out Galeries Lafeyette, and we're glad we took on her suggestion, because the shopping experience, the centre alone, is astonishing. I successfully acquired a day tripper ticket and a ticket each to the airport without any unusual faces from the ticket attendant and we hopped on the RER service, line E to Haussman (for anyone who's curious, RER stands for Réseau Express Régional) Magenta station is beautiful, and the trains on this line feature space-craft like interiors with lighting that cycles through the colours of the rainbow. Maybe it's something they do for Pride month, but I'd like to think every day on these trains is a ride over the rainbow. It was only one stop on from Gare du Nord, where our Uber had dropped us, where we had unloaded our bags for the day. We were in business!
It was unusual and a little bit haunting to wander through the large tunnel to exit Haussman station. If there's one thing that stands our from this trip, it's the sheer volume of people traipsing around these cities.
Walking through the men's building (yes, there is a separate building with several floors of men's apparel) we spotted clothing from all the top designers. Fashion in Europe is different to home. It's beautiful and so well made, with some designs that would probably earn us a black eye, or a decent ribbing, if we dared to try walking any Australian street in them. I thought it was kind of telling when the bargain basement rack resembled what we typically go ohh-la-la over in TK-Max and alas, I still couldn't justify the 375 Euro bucket hat, even with 50% off.
There was a view to be had, and it was across the road on top of the women's building which, in itself has the most beautiful interior. The main striking feature of Galeries Lafayette is a massive dome, decorated in stained glass and rococo design. It was built in 1911 and is where the galeries originated. On the bottom floor is the fragrances, along with jewellery and handbags from BVLGARI, Chanel and Dior. Security is tight, but not intimidating, but I still didn't pick up that watch I liked. Next time.
Up several levels and beyond the children's department there's a floor with more confectionary, biscuits and culinary tidbits than I knew existed. It would take a good few months to sample everything here and we left it too late this time. Next time. Up another flight and we reached the terrace, which offers a view over Paris from directly opposite Palais Garnier, Paris's home of opera. Lots of Insta opportunities and models to fill a brief. In fact, there's an actual catwalk that stretches under the dome, four or five floors up, where you can edge out and take your photo. The posing up there was top notch from one particular young gentleman who must have practiced his choreography for hours, if not days before his public appearance.
We treated ourselves to an iced chocolate and coco gourmand watching fashionistas and families alike take their turn on the catwalk before heading into the street in search for a nice park to sit for a while. Passing the houses of Chanel, Dior and Burberry we made our way across toTuileries Garden, but it was closed as preparations are underway for some Olympic thing. We walked a bit further on, crossed the road with the kind assistance of a police woman holding an AK-15 and sat in a green area adjacent to the parks surrounding the Eiffel Tower. Keen to avoid exhaustive offers of beer, wine, cigarettes and probably gold ingots by this stage, we rested a while and headed back towards Opera, to see if we could take a look inside the Palais Garnier. Alas, it's closed until the 9th, so we went back to explore the culinary building of Galeries Lafayette. I think I may have acquired virtual diabetes wandering those halls. Chocolate coated croissants, not to mention croissants larger than footballs, macarons, cheeses, chocolates, chocolate chocolate! We bought some special chocolates to enjoy when we back home. They're so beautiful to look at, it will almost be shame to eat them.
On the walk back we passed another grand church, and have now probably visited more churches in the past week than in the last twenty years, but the design of these places is remarkable. The exterior of the Church of Sainte Marie Madeleine looks more Greek in influence to this architectural greenhorn, its columns reminding me of the Pantheon. Inside was more finery to distract even the most loyal follower during mass.
Back at Gare du Nord, we had a final drink at a cafe and a little snack - the most interestingly cut fries we've seen: v-shaped. We dodged pick-pocket central with all our luggage, knowing there was no way to slip under the radar this time but made it safely to platform 43, RER line B to Charles de Gaulle airport. Good grief that station is something else. Imagine a large ant's next that's just been poked with a stick by your nephew. That's the energy there. Someone cut in front of me getting onto the train, after Chris boarded so I had to go into steam roller mode and push them further in as the doors started to close. Jammed in like sardines, we headed north, the number of passengers steadily thinning out as we approached the terminal. Good luck to anyone using the service next month. Perhaps they needed to add Gare du Nord as an Olympic event, We felt like we deserved a medal after successfully passing through.
You probably know how the story ends. another train after the train to the terminal, lots of ticket showing, baggage dropping and hanging about and our gate is still sans plane seventeen minutes before boarding time. But the plane arrived, I slept most of the way to Singapore, had a nice coffee from Bacha Coffee House then had another good snooze back to Melbourne. The morning light on arrival back in Adelaide felt like late afternoon, which was pretty weird. Even stranger is how dark it is at 5pm, after weeks of light up until 10pm, but it's nice to be home with our boys, and back in our own bed with a long weekend to readjust a little before getting back to normality and planning our next adventure.
Thanks for travelling with us, we've enjoyed every minute!
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