Back to Paris

We learnt again the need to have at least twenty euros in coins (not notes) when driving on the toll roads in France. Most of the booths only accept coins or some weird ticket system that we never got our heads around.

On the way to Nice Airport from Cannes in our Mercedes Benz hire car we entered a toll road where there were about 8 toll booths. We entered one that had a cash symbol on it and when we stopped at the booth we discovered it only accepted coins. Seeing we only had notes, we were in a spot of bother. We had to reverse out and then

investigate on foot after reversing to the side on the freeway. I ran to investigate each toll booth, playing chicken with all the cars that were coming through at speed, and discovered that the far right booth accepted notes as well as coin. There was no sign on this one, deliberately I suppose to catch the tourists. So I climbed back into the car and crossed all the lanes to the far right. It accepted notes and we were on our way again.

We packed up our Cannes airbnb after walking around the neighbourhood to purchase breakfast. We drove around the coast to see Cannes and Antibes. Picasso lived in Antibes for some time and painted the area extensively. There is a museum there which has the second largest collection of his works. We walked around the coastal area near the museum but did not have the time nor inclination to go inside. It was a magnificent sunny day so we enjoyed strolling around the coastline, looking at the Spanish-influenced houses and gazing

out over the azure Mediterranean Sea.

From there we drove straight to the airport, enduring the tollway incident and arrived in plenty of time to catch the plane for Paris. The plane was so full that they were collecting the cabin baggage off the last fifty or so passengers and stowing it below the plane. Those targeted were passengers with cabin baggage on wheels. Now I know why people line up for half an hour to board the plane first. There’s no point travelling with carry-on of it gets taken off you and stowed below. Might as well have a bigger bag and stow it at the outset.

We noted in the newspapers that there had been a terrorist attack in Paris last night. A policeman was shot dead on the Champs Elysees within sight of the Arc de Triomphe. I was there about a week ago. The French election has everyone a bit jittery. If the wrong person

gets elected it might cause a bit of civil unrest here. People seem worried that Le Pen might get elected. We will soon see.

The plane was delayed leaving Nice Airport as it had been delayed in London prior to landing in Nice. We left about an hour late. When the flight landed in Paris we picked up our bags from the carousel and headed towards the train station. Everything was stopped in the airport. No buses, no taxis, no trains, nothing moving at all. The police had stopped everyone from moving about because there was a security scare related to some unaccompanied luggage found in the airport somewhere. With the terrorist attack yesterday no-one is taking any chances. We all stood there looking out the windows at the ghost town of an airport for about half an hour. Then everyone was given the all-clear and we were able to continue on our way.

We caught the RER train to Chatelet Station and then changed for

M4 Metro which took us right near our Paris hotel for the last night - the Little Palace Hotel - suite 27.

We dumped our bags in the room at about 6:00pm and headed out for dinner. We enjoyed a walk around the Paris streets on our last evening in Paris and decided to have dinner at Carette in Place des Vosges. I finally had a French Onion Soup which was delicious. Priscilla had some French potatoes. Then we had coffee and a delicious chocolate desert called chocochoc, which was a patisserie of the most indulgent kind. We enjoyed seeing the sun set over the square in Le Marais and we then walked back to our hotel. On the way we stopped at a chocolaterie which sold delicious French chocolates and bought a small box to enjoy with our tea back in our hotel room, which we did. Last night in Paris, April 2017, celebrated with chocolate and darjeeling tea.