Arriving

I’ve arrived … again. I first arrived in Doha, where it was 6am and 30C. By the time I left two hours later it was already 36C.

So my second arrival for the day … this time Paris. It wasn’t the best of starts. No problems through customs (actually, I don’t think they have customs) and no problem getting my luggage, but after I called the shuttle company I waited and waited and waited.

Quite some time later I phoned them to see if there was a problem. There was: me. The man had told me to go to Door 2 and the driver would be waiting. I came across Hall 2 and thought I’d misheard and so waited at Hall 2 (Door 16). When I finally made it to Door 2 the driver was there … as well as a mini-bus load of very upset people! 

The good thing about a shuttle is that you get a good trip around the city as people get dropped off at their hotels. We went past the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame and the Louvre and saw the Sacre Coeur in the distance, and the year since I was here last time (the first time) just melted away. This year I’m only having one night in Paris; tomorrow I catch the train to Avignon. I’ve been to the train station and had afternoon tea at Le Train Bleu. I had Deux patisseries de notre chariot accompagnees d’une grande boisson chaude. The ‘hot drink’ I chose was Darjeerling tea with lemon. 

It was much nicer than the tea with cream I’d had on the plane.

It’s 7pm and still daylight – time to get some dinner … and then, what I’m most looking forward to: a lying down sleep.