LEAVING PARIS

We left the apartment about 9.30AM on 8 April to catch the RER train to Charles De Gaulle Airport. We walked down to Les Halles, which is both a Metro and RER station. Even though we allowed plenty of time for our flight to Hong Kong at 1.45PM, the administration at the airport is very very slow, slower than any other airport we've ever encountered. We had the same problem coming into France as leaving except this time, we were going to be late for our plane and our connecting flight to Melbourne. Our line for checking passengers and x-raying carryon baggage had stopped completely so Dad just created a new line by disposing of the stretch-ribbon barrier and soon we were on our way. The officials closed the barrier but not before we and all those who had followed us were getting through but even so, we were the last to get on our plane. The flight to Hong Kong was 11 hours on Air France, the flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne was 9 hours on QANTAS and we slept pretty well on this one arriving at Melbourne about 8.00PM 9 April 2010 but taking another hour to go through Immigration, collect our baggage, and go through Customs. It was good to be home but Paris, and France, had been a wonderful experience. We were sad to leave because the French people, without exception, had been so good to us. A great people, a great country, an impressive culture! Vive La France!