In Our Happy Place

Bonjour!

It is indeed a Good Day! We are in our Happy Place - Paris, France. Well, not just Paris, but France in general. 

Sitting in the hotel lounge waiting for our room to be readied, we are surrounded by French speaking business people. I find myself listening in, but not eves-dropping per se...well, not really. I am understanding snippets of conversation, and happy to be doing so. 

Just six weeks after we left France,  December 2017, we are back. We couldn't wait to get here, frankly. With our departure one day ahead of our plans, we are spending the day at an airport hotel before catching the TGV south west to Bordeaux on Thursday. 

The sun has come out and people are shedding their rain gear and warmer clothes...well, some are. The temperature has obviously risen.

The view from the hotel lounge where we sit. I think that is a bird's nest in the tree in the middle...or it may be a mass of Mistletoe. I will go and find out, later.

 Waiting for our room to be ready. The hotel was full last night, and check in is about 12 noon.
Having arrived at just after 8am, we have a bit of a wait, but the staff are very obliging and have put us on their priority list for a room. We like this Star Wars themed Hotel...quirky! Waz had a nasty headache on the plane, but managed a couple of hours sleep, as did I. He saved breakfast for me, which was a croissant and fruit yoghurt. I ate it 20 minutes before touchdown, but was still ready for some more at the hotel. We were invited to help ourselves to the Petit Dejeuner (breakfast).

I managed to eat an apple too, though it tasted nasty Good roughage in a place where it is sometimes difficult to find such a thing. The fruit salad is out of a bag, we think...not very tasty, but we eat it. I added dried figs and apricots. The muesli is full of brown sugar, which we found last time we stayed here. I wasn't going for a repeat of that. The double espresso was most welcome however, and I followed that with a Café au Lait. Nice!

 A Storm Trooper is keeping an eye on us.

It is always a bit of a crap shoot, getting through Customs, but we chose (again) the far right line through the 'Other' passport (other than EU passports, that is) lines, and it moved much faster than the others. We were through there, and chose the Nothing To Declare route through customs where we walked straight to Baggage Claim.

We are arriving on our New Zealand Passports this time. This allows us to stay 90 days. We have already used 3 1/2 weeks of our allotted 90 days on our US Passports, and are staying 86 days, so we had to come in on the kiwi one. Nice to have the option, frankly.

Our arrival into Charles de Gaulle was early by half an hour and it made all the difference, even though we appeared to be late leaving Newark, just after 7pm. Our departure was supposed to be 6.15pm, but I guess that is the Leaving the Gate time. We joined the queue on the tarmac, for take-off.

So, here we are waiting yet again. Waz has put his computer away and his feet up. I will check with the staff to see how the room cleaning is progressing.

We have just been told to go! Collected our bags out of storage and now in the room. This room is larger than our previous rooms, which is a plus. Waz has headed for the shower prior to taking a nap. One of the reasons for staying the day/night in the hotel instead of just heading straight for our other destination, one day early, is so that we get the chance to head off some of the jetlag due to the six hour time difference. It is currently 4am in Jacksonville.

Speaking of which...The cold weather set in earlier in the week, and while it may not have been too cold when we headed for bed around 11pm most nights, the ice on the deck, dock and windshield told us the early hours were the deadliest in terms of cold. We really did need to take care walking on the cold concrete. You could see the ice crystals shining in the early morning sun.

This truck shows the conditions pretty well. That there is ICE!

 I never quiet get used to seeing photos of my older self. Even though I look in the mirror every day, I dont see this person that appears in the photos...what's with that? lol.

Waiting in Newark.
I have to ask Waz to take my photo, otherwise all you would see is HIS mug on this blog.

 These photos are rather out of order...hmm...

The water in the swimming pool and spa (goes without saying, really!) is warmer than the air temp...the rising steam reminded me of the steam rising from the geothermal fumeroles, in Rotorua, NZ.

Our early morning start in Jax, yesterday (5.30am) saw us take all the remaining 'things' out of the boat and drive down to the storage locker, leave them there, drive to McDonalds for breakfast, and back to the boat. Last minute packing, last minute final vacuum and our bags are waiting for the Uber driver to pick us and them up. He was none too gentle shoving them into his car trunk. He also wasn't too careful a driver...which made me nervous...and talked the whole way there. I'm the one that carries on the conversations, with Waz just sitting there wishing he would shut the heck up, lol.

 Newark is in the process of changing it's food and reception areas. Plenty of choices in food, but they are expensive, of course. Captive audiences allow for that somehow, which doesn't please most of us. 2 sushi rolls of (small) 6 pieces each, cost me three arms and two legs.
I was rather taken with this Tomatillo, (tomma tee yo) while I waited for my food.

 Yes, that is New York in the distance, and across the Hudson River, which you cant see due to the cloudy skies.
We left Jax on a gorgeous morning, and flew into the cloud. It was forecast to snow about 10pm. Glad we left just after 6pm.

Well, Im running out of steam here, and that is all the photos I have to share for now.

A Bientot.