I left Sunday night at 8:50pm, and kindly Greg A, gave me a ride to the airport, as conveniently his brother Frank was leaving about 2 hours before for San Francisco. Checking in my luggage was a breeze so we ate and then vroom I was off to security. It was Sunday night, so security was pretty quiet, I was actually the last person in my line, so I got to not worry about holding people up as I took off my shoes, and unpacked my laptop. Once through security it was the long walk to E concourse. Yes, I know there is a train, but the fact I am going to be sitting for however long on a plane, makes me walk. The art as usual made me sad. All that lovely Zimbabwean art that so few people see, and so few know about. My plane was at the gate, and not the last gate on a long wing for a change!
On board I thankfully had a window, bad oddly my seat did not recline :(. I settled in, started my new book After Dark – Haruki Murakami and next thing I knew we were off. I finished my book, and curled up and went to sleep, much to the disappointment of my seat mate, who seemed to want to talk. I woke up roughly every hour or so, stretched and went back to sleep. I think my longest awake period was the landing and taxing up to Charles De Gualle, over an hour.
Passport control, and customs were both a walk through, the only bit that sucked was the lines, and the pointless walking from place to place. But once through, I spotted Matthew before he spotted me! Then we walked to the train – RER B – and I needed to pee! So a quick look for “les toilettes” and the horror of paying 0,50 € for the privilege.
A little stroll fro the station and then we were at 163 Rue Saint-Martin, dropped off my bags, delivered Matthew his QWERTY keyboard! and then we went in search of food. We found a place Le Pavé and I had sardines on toast, which was perfect. We then crossed the tiny cobblestoned street so I could have a Gelato Orgasm
A little bit more of walking around and then absolute delight as we seemed to stumble across the handbag row! About four blocks of wholesale handbag shops. After much debating we entered one and negotiated price and bought Charlotte a handbag. We also found a biodynamic, organic grocery store in which I picked out fig yoghurt, a cling peach, mango juice and chocolate granola. The other exciting purchase was at a pharmacy where I found deodorant – sans aluminuim, and body wash. Back to the apartment to nap.
Dinner was actually decided in advance, no wondering around reading menus. At lunch we had seen a place across the way called Akash which was Indian food. It was pretty tasty, I had Butter Chicken and a Nirvana Cocktail
Just for the record, I have ridden a bike, once, in public, in a park, on a trail, the day I learnt about four years ago! So this was going to be an experience, but how else do you learn without pushing yourself? So after several stops and starts so we could get fairly good bikes we rode all the way back to Le Marais where I rewarded myself by ordering – on my own – a Vodka Tonic.