Holiday with Rob and Lauretta- Paris

I have come to join Rob and Lauretta for the French/Swiss and Italian leg of their trip. I flew from Luton to Paris on Friday morning, meaning a 3.30AM start to the day and a tired Daniel driving me to the airport. Flight was good and only 55 minutes long. Once at the airport I waited a few hours for Rob and Lauretta who were picking up a hire car at a different Paris airport. Once they got there, we drove towards Paris, and although using a GPS still had barely any idea where we were.

We stopped at a tourist information to see if the man could help us with finding accommodation,.but unfortunately he had no English understanding and didn't help us much. He kept saying 'Ponte de Ponte' which I think was the suburb we were in, but every time he said it Ret and I got the giggles, so didn't help much. So we kept driving towards Paris looking out for any hotel we would. 'Kate' the GPS seemed to get us a bit lost every now and then, though some of the time it may have been also through us not following her directions or not understanding where she wanted us to go. Eventually we found a Holiday Inn and stayed there the night. (250 euros for a family room and 25 for the pleasure of parking our car).
It was about 2pm by this time and we were going up to our room, when we realised the keys had been locked in the boot of the car. The doors were unlocked so we could get in and find the manual, but it was written in French.. or so we thought. Rob took the manual up to reception and it was actually written in Italian, which nobody could read. The picture in the manual indicated where a boot release would be, but when we looked at that part of the car, the button was missing. From the back seat, we could only get access to the boots through a small opening in the chair, and none of us could reach very far back. There were also still 2 suitcases in the boot blocking our way. What we eventually did was got a man from the hotel to get a bright light which he shone in there. He obviously located the keys because he squeezed in and got them out! He would not accept Rob's offer of a tip or beer so he just thanked him as much as he could, using about the only French word he knew 'Merci”

(gypsy ladies beneath Eiffel tower)
We then headed into Paris using the Metro train system. It is very efficient and wasn't too crowded. We had to take 3 trains and ended up right beside the Eiffel Tower. We took lots of photos and Ret and I even had a ride on the old style carousel near the Tower. Ret and I had heaps of fun taking silly pictures and trying to re-create those ones where you are leaping underneath the Eiffel Tower but unfortunately we weren't skilled enough. We bought a few souvenirs but didn't manage to negotiate the price down. The weather was a little windy but very nice and sunny. The last time I was in Paris I didn't have as great a time, and I think the weather had a lot to do with that.

We then hopped on a commentated boat cruise up the Seine. It was very relaxing and you get to see Paris from a different perspective from the River.

We had dinner at a little restaurant and then headed home for the night. Dinner was nothing special and of course as it was central Paris, overpriced. Once our heads hit the pillow we didn't wake up til the morning as it had been a big day.