Day 12. Athens to Paris

This morning started VERY early with a rude awakening/wake up call at 6am. We had a taxi booked for 7, so that we could make our 9am flight to Paris. The street outside our Athens hotel was already awake and was a hive of early morning activity. It seemed a shame to leave already, but off we went with another stinky taxi... 

Athens airport was clean and tidy and very easy to use. There were no queues and they had free internet, so we made a few calls home while we munched on the “breakfast in a bag” the hotel gave us. It was delicious!! Would definitely recommend this hotel (The O and B) to anyone going to Athens.

Cory had managed to get us an emergency exit row on the plane when we checked in so we had plenty of space, though there was no briefing on the exit door use, which was surprising. The Aegean airways crew were all girls, and we particularly liked the sleeveless dress. Very sexy indeed!! 

Our flight took us from Athens over Serbia, Croatia and Germany.

Aegean airlines, sexy dress!

Crossing Swiss Alps

As we approached Paris for landing, it was clearly not a nice day - very cloudy and raining. There was an older French lady sitting next to me who I turned to and said “It looks like a beautiful day outside” - She looked at me like I was mad, and said in a very thick accent - “Welcome to Paris - It rains here everyday”. It was rather gloomy on the drive into town, but the excitement started to grow as we approached the city.

We checked in at our hotel and had a nice surprise. We had received a complimentary upgrade to an executive room! We also had a special welcome from the duty manager, saying happy birthday for both us and they were honored to have us choose to stay with them for our celebration. (I had sent a quick email before leaving Australia asking for a non smoking room and gently mentioned we were on a celebration trip). The special attention and bit of fuss was unexpected and much appreciated.

It was not long before we were on the streets of Paris. A delightful quick stop for a sandwich had us tasting the fine service of Paris. We had a lovely waiter who was friendly and professional. We wanted to take a photo as one of our regular readers has made an official complaint that there are too many pics of Cory and I on the blog, but we did not get a chance, he was too efficient, as well as super handsome!

Based on our waiter’s advice we walked to the Eiffel tower from our hotel. It only took about 20 minutes, though was slippery as the many trees have lost their leaves and started disintegrating on the footpaths. The building in Paris are just beautiful and all of them looked completely renovated and up to date. There is certainly a lot of money in this city.

Its hard to believe that the Eiffel tower, built in 1889 for a world fair, was an eyesore for most Parisians. It was the centrepiece of the promotion of democracy and capitalism being promoted at the time. The plan was to tear down the tower after 20 years, however the introduction of radio saved the day as it was used as a radio tower for the military during the war. Fortunately, the tower still stands and is a major monument beloved by the French and all visitors to Paris. Each 7 years, the tower is painted and 60000 tonnes of paint is used. 

Chilly overlooking the Champs de Mars from level 2

As the lights began twinkling, we caught the metro to Pont de Neuf to board the Vedettes de Pont Neuf, a batteaux mouches, a paris riverboat, to see the city by night. This was well worthwhile, and though very cool, we sat on the top deck, listening to the guide, who talked us past all of the buildings and provided some history on this beautiful city.

We had a dinner reservation tonight for a restaurant we had heard about from a friend at work called Les Fines Gueles. This was our second choice as we had wanted to visit a place that Craig Darling recomended. (Craig, Cafe de Musee was not contactable tonight, so we will try tomorrow). We enjoyed a very french dinner of entrecoute, and cunard (beef and duck). Cory finished off with a delicious creme brulee... Tired and full, we headed home to our hotel and two very nice surprises. there was a cute video from Charlotte and Harry, which was so nice! Thanks to both of you for that. The duty manager had also sent up a bottle of champagne and a plate of macaroons for our celebration. A perfect end to a beautiful day!!!