Rachel J. Roche

Last day! The weather on Saturday morning was perfect. The sun was out and the temperature was just right for rollerblading! It was such fun! We went over to Parc du Luxembourg and up and down the adjacent streets. I noticed quite a few police about and wondered if we were going to get told we weren’t supposed to be rollerblading around the Palace, but on closer inspection, they were just laughing at our attempts to stay upright! The park was really busy, with people jogging, doing yoga, tai chi and all sorts! I can’t wait to go there with Adam and have a picnic on the lawn. I’d also love to visit the Palace inside which looks really impressive; there are so many beautiful buildings everywhere you look.

After rollerblading, we had to pack up, check out and take the rollerblades back to the rental shop near to the Bastille before finding somewhere for lunch and getting our flight home. We found a really lovely place for lunch just off the main Boulevard Saint-Germain. A little family-run restaurant which I will definitely be going to again, I can’t remember what it was called but I’m sure I could find it. It served exclusively French food and the staff were lovely. I felt really bad however as we totally forgot to tip them as we left as we were too busy thinking about how much (or little) time we had to get to the airport before check-in. Oops!

Heading back on the Metro, we hadn’t realised (and hadn’t been told by the attendant at the station whom we asked for directions) that there was work on the line. Luckily, a nice French man chaperoned us all the way to the RER B station where the train would take us to Charles de Gaulle! I think he took one look at our worried faces and realised that he couldn’t just leave us stuck there as we had budgeted only the time it took on the train to arrive for check-in! Big mistake. We cut it VERY fine … with only 5 minutes to go before check-in closed! I have never run so fast in my flip-flops in my life (note to self: get some sensible shoes!) Plus we had bought the wrong ticket to get to the airport and the electronic doors wouldn’t let us in! It must have been our lucky day however as a lady and her grown-up daughter let us sneak through with them – we didn’t exactly have much choice though as by this point we were panicking! The queues at check-in were pretty long and so we tried to use the automated check-in but it wasn’t working so we grabbed the first official looking man we saw and he checked us in straight away! Phew. By this point I thought I was going to faint. That was a bit hairy. We were both totally worn out after all that and it was such a relief getting on the plane! Nice that we didn’t have to wait around before boarding, but I don’t think I’ll be leaving it so late next time!

All in all a really successful weekend trip and very enjoyable! Thanks B for being a great travel companion; I can’t wait to head back.