I have arrived safe and sound at my little hotel in Paris, the Hotel D’Amiens.
The flight was remarkable only for the fact that the air hostesses all thought the little boy across the aisle from me was associated with me, and they kept asking me what he’d like to eat and drink. Flattering if they thought he was my son, not so much if they thought he was my grandson. They were all gorgeous, tiny, perfectly made up Singaporean ladies so I expect they think we big, lumpy, pale, course, gauche white women are all the same. I have also never noticed quite how much flatus one produces on those long haul flights. The methane involved must rival the jet fuel used in the total carbon emissions, if I was at all representative of the passengers as a whole. Luckily the sound and odour are fairly well disguised on a jet. You forget quite how noisy planes are.
Immigration was a breeze (“business class? Right this way, madam…”) and customs essentially non existent, basically an honesty system where you stroll past the lounging customs officers who are keeping their eyes out for suspicious brown people.
I avoided taxis, having been stung in Paris once before. Some fake taxi driver took me from Orly to my hotel and tried to charge me 120 euros. Unfortunately for him I had done my homework and I knew 30 would have been in the right ballpark. We had a big argument, he tried to spin a line in very rapid French to the reception staff who were wholly uninterested, and finally agreed to take 40 euros, muttering darkly to himself. You could construe this as a win, particularly as I ended up with a receipt for the full 120 euros which I could have claimed as an expense (but didn’t). But it was unpleasant nonetheless, and anyway, I always like taking public transport whenever possible in foreign cities. So, I took the RER train from the airport straight to the Gare de nord, merely a hop skip and a jump to the hotel. Actually it was more of a discrete trundle with my suitcase, trying to avoid the argument the large group of policemen were having with some of the local black population.
Well, it’s midnight now so I’d better try to get some sleep.