DAY 41: Thursday July 12th:
Walk: 0k Culoz to Paris: 15°C to 18°C. slightly cloudy in Culoz, Rain in Paris
Accommodation: Chambre d’Hote Ghoslaine Revol, 119 Poncet Ave Culoz
119 Poncet Ave Culoz - home for 2 nights to see Tour de France
Bye bye Culoz - waiting for train
Tired after big trip - TGV to Paris
Yeh - our hidden box is still there
Ian, Rosemary, Jan, Donna, Milton and Hazel - lunch at flat in paris
A day of travelling by train and plane - TER from Culoz to Lyon, TGV from Lyon to Paris and Air France from Paris to Brisbane. Travelling back to Paris with Donna and Milton after being at Stage 10 of the Tour de France was just a great finish to a great trip.
Ian and I are awake at 6.30am as usual and have a cup of tea. We decide to go for a walk to give Donna and Milton some space and time in the bathroom with transparent screens - the flat is really nice with a self contained kitchenette but the shower/toilet is - let's say open air. It's quite cool as we wander around Culoz - all the campervans of yesterday are gone and the streets are quiet.
We return to our flat and have a nice breakfast with Donna and Milton who have made good use of the quiet time to shower etc. Time to pack and go. We're all out the door by 9.15, stop at the Carrefours supermarket for stuff I don't need, then down to the train station. The TER arrives on time at 10.24am - it's about one and a half hours to Lyon where we change to the TGV for Paris - we run - only 4 minutes to spare. The TGV is direct to Paris - no stops - 2hrs.
It's raining and cool when we arrive in Paris at 1.30pm at the Gare du Lyon - out of the station and catch the No 61 bus to Voltaire and walk to Donna and Milton's Flat. It's really nice - a door to the garden is a rarity for any apartment in Paris. Donna's cousins Hazel and Rosemary from Ireland have been staying there for 2 days and have lunch ready for us. While they chat, we duck off around the road to check to see if our secret box still exists in its hidey hole. When we left Paris several weeks ago, we had filled it with stuff we didn't want to cart around the Alps - jeans and shirts etc we wore to the French open, as well as 2 stripey plastic bags you can’t buy in Paris. They are good to hold our backpacks for the journey home to stop the straps getting caught in conveyor belts.
Amazingly, the apartment where we stayed weeks before is only 500 metres from Donna's - and we walk quickly in the drizzling rain to the green doors, enter the code and check out the cave under the stairs. Yes, our box is still there - covered in dirt but still there. We grab it unbelievingly, buy some wine and walk quickly back to Donna's for lunch. You never get tired of fresh bread, meats, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce.
Time to watch the end of Stage 11 of the Tour de France from Albertville to La Toussuire les Sybelles. Cadel is in a spot of trouble and after making an early break, slides back and finishes 4th in the GC, almost 4 minutes behind Bradley Wiggins. We shower, repack and off to the Metro Voltaire to go to Oberkampf, then change to Gare du Nord and catch the RER line B to Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 2. We arrive to find the Air France terminal is self operated electronically and the machine doesn't like my passport - someone comes to the rescue and all is good. We wrap up the backpacks in our $2.00 stripey plastic Chines laundy bags, do a bag drop, go through Passport control, security and we're off to the lounge to celebrate with a champagne and cheese.
Boarding time is 10.30pm. I've picked the seats months before, but somehow we've been given seats 2 aisles apart - a quick chat to the hostess and she has to ask another passenger to move please - shouldn't happen. But the A308 is nice - we're in the upper deck and make ourselves at home, ready for the long flight to Singapore then Brisbane.
What a wonderful trip. Already thinking about the next one.