Paris

Antwerp and Brussels Friday 12th June
We travelled from Bailleul to Antwerp and had to make sure we took the correct Ring Road through or around Antwerp. We stopped at a Service Centre on the southern outskirts of Antwerp and when we left it started raining again and tissue stop gaps had to be applied to the windscreen for quite a while. I lost my sunglasses for good this time at the truck stop. The traffic was a nightmare but we finally got to the camp at Brecht. A superb dinner followed by a challenge Snooker comp comprising John N and Potsy on one side and Zeb and Fiona on the other. Pots and John won. After a huge light and sound show during the night with the thunder and lightening (unheard by some) we woke to a reasonable day and went to the loading yard to clean down the vehicles and all camping gear to ensure it would pass Australia quarantine. Finally all the vehicles went into our container – our ute, Mick and Ken’s Jeeps and John N’s Harley bound for Sydney. Lorraine and Sam had sold their Studebaker and the new owners arrived to drive away. A military salute as it passed us on our way to a bus stop for Antwerp and then a train to Brussels.

Short train to Brussels and a walk around that night. Dinner on the Seafood street and short exploration.

Brussels Saturday
Wow, what a beautiful city it was. The square was a hive of activity with civil wedding parties turning up every 15 minutes or so. One of the brides turned up in a very large stretched hummer, not to mention the Mercedes, BMW coops & a very well restored Jaguar. Lorraine and I visited the Mannekin Pis and then off to the Musee Brussels and many other sights. Dinner that night was at a Cretan restaurant and more sights later.

The train ride
Seven of our remaining group boarded the train bound for Paris at 1113 hrs. It was not long before we all had a guess at the speed the train was doing, 175 to 250 km per hour. Then Graeme fired up his GPS to find out that we were doing 300 kph. The whole time we again travelled through top farming country side, as it is fairly flat with some tree belts all the land is sown down to crops. Arrived at Paris at 1230m hrs, taking 1 ¼ hrs a distance of about 360km.

Paris Sunday
It was good to see Henri at the train station platform to meet us from Brussels. Fiona and I got in the car with Henri, as he has a small 2 door car 7 people and our luggage could not fit. Graeme, Mike, John, Sam & Loraine got a large cab to the Hotel Henri had booked, it was only about 25 minutes away and within walking distance to Henri’s place. We all then had a lovely meal at Henri’s place. We eat all our meals including breakfast with Henri every day.

Paris Monday
It was decided that today we would go and look at Versailles Palace. Apart from the day being wet on arrival at the Palace we found that it is closed on Mondays, all we could do was look around the very large gardens. C’est France, c’est Lundi, c’est ferme. (it’s France, Monday and it’s closed)

Henri took Graeme & Mike to the Airport later in the day as they were leaving to go home.

Paris Tuesday
In the morning Henri took Sam, John & me John to look at the Paris military clubs work shop and storage sheds. They have 3 large sheds on loan from the Army each housing capable of housing 20 vehicles. Henri took us to an 18th century part of Versailles then in the afternoon toured the French Museum of WW I and II. Fiona and Lorraine meantime hit the shops on Avenue Hausmann taking in La Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. We came home with bugger all but dreams of a 280,000 euro diamond ring from De Beers, 2,000 euro nightie and negligee set and other goodies. Oh, we got some souvenirs though.

Paris Wednesday
After looking around Paris to La Defence, the newest area of Paris to the far west in the morning, it was time to take John, Sam & Lorraine to the airport to depart for home. Henri returned to take us to dinner near the Pantheon with his daughter Christine. Then we drove through the city and up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur for a night version of the city.

Paris Thursday
This was the day we climbed the 700 steps up the Eiffel Tower, although it was a cloudy day.

Photos will follow