Au Revoir Paris, Buon Giorno Italy

Our last day in Paris. Sad but also excited to see Venice, our next stop. We had planned for a bit of time in the morning by scheduling our flight in the evening which turned out well as it meant we could do one more visit. So after breakfast, where we had met a very nice Christchurch Kiwi mother and daughter we packed and headed out. 

Our trip was a short one on the metro, followed by a short walk to 'the stairs'. Dan and Asher decided 200-something was nothing, but Hannah and I decided to take the funicular. Yep, lazy, but our feet are sore!

The view is worth it though. You can see right over the city (but not the Effiel Tower). The building is quite young, compared to a number we have seen. The line was short and we had a good look around. It is an active church with a convent attached so we were able to see a nun working on the flowers at the altar. She wasn't old either! Sadly you had to pay to go into some other parts and we decided to save our cash.

We then headed down the stairs to wander the streets of Montmartre, which is the favourite part of Paris for some of our well-travelled friends. The streets were delightful, though we didn't wander as much as we probably should of, time was against us a little. We did love it and were pleased that our little hotel was close to this area. We felt we had been basically 'living' in the area for the past few days.

Back to the hotel to pick up our bags, catch a metro and find the train for the airport. Honestly, the train station in Paris was the most confusing thing we have come across yet. Up, down, up, down, around, back ... all to find one platform. We were very blessed to strike a kind Parisian who was heading away on holiday and spoke beautiful English. She kindly helped us. And the train - sardines in a can. In the words of Forrest Gump - that is all, I have to say about that. 

An actual Concorde at the airport. 

The process for flying was pretty simple and we were thankful when the ticket lady didn't weigh our carry-on backpacks (pretty sure they are pushing the limit). Stupidly we forgot that large bottles aren't allowed on planes now and the kind gift of Irish Gin we were given by the Kiwi mum at the start of the day was confiscated. Guess someone on staff will enjoy it. 

Also important to note that you can take your dog on planes (not gin though). A small chihuahua travelled with us - can you imagine us taking Ruby?!? Our flight was delayed by an hour, but that didn't matter too much. We did have to hop on a bus to get to the plane, that was a unique experience. However we did the same when we arrived in Italy, so perhaps it isn't so unique. 

As we stepped out into the heat we were greeted by the sight of a man with a cat around his neck and at least 4 dogs waiting for people. I wasn't quick enough to take a photo of the cat though. We made it though. Just a bus ride and we were at our apartment. Whew!