Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Leaving Dubai and Arriving in Chantilly

We stumbled out of bed at 4.30am on Wednesday morning and dressed ready for the car that was to pick us up at 5.20am. We tried to contact the airport to see if the planes were flying, but i had to get the Hotel desk to do it as we couldn't get on to the airport. The car arrived at 5.20 and the driver said everything was flying.
We were met at the car by a hostess who led us to the checkin desk and a porter who brought our luggage. He was great because he kept looking for shorter lines and we were checked in pretty quickly.
We flew on a new 380 Airbus and it was huge, a double decker aeroplane.
we landed in Paris about a quarter to Three and then had to get all our luggage to the Europcar in Terminal 1. Laurent met us there and helped with the booking. He then drove us to meet Loretta in Chantilly. it was fast and on the wrong side of the road. Oh dear!We went to the school and had a quick tour around and then we collected Loretta and she showed us the way to Avilly St Leonard. Gray sat in the front and we squashed in the back. The trip was much more comfortable for me as I couldn’t see a thing. The roads are incredibly narrow and cars go so fast.
We looked in the apartment and were nicely surprised. It is sparsely fitted out, but very comfortable and while not large, it is big enough so that we don’t feel as though we are under each other’s feet. We are out in the country between Avilly and St Leonard, two very quaint villages.
Laurent drove us all back to the station so that they could catch the train for Paris. He parked in the station and off they went! AGH! I had to drive after being up at 4am and feeling tired and scared. We had no food at all and needed supplies and things for me to take for lunch the next day.
I gingerly managed to get down the street and park on the footpath in one vacant spot as everyone else was doing. We walked down to the Supermarket “Simply” and wandered around thinking what we might need. We had seen a Boucherie and thought we would go there on the way back to choose our meat. When we eventually carried our stacks of bags back up the street, the butcher was closing. We had to hurriedly think what we wanted as his lovely display was all put away and we ended up with some ham and some veal, the latter being cooked which we didn’t realise at the time. We put the shopping in the car and headed across the road to the Greengrocer which was also closing, but I asked her was she closing and they let us in. We said everything we could think of and they produced it, even some plastic box things I could take my lunch in the next day.
Having put all that in the car as well, we decided to go into the Brasserie for dinner. It was a good choice as the food was good and the atmosphere pleasant.
Then we had to find our way back to Avilly. The roads are so narrow and the car is a bit too big for some of these roads. It is a diesel and nice to drive, but terrifying at the same time.
We arrived back and carried the shopping upstairs and put it away and unlocked all the suitcases. We took a few things out and left the rest. I was going to have to wear the same shirt the next day as we had no iron.
It was quite late when we eventually fell into bed and we slept reasonably well.

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