Day 30!!!! Fond memories of Paris

So I have made it to day 30 of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge where I undertook to post once a day for 30 days. I have surprised myself at the persistence I have exhibited and I am hoping that it has not been too tedious for anyone who has been reading my blog posts.

I was planning to do another post today with more pictures describing the next stage of our trip to France in 2014, but with all the sad, sad news coming out of Paris today I think I will just post a few of my favourite Paris photos and send heartfelt loving energy to everyone in that beautiful city.

Day 2 - Arriving in Europe and exploring Paris alone

The longest leg of our journey to Europe was from Hong Kong to London, a total of 11 hours in the air but mercifully most of the trip was in the evening.

We arrived in Paris at about 9.00am and then had an unplanned free tour of Paris attractions as our (replacement?) shuttle bus driver took a small bus load of jet lagged tourists all around Paris hoping our hotels would magically appear:-). He was so stubborn that he would not admit he was lost, kept checking maps on his phone and even resorted to asking people at traffic lights for directions. We FINALLY arrived at our very posh hotel Hilton La Defence after 2 hours of driving around Paris. 

We settled in and dozed for the afternoon and then ordered Room Service for our first French meal - Croc Monsieur, yum!

We had a free day before joining our Trafalgar tour so decided to spend the day having our own tour of Paris. Trevor was extremely jetlagged and couldn't wake up so we left him to sleep it off.

After a couple of hiccups we managed to negotiate the Metro and found ourselves at Gare Saint-Lazare. I realised that I was REALLY in Paris seeing places I had only read about, and was also hearing and still understanding the language I had learnt some 45 years ago. I was ecstatic!

We hopped on and off a Big Red Bus Tour of Paris. Here Wendy admires the
beautiful River Seine.

One of our stops was at the Musee d'Orsay where I photographed this magnificent horse for Wendy's grand daughter who loves horses.

After meeting up with our tour group we were taken for dinner to this beautiful restaurant overlooking the Louvre. We watched the sunset from the terrace and then went inside for our meal.

2014 - my life long dream fulfilled

Day 1 - Sydney to Hong Kong

In late September 2014 I finally realised a long anticipated dream - to travel to Europe, especially to France, and more especially to Paris. My friend Wendy was my travelling companion and she brought along her well travelled friend TTTT (Trevor the Travelling Teddy.) In anticipation of boring friends with MILLIONS of photos on our return, I set up a Facebook page to share photos each day. This page was called Griswald Grannies Do Europe and was a great hit amongst our friends.

Trevor was ready before us, waiting patiently for Wendy's son Tim who was our trusty chauffeur to Sydney.











We stayed overnight in Sydney so that we could be at the airport with plenty of time to spare the next day. 

While waiting to depart Wendy took some basic French lessons from Trevor. He told me she was a good student but needed to keep practising.







After what seemed like the longest day we arrived in Hong Kong and I began my photo frenzy, snapping pics of the amazing ultra modern Hong Kong airport.

We were labelled (in case we wandered off?), very efficiently collected and delivered safely by mini bus 

to  our beautiful hotel the Eaton. 

A good night's sleep and a restful day in and around the hotel's luxury coffee shop prepared us for the next leg of our trip, overnight to London.