July 9th Musee d'Orsay and home

To be packed and checked out by 10.00 am with a whole day to spend in Paris where we expected temperatures to reach mid thirties, but with over 30 hours travel leaving 9.45 tonight and an arrival to NZ winter, was something of a conundrum. However, the hotel was happy for us to leave our bags with them and to make a room available for us to change later in the day before we headed to the airport, so by 10.15 we were on the town in our lightest weight gear.
Along with our entry to Le Louvre, we'd also purchased entry to Musee d'Orsay, the gallery which exhibits early modern art works - impressionist, art nouveau etc; so this is where we headed. With ticket in hand we totally by passed the queue and were immediately inside this fantastically light, airy, modern art gallery which once upon a time was the Paris railway station! We both found this a very "user friendly" gallery and loved the more modern works exhibited here. It was very exciting to see the originals of works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso which we see so often as faded prints, here they were fresh and glowing - and great too to see some of their lesser known works. Engrossed for several hours, the day passed rapidly and to remind ourselves of some of the beaut stuff we'd seen here we bought a souvenir book which I'm looking forward to reading.
With just an hour or so to fill I was keen to spend some time outdoors as we'd soon enough be inside planes for many hours, so we walked across the river to enjoy the shade in the lovely Tuilleries garden before returning to the hotel to change into our travel clothes.
We'd booked the train to take us from Paris out to Charles de Gaulle airport so it was just a short Metro ride to the train connection. With a 7.00 o'clock check in time we'd left the hotel at 5.00 o'clock which was perfect timing for the route to be covered, but certainly not perfect timing for lugging suitcases through the underground or for fighting one's way on to a train. Pushing our way into the crush of bodies lining the platform, we weren't quite able to make it into the front of the pack, which was very unfortunate, as it meant that Fred and his suitcase managed to shove their way on board, but I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, before the door closed and the train pulled away, Fred managed to peer back from the centre of the carriage and realise I was left behind, giving me a chance to mouth "I'll catch the next one"!
All ended well I was at the front of the pack for the next train and a man inside the train hauled my case on as I fought to hold my place, so half an hour late we were both safely at the airport and checking in.
Checking in was the next drama! On our travels I'd bought a little bottle of truffle oil and one of walnut oil and to keep them easily accessible to show MAF as we entered NZ I'd popped them in the carry on luggage, forgetting that the walnut oil was bigger than 100mls and so inadmissable in carry on luggage. I'd asked Fred to take them as I didn't want them in the same bag as my netpad just in case there was a leak. What a kerfuffle as the French official tried to explain to Fred that he could take it as checked in luggage and Fred tried to explain that his luggage was already checked in and gone. Eventually we reached some level of understanding and the chap took Fred back and found a lady who spent ages wrapping it in layer after layer of bubble wrap and bags so that it would survive the journey checked in as a parcel; "this is far to good to waste" she kept telling him.
Took off at 9.45. An eight hour flight saw dinner, one movie and a sleep before we landed in Dubai for a three hour stopover (hard to stay awake here - for us it was still the middle of the night). On to the next leg and this time the Airbus, so it was good to have the noise level reduced and the leg room increased, though it was a long time before I could sensibly fall asleep again. Eventually, 13 hours later in to Auckland and no worries about the truffle and walnut oil which had survived it's trip.
Finally home at 5.30 and there was John to pick us up in the limo, plus Pauline and John to welcome us. Then Dan and the chidren turned up and home we went to find Andrea there. They had dinner cooking and the drapes closed, the fire roaring and the electric blankets on so we had dinner together with Emily and Anna popping in to see us too. What a lovely welcome home and what a great sleep! It's been a fantastic trip and we've loved every bit of it, but home is always great too!