a day in paris (again)

6am flight meant getting up at 3 with only 3 hrs of sleep. L was there to see me off, bloodshot eyes and all. Poor thing. The half hour ride to Pulkovo was in semi-darkness. St Petes still asleep with few cars on the road. Totally unlike Moscow Sheremetyevo which was completely soviet style, Pulkovo was a modern airport, not very big but with a glass ceiling, and duty free and shops, with TGIF of course. 4 hours later I arrived at CDG, again. Deposited my luggage at the 'left luggage' and trained to central Paris. Since my cc even with the chip (it's chip and signature) still wouldnt work at the european ticket kiosk, had to wait a long time at the long line at the ticket office. when will America become state of the art.

It was still early but multitude of tourists were already out and about in central paris. The air was cold, cloudy but no rain. Hopped on the FoxCity bus and did a 2 hr ride through all the familiar sites, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Place de La Concorde, Champ d'Elises, arc de triumph, the Opera house, the eiffel tower, and back to the Louvre. Wanted to walk around a bit but after 2 weeks of walking in the baltics and St Petes I was bone tired and it was very cold (even colder than St Petes), so had a lasagna lunch at a local joint and headed back to CDG.


Check out Paris in 2015.



Checked in to the CitizenM hotel next to terminal 3 and oh, this place was awesome beyond expectation. Decor totally modern, self check-in, long tables with outlets for the businessmen laptops, and banks of Macs to use, an awesome bar and small dinning area. The room was what sent me to the heavens. 4th floor with a direct view of the runway, planes parading in front of my window every 3 mins. Small Snowie perched himself on the windowsill counting the planes going by. Small room but everything adequate. The shower and toilet were located inside the room in an oval glass compartment with different color shades ambient lighting. King size bed up against the window, 48 in flat screen tv with free movies. Everything controlled by a tablet. I could set the ambient lighting to display alternating colors of the rainbow. Loved this room. After a shower beneath faded orange lighting, headed downstairs intending to grab some supper material from terminal 2 but spotted the hotel buffet - orange duck, curry chicken, mushroom beef, kale salad, scallop potato, so went for it. lemon pudding and drink came with the dinner, so I carried it all to my room and enjoyed the sumptuous meal watching 50 Shades (again) while Small Snowie watched the planes go by and occasionally stole looks at the TV and at my food. Had a most relaxing invigorating sleep accompanied by the lime green ambient lighting. I've really enjoyed this room and the hotel. Next CDG layover, guess what. citizenM again! forget the Ibis, although closer to the terminal. price the same and citizenM's rooms were a bit bigger and excellently modern.

Double decker Air France Airbus again and this time on the upper deck. A dutch with perfect English sat next to me. Not much conversation between us but he conversed quite a bit with his colleagues sitting behind us. Dutch not a very pleasant sounding language but good background noise to my sweet slumber. Finished up Brimstone and really loved the Diogenes trilogy of the Pendergast series. Did the trilogy in backwards order. Fun to already know what happened later in the story. hee hee.

Another great trip. Loved the lovely Baltics, stormy adventurous ferry acrossing the sea, the smooth elegant Allegro train, completely blown away by St Petes. A trip of grand chandeliers, palaces with enough gold, rivers and cathedrals, great meat (reindeer, moose, wild boar, elk), good strudels and pies, pleasant hotels. Just the weather was not nice but hey, it's Mother Nature and she's in control, always, and one cannot complain.


My room at the CitizenM hotel:









Planes parading in front of my window:










Air France double-decker Airbus to SFO:



Our plane coming: