Day 35, Paris

This day marked the half way point of our trip, having experienced lots but still a lot to go. We were in no hurry for it to end at this stage, which I suppose is a good thing.

We said our goodbyes to Anne and Phil, adding each other on Facebook, hopefully to meet up again sometime, and then Anne gave us a lift to the tram which took us back into Manchester.  There we were to board the Megabus to London which we booked a week or two before for five pounds each.

It was Bank Holiday weekend and the bus was late, so we ended up getting on a minivan which they supplied to cope with the overbooking and the people like us who needed to make further connections.  In our case it was the Eurostar to Paris, which fortunately was running after a week or so of threatened strikes by British Rail employees.

After an uneventful drive down with very few traffic jams we arrived two hours later than originally intended, but still made it in time for the connection.  It was a big relief when we sat down at St Pancras station, waiting for our boarding call.

The trip was quick and we emerged at the Gare de Nord before dark, and into 35 degrees of oppressive heat. After negotiating the stairwells full of dodgy people and no security in sight, we found the subway line 9 to Alma Marceau and our Airbnb at 18 Rue Debrousse.  We did not meet our host but he sent an official greeter who gave us the keys and escorted us up into the apartment.  By this stage it was nearly midnight, so after doing a load of washing we collapsed into bed, watching the light show on the Eiffel Tower as we fell asleep.