Paris is black and white.
We arrived in Paris at 6.30am on the 7th of December. My parents came to collect us at the airport, we were in a zombie like state, so happy at the same time ‘not to have to worry about anything from then on’. It was a short drive home, as my parents’ house is only 20mns drive from CDG.
Driving home in Paris coming from Australia is like suddenly entering a black and white movie. All the bright Australian skies, the green luscious Malaysian vegetation were a stark contrast.
We were shortly greeted with snow everywhere. Josie was trying to make Oscar emerge from his deeply jetlagged state to play in the snow with him, but to no avail. Oscar had GONE, totally jetlagged! He slept from 8am til 3am non stop, yes more than 12 hours. I tried desperately to make him eat some ‘tarte aux pommes’ that my mum did with Josie at lunch time to keep him awake;
he ate it WITH HIS EYES CLOSED!
On the 8th, we ventured in Paris Les Halles to buy a nice outfit for Josie for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary next week, and to have lunch at l’Hyppopotamus, a family restaurant institution. The snow became more abundant - 10 cms fell in 5 hours. Josie and my mum took the metro back home, but myself, Oscar and my dad got caught in his car on the peripherique 3 hours for a normally 40mns journey. My dad said I should drive ‘to get used to it’. Well, I had a bit of a job as we passed cars and lorries stranded along the way by the snow. Any hill was a bit of a gamble, and a no go zone for any lorry. Soon a radio announcement ordered all lorries to stay away from the Francilienne (ring road around Paris).
Despite my Fraser Island sand driving skills, I got stranded halfway, and my dad took over (he was a driver in the army) and he took us back home no problem.
I said to him: well, maybe we should have taken the metro ? He replied: well, we would have missed out on all the fun ! ... hum 74 years old. He even took pictures of the mess, people shouting etc. as I was driving.
Well, good job we landed one day earlier: Orly airport had been closed that day, CDG was in chaos, 400 kms of bottlenecked roads in Paris, with 2000 policemen dispatched in Paris intra muros alone.
For Oscar, it was one of the best day of his life seeing the snow. He went totally crazy with the snow in the garden!
On Saturday, I have to go to the country to visit relatives. I have changed my plans: I will take the train, instead of driving, but I am still a bit worried about the last 20 kms from the train station to the farm. My cousin told me not to worry:
she will come with the tractor to collect me if it does not look too good ! ))))) (she was not joking)
