Le Paris Diary: Day 1

OK, so I promised I'd tell you more about le Paris. So, here goes!

Monday morning we were up at 3am and set off to arrive at Leeds Bradford Airport for 4.45am. We were up anyway with Mini-MaFt but it was still far too early. We parked the car up at Sentinel and got to the airport. We had a bit of time to kill before we could check in so we stood still looking like muppets for 20 or so minutes. Check-in took ages due to Mini-MaFt being added at a later date but we finally got away and got onto the plane. Obviously I'm shortening this somewhat!

The plane was a scary invention! I can't remember the make/model etc. but it wasn't even as wide as a bus and only held 49 people (including crew). Well, it had only cost us £50 each return with BMI. Mini-MaFt was fine on the plane, he slept though most of it and his ears didn't seem to give him too much trouble.

After landing, luggage-collecting and taxi-ing we got to the hotel at about 11am only to find we couldn't check-in until 2.30pm. We also got told that they hadn't been told about Mini-MaFt so there was no cot available. Ah... panic time! Neither of us were particularly keen about having Mini-MaFt in bed with us for fear of squashing him, but it was the only option (nasty email has been sent to the holiday company [bargainholidays.com] for not informing the hotel) and resulted in fairly sleepless nights. Anyway, we left our luggage in a cupboard and had a wander around the area we were staying (region 17 of Paris I think it was). We wandered up the road and had McDonalds :) Then going further afield I saw a big red windmill and though 'Ooh, that's like the Moulin Rouge' then we got closer and realised it was the Moulin Rouge - which was cool! There were lots of porn shops too. I'll put a photo up but I've not copied the photo's from the camera yet...

We stopped off at a pub for a quick couple of drinks before going back to the hotel, checking in, going up the teeny-tiny lift and entering room 202. It was alright, a bit dark and warm with no tea or coffee making facillities but it only cost about £35 a night for bed and breakfast.

That night we went out for a meal (bad steak with lots of gristly bits) and a few drinks. Then we went to bed and worried about squashing Mini-MaFt in our sleep. It was bloody hot too. We hardly slept...

MaFt