Originally posted to Posterous on 26 April 2011
Tova and I arrived safely on Saturday morning in Paris, after a long and tiring flight from Singapore. Singapore Airlines looked after us well enough, but a 13 hour flight in economy is still hellish. The mini-stopover in Singapore at the transit hotel helped a lot though - $76 well spent, as was a dinner of Hainan chicken and rice in the airport before boarding our flight.
Charles de Gaulle airport was somewhat of a shock after Singapore airport's efficiency - old, disorganised, grotty and somewhat overwhelmed by our A380 coming in. We had our own personal guides in Singapore airport, as we did in Hong Kong airport five years ago - porters whose job seems to be to get people with disabilities from A to B as fast as humanly possible. I have learnt that resistance is futile, to sit back and enjoy the ride, and to tip these guys well (or at least I hoped we tipped them well) to ensure my wheelchair comes out at the other end.
Anyhow, it was early Saturday morning when we arrived at our hotel, and our room was not yet ready, so we wandered to a nearby cafe and had a French breakfast - orange juice, coffee, toasted baguette with jam and butter, plus the lightest, most buttery croissants I have had in a long time. Only 9 Euros each.
Yesterday, we woke early due to jet lag (and having slept since about 4pm the day before), so headed out to see Notre Dame, and the Memorial of the Deportation (of Jews from Paris). There were people everywhere, half of Europe seemed to be here for a long weekend ... and scouts, French scouts, even some scouts smoking (Baden Powell would have been turning over in his grave). The Memorial of the Deportation is behind Notre Dame, but before we could say "the French have a complicated relationship to the Holocaust", we were told to leave the park where the memorial is, as it was being closed for Easter celebrations and the mayor's procession. We walked into the old Jewish part of Paris (le Marais), browsed the kosher butchers and delis, and could not help but notice memorials to Jewish children deported to death camps between 1942 and 1944. We also bought a cookie from Sacha Finkelsztajn http://finkelsztajn.com.
Paris is all I imagined it would be and the shops are full of beautiful food - too much to eat in one trip, but at least all the walking will help us stave off obesity.