Friday 20th September - Amiens to Paris (Beware the Pickpockets!)

We left Amiens after a quick brekky this morning and we were on the road by 9.30 am - which is good for us!  We drove straight to Charles de Gaulle airport expecting to arrive, as we'd been told, about 1 1/2 hours later.  That's obviously with the French driving!  It took us nearly 2 1/2 hours to get there, then another 45 minutes to find the Avis car rental return. 

After ticking off all the boxes with Avis, we made our way very tentatively to find the train station which is at terminal 3.  We were at terminal 1.  We managed to locate it and got on a train to "somewhere".  The woman at the information booth told us three times the name of the stations and we still didn't understand her pronunciation; she got a bit impatient with us, so we nodded, smiled and said, "Merci". 

A bloke bumped me as he pushed in front of me boarding the train, and I made the comment, "No worries mate, you're obviously far more important", or words to that effect.  It turns out he's from Brisbane, but lacked manners anyway.  I thought this might be the French way - we had noticed that there was a lot of jostling for position going on, prior to getting on the train.

Anyway, several people on board were extremely helpful and tried to assist us with directions and attempting to work out which station we needed in order to get to our hotel.  And it turned out we needed to change trains.  One bloke actually got off the train and got it sorted and he then had to catch the next train himself! 

So ... when we changed trains there was a group of about eight young 13-15 year olds who were jostling and bumping us as we tried to get on the train.  After my earlier experience I was irritated and in a very loud voice said, "Stop pushing - just wait - you're being very rude"!  This obviously caught the attention of other travellers and a woman came forward and said to John, "Check your wallet".  It was gone! It had been pickpocketed by the young urchins.  One of the young girls realised they'd been caught and said to John, "Is this your wallet?" as she handed it back to him!

John couldn't believe it.  We'd been warned of pick pockets and there were announcements later about them but this really threw us.  I checked my handbag and the zip had been undone.  Thankfully they didn't get my wallet (with my passport inside) or my I-Pad.  How lucky!  The zip now has the lock engaged all the time.

Our hotel is lovely and we've got a little balcony with gorgeous views.

View from our balcony, Opera Saint-Lazare

We organised some glasses for John - amazingly the optometrists can do the lenses on the spot here - so no more Stevie Wonder.  I'll miss him not singing, "Isn't She Lovely", and "You are the Sunshine of my Life" tonight!!!

No privacy - the assessment is all done right out in the open!

We walked the neighbourhood to familiarise ourselves with our new surroundings for the next five days and got back to the hotel to a message that Myriam's Mum and Dad are arriving to see us tomorrow.  So till tomorrow ... stay well and happy.