Paris: 16 Oct 2006

It was 6.30am on 16 October 2006 when we flew to Paris. An hour earlier, we arrived at Coventry Airport to check in. Half an hour before that, a pre-ordered taxi arrived infront of our house to take us to the airport. Roughly an hour prior to that, we woke up for the final preparation, most importantly to warm the kids' milk. (So can anyone guess what time we woke up that morning?)

Sarah and Amar slept late the night before. We could tell Sarah was very puzzled when I asked them to wear day-clothes to sleep. Of course she has been informed the whole week that we were going to go on an aeroplane to Paris. She was ecstatic everytime we mentioned the word aeroplane or Paris.

When we woke her up at 5am, she was confused at first and let out a little cry. When I said, a taxi was waiting to take us to the airport, she suddenly got excited. I was quite worried that we were going to get angry stares by the mat salehs for taking young children out at very odd hours. At the airport, we saw two other families with babies younger than Amar. So pheewww! We were not the only ones with young children at that time.

We brought along just one 25 kg suitcase, two hand luggages and a push chair. At inspection point, we had to throw away a carton of unopened 500ml milk and the kids' almost finished vicks vaporub bottle was confiscated.

On board, Amar played with his magnet-sticker book for a while and fell asleep two minutes before take off. While Sarah was busy reading her activity magazine and occupied with the sticker booklet. Babah was also quick to take out his camera trying to shoot the sunrise.

The journey to Orly Airport (not the main airport in France) was only an hour and five minutes long. Our only suitcase was already waiting for us after we were cleared by the efficient but serious immigration officer. Then came our first challenge, how to get to our hotel? Although almost every signs have English translation, we still find it quite hard to get our orientation right. And expect people to reply to you in French when you speak to them.

Before our departure, we did a brief research on the transportation provided to get us to the city. Our choices were bus, train or taxi. We planned to go by train but if necessary came, we will take a taxi.

Hating the thought of changing a train to get to Gare du Nord (the nearest station to where we were staying), with our baggage and kids AND bulan puasa some more, we decided to take a taxi. The fare was only a slight more expensive anyway and we hope to arrive right infront of the hotel's entrance.

There was a short queue for the taxi. We saw a lot of 'luxury' taxis coming too. Audis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and they all looked like new taxis. And another 'was-was' came in my heart, if these taxis would charge extra - but at the same time praying that we could get a ride in a Kompressor.

The person queuing infront of us got a Kompressor. And we only got an old Peugeot. The taxi driver was friendly and spoke very good English. Our half an hour- 40 minutes ride in an almost KL traffic situation was very informative. He suggested we should take the underground (Metro) to get around the city and to watch for pickpockets(!) (We have been warned by our Paris guidebook about that too).

Along the way, we saw lots of grey buildings and not very clean streets. But that probably the driver was bypassing the main tourist points. And honestly it felt a little weird to be seating in a vehicle that drove on the right side of the road.

When we reached Gare du Nord area, we saw there were plenty of 'Halal' take-away restaurants. So you may imagine us surviving on fried chicken with chips for 3 days. (Only to Sarah's delight)

Just to let you all know, the taxi driver used to work in Malaysia for 3 years as a Chemical Engineer. He knew so much about Malaysia and lots of other things as well. That made us thankful that our journey to the hotel was bearable.

If you must know, we (read: Mama Sarah yang pandai-pandai) did all the bookings via the internet. It was an eye-tiring process to choose the 'ideal' hotel from hundreds of pages. To cut the story short (haha!) we limit our search to area near the Gare du Nord, a huge and one of the main stations in Paris. And from the research (and stories we heard from a blog-friend; Yus who have been to Paris before), there were lots of restaurants nearby too.

We (I, rather) decided on this particular hotel called The New Hotel. They had a special discount when I booked a triple room. Only after confirming and paying through the net that I was quite doubtful of the condition of the hotel. (My family had bad experience with internet booking hotel in London last year)

Babah said, we only need the room to sleep and most of the time will be spent outdoors anyway. So, I held on to his words should he complained later on.

Praise to Allah, we had a good first impression of the Hotel. We arrived slightly earlier than supposedly check-in time. The small lobby was very inviting with funny and friendly English speaking staff. We didn't mind waiting a little while while our room was being prepared. We were quite relieved to see a lift, obviously save our energy to carry the 2 kids and our heavy luggage.

We had a 2 double-beds room. (We paid for a special rate triple room! What a saving right?) It was decorated in orange and the view was the Gare du Nord itself! What more could we ask for? Sarah and Amar were of course happy with the warm orange appealing beds that looked bouncy enough for them to 'lanyak'.

Babah was very excited to go out again almost immediately. But I had something else in mind. (Tidur lah apa lagi) We agreed that Babah will get some time on his own and he could try out the Metro system first. Also, to familiarise where to buy food and milk for the kiddies. So off he went alone that afternoon, while the kids and I had a peaceful nap.

I intended to write the whole account of our day 1 in Paris. But I think this alone is too much for any normal being to digest. Therefore, I will continue next time.