We were set to depart from Manchester airport on the 0630 direct Air France to Paris Charles de Gaulle so we had to get up at 0330! Given I had only arrived in Southport at about 2130 the night before, and it was well past 2300 before we got to bed, we were a little sleepy.

Thankfully though, the check-in and the flight were problem free - no delays, no turbulence and Mum barely even noticed take off. Really, it was a dream flight for a first flight in 30 years…

We arrived about 0900 local time and collected our bags. Then we had to wait for a No2 Air France bus to take us into the city. Several appeared but either didn’t take any passengers or were full already. Eventually one turned up and we trundled down the Peripherique into the centre. We were dropped off at the Arc de Triomphe and from there, it was just a short walk to the hotel - it would have been even shorter if we had sussed out the short-cuts that we knew by the end of our stay.
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I had been promising to take Mum on a weekend away, involving a plane, for ages. She hasn’t flown since the days when planes were held up by sheer hope and sticky tape (the early 1970s) so we thought it would be good if I showed her the airport ropes so she would be more confident about taking Dad away on a winter sun thing at some point.

Anyway, after many false starts and then a very near abortion at the last minute, we finally set out for Paris very early one Saturday morning…

• Saturday 30th April 2005
• Sunday 1st May 2005
• Monday 2nd May 2005 (coming soon)

- written up August 2005