ENGLAND TO FRANCE

Paris, France

Friday 13th

We're not superstitious thank goodness!!!!!

Day 128 - 130

We left Southampton after our one final last realisation that a pound is a lot of money. And that realisation came in the form of a 1 pound vending machine experience!!! While i was in the 'ladies' i saw a vending machine saying we could get two toothpaste chewies for one pound and seeing we had been waiting at the airport for FIVE hours i thought this might be a good idea!!

But! The vending machine took my money and that was that. No toothpaste chewies! Gosh i was livid. I was already cranky after waiting so long (i did email for 10minutes of those five hours to fill in time..and that cost 1 pound as well!) and that was the last straw.

I mean...when you think about it, one pound, is $2.50. Which is a loaf of bread. Which is two pieces of toast every morning for a week! It's 2 litres of water. It's a cup of coffee. IT's......day light robbery to have a pound taken off ya for no reason! Gosh, the last time i got upset about a thing like that was when i was in an internet cafe in Ireland and it was costing a euro for every half an hour of use. So i finished on the half hour..and went to pay, and he charged me because it was two seconds over the half hour...and he said it was only the cost of a "SIP OF COFFEE"!

At the time i felt like saying..well YOU bear the cost of a sip of coffee and don't charge me for half an hours use (1 euro) when i've only used 2 seconds of time.

What i hate is injustice!

And the pure fact that there are all these ripoffs that are here to test us. Especially in England..when the pound just about crucified us. Honestly, our budget was blown out by probably thousands...just the time we were in the country!

Okay..i've had my whinge!

We left the place that, yes, was beautiful, but yes, ruined our budget..and returned to Paris....

A place we both really love.

Just getting off the plane and catching the train was EASY. The train system in France is so wonderful. And cheap. In comparison to the UK...ok, we won't GO ON about this.....

But now that we're back in Paris..we realise just how cheap it is! VERY CHEAP.

Just our accomodation and train fares and food alone here in Paris is enbling us to get back to our 100 dollar budget (yes Andy - per day).

It took us an hour to get from Southampton to Paris. We landed at the Charles De Gaulle which took 40 minutes, and the train from the airport to paris took us 20 minutes.

JUST LIKE THAT!

We're here...

And our accomodation was all booked before we left last time..so it was wonderful comoing back to a familiar location..with all the quaint Paris buildings..the knowledge of the Eifel Tower looming beyond..fashions beckoning us...and...

SMOKE.

The one thing i noticed so much.

The fact that people smoke everywhere, anywhere and all over the place...We got a bit spoilt in the UK because the laws are in now that no public places allow smokers. It came in while we were in England, on July 1st, but it was already enforced in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. So we're noticing it again here....

But anyway...it was a great trip from England to France.

And we have A WHOLE WEEK!

Yay...