Our last day in Paris and we managed to get a little sleep-in. When everyone was awake and dressed we headed into Montmartre, an easy (well if you discount all the steps … but it seemed fitting to end our trip with a final round of steps) walk from the apartment.
We headed to Hardware Societie for brunch (the same place we had been in Barcelona last weekend. They also have a branch in Melbourne so Mark can go next weekend when he is there and complete the set). As Scotland and Ireland were playing a RWC game at night, the place was crawling with Irish and Scottish supporters. There was quite a decent queue but they took our name and it actually moved very quickly. We ordered our food and enjoyed a delicious meal there – highly recommend it.
After brunch we walked up to Sacré-Cœur, which was just above the restaurant. It was teeming with visitors and a big queue to get in so we just took some photos from the outside as the kids weren’t that bothered about going in and Mark & I have done it before.
We saw the sinking house and then walked into Montmartre village where all the artists hang out. It was also heaving with people and had a great vibe. We looked around at the artists working and walked through all the pretty streets. We came across the La Maison Rose which is in a scene from the TV show “Emily in Paris” which we love.
We headed back to the apartment and left TJ there whilst the rest of us headed back to Rue de Rivoli as the sales assistant had left the security tag on a top Sophia had bought yesterday. It was an easy fix once we arrived and we moved on to Etoile to take Greer to an Equestrian tack shop. She was in seventh heaven looking at everything and trying on some new kit.
Once she was sorted with her purchases, we stopped at a nearby cafe for a drink and Mark popped in to a barber to get his haircut.
We took the Metro home and got our packing sorted. Our driver was due to pick us up at 7pm but was a good 20 minutes late as the roads were all blocked up due to the traffic and road closures for the rugby. Luckily we had allowed plenty of time as the journey also took us a lot longer than it should have.
Once at the airport, it was thankfully very quiet, we checked in and went through immigration. Mark took TJ and Greer to the lounge – we couldn’t use Koru as there is no lounge in Paris but as a Gold Star Alliance, Mark could take one guest and managed to get 2 of the kids in. Sophia and I opted to go and spend the rest of our cash in duty free.
We met up before the flight. It was a smooth flight to Singapore and we all managed some sleep. We had a few hours in Singapore before boarding our final flight home to Christchurch. All of the meals were decidedly average on the flights home. I can’t say we were overly impressed with Singapore Airlines this time around. The service was average, the meals very hit and miss and no WiFi (or very limited unless you are a reasonable member of their frequent flyer programme).
Everyone was happy to get home and have a decent shower and back into our own beds.
