Our last day in France was somewhat different to how we’d planned. We arrived at the train station at CDG at 8.30am, expecting to buy a ticket, head into Paris for a few hours, then return to our hotel at Roissy-en-France to have a shower, finalise our packing and be at the terminal in plenty of time for our late night flight. But no. Instead we found crowds of people milling about, the platforms deserted and armed police on high alert, due to a security scare.

We very quickly decided that Paris could wait until our next trip. We’d rather stay out of harms way and spend the day in Roissy instead. It’s a pretty little town, with plenty of café’s, restaurants and shops, so it was not difficult to fill in our time and, in retrospect, made for a much more relaxed day.

Once we arrived at the airport, later that afternoon, the usual holdup at immigration (16 gates in total, only 2 open and several hundred travellers in the queue….it begs the question, doesn’t it? But this was CDG and we’re used to it now), plus an unforeseen delay due to malfunctioning sales tax declaration machines, meant that it took nearly 2 hours before we were comfortably seated on the other side, ready for our flight. Thankfully, given our past experiences at CDG, we know now to always allow much more time that really should be necessary before departure so, while a 2 hour holdup seems ridiculous, we still weren’t in any danger of being late.

Our flight home was very comfortable, if such a long trip could ever be described as such.  We had a stopover of nearly 5 hours in Seoul, so made our way to the transfer lounge, which offers a nap room, massages, showers and a great cafe, so it was certainly no hardship at all. And, as our next leg home to Brisbane was only half full, I was even able to stretch out and sleep, which is almost unheard of for me!

So, now we’re home and, after suffering dreadful jetlag, have settled back into life in Brisbane. Those who know us very well, understand that the lead up to this trip did not go as planned, with some unexpected challenges thrown our way. While our time away helped, it did not provide any resolution, so we’re still finding our way. Life throws some curve balls sometimes, but ours are nothing in comparison with others, so we consider ourselves fortunate.

Bienvenue en Australie!