Day Eighteen - Jun 29, 2014

Haltwhistle, ENG to Paris, FRA

High Point: Mathilde's 8th floor walk up

Low Point: Our requisite level of confusion navigating the Paris metro

Miles By Foot: 3

Miles By Plane: 446

Miles By Train: 61

Today's Antiquities: The Eiffel Tower out the window

Today's Weather: Overcast in Haltwhistle, in the low 60's. Sunnyish in Paris

Tonight's Lodging: Mathilde's Amazing Flat

Daily Didactic

A good old fashioned travel day. We got up late and had breakfast in the Ashcroft dining room. It was a spectacular English Breakfast. We had a plane to catch out of Newcastle (about 45 minutes away) at 5:00, so there was no hurry getting on the road. After breakfast, we took our own walking tour around Haltwhistle for a hour or so. A quintessentially quaint English countryside town, it didn't take much time to exhaust it. We settled back down in the Ashcroft study for an hour or so before walking to the train station for the 1:30 train. The train was quick and deposited us at the central Newcastle station, where we transferred to a train that took us on to the airport. We deftly got to our gate with about an hour to grab a bite to eat, before our short flight to Paris. After spending the entire hour working around a poor young waitress who really should consider a career change, we boarded our flight. Finding ourselves in Charles De Gaulle airport a little before 8:00, we navigated passport control, the airport, and an instructional experience on the Paris Metro that put us at our rented flat only 10 minutes late, which was something of a minor miracle. We followed our host's advice for a really great Italian dinner at a nearby cafe and then settled in for the most amazing view we may have ever had in road lodging.