The road to Paris

We had aimed to be on the road by 8, but that was always going to be wishful thinking. We were on our way well before 9 so that's still not too bad. We put our address into the GPS and Ken informed us that is was going to take a bit over 6:30hrs. That's not including stops.
Our first stop was at one of the many rest areas along the toll road.







These toll roads are just incredible, they are so smooth and fast, no bumps and I think I only came across one small pot hole. They were quite busy today and you have to always be thinking ahead - there is a car up ahead that is going just a bit slower than I want to, and a car behind me that is going a little bit faster than me. Will I be able to pass that car I front before the one behind wants to overtake me? It is a bit like playing Tetris for 6 hours at 130kph! Then it starts to rain and you are meant to slow down to 110kph, but then someone will pass you at 140kph and you didn't even see them because of the spray. I soon found out that the key was to stay away from other cars so I would speed up until I found a gap and stayed there as long as I could or until the gap filled up again.
We stopped at another rest area, went in and got a drink and had our sandwiches, that Rach had made, sitting in the car as it was still raining.
The next few hundred km just flew by and soon the rain had stopped an we were on the outskirts of Paris. The traffic in Paris is just as bad as in Toulouse except the roads are twice as big! We followed the signs to Disneyland and were at last at our hotel.
We have more stuff than the normal guest would have as we are actually homeless. We will not be going back to our apartment when we get back to Toulouse, but will be going straight to our house that we will be living at for the rest of our stay in Toulouse. It has however come in handy as the hotel unit is self catering but only just, so we are able to use some of our own items for home comforts.
After a yummy one pot wonder that Rach had cooked up, we headed to the Centre Commercial (mall) for ice cream. This would have to the biggest mall I have ever been to. It had every shop you could think of and then some more that you have never heard of (Rach probably knows them). It was 7pm on a Sat night when we got to the mall, and it was jammed packed.




We eventually came across one of my favourite shops when we lived in London. Ben and Jerrys
Ice Cream shop.








On our way back to the car we thought we would take a short cut, but ended up on another separate outside mall that had all the flash shops. In a bid to escape the shops we took another short cut that lead us to an identical carpark, but we ended up walking through a construction site to get back to the car. The kids are fast asleep now ( it didn't take them long) and we won't be too far off!
Tomorrow being Sunday I am going to drive right into the centre of Paris, we will then hop on a tour bus that Rach had organised that will show us most of the sites.
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