Ready for the trip home—well, sort of. The morning began with the familiar ritual of zipping up the last bags, double-checking the suite to make sure nothing was left behind, and then heading out for one final Parisian breakfast.
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| Down to breakfast |
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| Looking up to the ground floor |
Our hotel served breakfast in what was once a noble family’s wine cellar, carved straight into the rock and lined with ancient bricks. The descent down the rustic staircase felt like stepping back through centuries of history.
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| View from our window |
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| Front of hotel |
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| Down to breakfast |
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| Street view Hotel |
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| Hallway in Hotel |
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| Breakfast in a cellar |
The spread was quintessentially French: baskets of bread and croissants, platters of cold meats and cheeses, fresh orange juice squeezed on the spot, steaming coffee, and a bright fruit salad. Simple, elegant, and delicious.
Paris greeted us with a cloudy sky, clear enough in the city center but fading into fog as we drove further out. Leaving is bittersweet—Cos could easily linger another week. This trip has been all about culture and food, with shopping happily left aside.
Our driver was delayed by a truck stuck in a one-way street, arriving ten minutes late. No matter—the journey to Charles de Gaulle usually takes 45 minutes to an hour, and we still reached the airport at 11:59 a.m., right on time.
Check-in was smooth, though we’ll need fresh boarding passes in Doha for the onward flight to Brisbane. Terminal 1 is strikingly modern: after passport control, you walk into a block of gates, each with its own security checkpoint. Signs are mostly in French and English , with French spoken by security, translations by hand signals—adding a touch of adventure to the process.
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| Airport |
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| Airport |
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| Airport |
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| Airport |
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| Airport |
Security was straightforward, and soon we were at Gate 30, not far from the checkpoint, waiting for the next stage of the journey.
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| Usual seat entertainment |
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| Up to deck 2 |
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| View from aircraft of the airport |
We boarded a little late, just before 3pm Paris time. Our aircraft (a beautiful A380-800 airbus) is a double decker, so we are on top deck seats 27A and 27B slightly trailing the wing and above.
3/4 of hour late before we moved to taxi. Due to overhead congestion of aircraft wanting to takeoff and land. Keen stay a little longer in Europe but not seated in a stationary aircraft. At 4:20pm we took off. 😊
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| Doha |
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| Doha |
Doha Dash: A Gate-Crashing Adventure.
We touched down in Doha an hour behind schedule, which left us with a mere 45 minutes to sprint across one of the world’s largest airports to reach gate C15. The terminal sprawls like a small city, so we hopped on the train and hurried through endless corridors, hearts racing as the clock ticked down.
Along the way, things got complicated. Staff insisted they couldn’t issue our boarding passes because check-in had already closed—though they only revealed this little detail once we arrived at the gate. The real snag had started back in Paris: the service desk checked us in for the Doha flight but claimed they couldn’t process the Doha–Brisbane leg since it was a joint Virgin/Doha ticket. Online check-in hadn’t helped either, throwing error messages and directing us to “sort it out in Doha.” Of course, with the delay, check-in technically closed while we were still in the air.
After another round of security checks, we finally reached the gate—just in time. The gate manager, who turned out to be Virgin’s airport manager, pulled us aside to break the bad news. Melissa stayed calm, but Cos… not so much. Let’s just say his frustration was clear.
Thankfully, after some firm but polite exchanges, the manager relented and got us onto the flight. The catch? Not in the seats we had carefully chosen. Still, relief washed over us as we stepped onto the plane bound for Brisbane.
In the end, it became yet another chapter in our ongoing journey—proof that travel is never just about destinations, but about the unpredictable adventures along the way. The magic question, do we still have luggage. 😊
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