This trip has crept up on me a bit, I suppose because we usually travel in September , not June. Neil’s been working lots of late nights to catch up on Tax lodgements before we go, he would never choose to travel in June normally but unfortunately the Allied leaders in WWII didn’t take Neil’s tax schedule into account when they planned the invasion of Normandy!
Thats important , because the whole impetus for this trip came from Neil’s desire to be in Normandy to see all the events and celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
So, 12 months ago we used Frequent Flyer points to book flights to Paris, arriving in time to spend a few days in Normandy before travelling on. I started looking into accommodation at that time, but rapidly discovered that even 12 months in advance we’d left our accommodation bookings a bit too late. In fact one hotel responded to my request with an apology that they’d been booked for “ the 80 th” three years in advance! However I did eventually find some accommodation, not right in the centre of the beach area but near enough.
So here we are on our way at last. We are flying via Tokyo again this year with JAL . With an early flight we decided to spend the night before at the Rydges hotel at the airport. Neil arrived home from work at 4.30 and hurriedly packed his carryon so we could set off. An Uber arrived and away we went… I don’t know what made me say it but as we were heading out of our street I jokingly said “ have you got the passports”… there was a brief pause before he replied No, I don’t! So back we went to collect them and tried again. I think it’s indicative of how rushed Neil was!
At the hotel we celebrated the start of the trip with some bubbly and a pizza and after a walk around the terminal headed for bed.
5 am is way too early to get up normally but it’s not unbearable when you are heading off on a trip. We are breakfast in the Qantas lounge and boarded only a little late.
We’d enjoyed JAL business class last year and the service was excellent again this time. It was a daytime flight so we arrived in Tokyo around 6pm to go through the usual tedious arrival procedures -lots of queuing! We stayed at the Royal Park Haneda Airport Hotel again, almost in the same room as last year. The rooms are tiny , but quiet and perfectly adequate for one night. After dinner in the restaurant we went for a walk all through the shopping areas and then ended up on the rooftop observation deck where we could see the fireworks from Tokyo Disneyland, a nice finish to the night!
Fortunately this year our onward flight was also leaving from Haneda so after a reasonably good night sleep we left and checked in for our flight to Paris .
After breakfast in the Sakura lounge with a great view of the planes, we went for a walk through the huge terminal .
There must have been a flight to London heading out as there were ground staff running through the terminal with signs saying “London” , clearly trying to round up stragglers. We Must have looked like a good bet as Londoner’s as three seperate times they made a beeline for us!
Our flight boarded right on time and we settled in for a long one , 14 and a half hours over the pole. I’ve never seen such a confused flight map on a plane before, it really didnt know what to make of our route.
Later in the flight I decided to try to have a bit of a nap and managed to get about an hour of sleep. Our arrival into Charles de Gaulle airport was a little early and I must say the arrivals procedures were very slick, much quicker than Japan.
However we then spent a confusing 20 minutes trying to find the free monorail shuttle that would take us to the area where I’d booked our hotel, the signage at CDG was a bit under par! Eventually we found our way and checked in to the Novotel. A free “loyalty” drink in the bar and a nice dinner in the hotel,restaurant finished our long transit. Tomorrow we finally get to start the holiday!
