A very long travel day of over 13 hours, while the bus stopped in Bordeaux and Tours to pick up and drop people off I wasn’t keen to quickly run around during the short stay as my mind was already on the next leg.

When we got in Paris it started pouring like in a mayor storm, I haven’t seen rain since Cape Town.   Luckily it stopped just as I got off the bus for the last time.   I did however get to see Sacre Coeur which was near my hostel.   You get great views of Paris from this location.   Our guide had warned us about the Africans who will try to tie string to your hand and make you pay.

Saturday
Off to the airport well in time however at Paris Airport I don’t get lounge access and I really missed this.  I think I’m getting tired. An uneventful flight on Finnair to Helsinki (lunch was good) left me waiting around at the airport waiting for Trafalgar representative, just as I was worrying (I didn’t have a map or idea how to get to hotel) he showed up.

We had a welcome drink (local beer for me) and I was introduced to my follow travellers.   There are 19 of us and while my guess on the average age was right there were three girls under 27 (one 17 travelling with family, another with dad and the other by herself).   Still I’ve gone from at the top end of the age group on BusAbout to being about 15-20 years under the average age on this tour. The really good news is I got a room to myself despite only paying for shared accommodation.   Being the only single guy in the group and the company not mixing genders got me this special bonus.

I watched the World Cup final in my room which finished around 1 am local time and the sun was still up!