Our transfer to Charles De Gaulle Airport demanded a pickup 4 hours before our EasyJet flight to Milan - goodness knows why because the ride took only 45 minutes and we were so ridiculously early that the bag drop wasn't even open! Our driver, a young Frenchwoman, was a terrible driver - on and off the accelerator every few seconds - and it was quite a relief to actually survive the frantic Paris traffic and get to the airport!
We waited for a lengthy period until the checkin opened and we could deposit our cases and move through the formalities to the departure lounge. CDG is a huge airport and with EasyJet being a budget airline, we were stuck in a very old and lonely corner of it - very little in the way of shops etc., but we found a Starbucks and had a coffee and a muffin for breakfast and then endured the boring wait until the plane boarded at 10.30am. Our aircraft was quite new and although everything was basic, it was comfortable enough for the couple of hours of the flight to Milan. Mumsie and I bought a drink and some snacks and in no time at all we were touching down again.
Due to the way Trafalgar has set up this tour we had to catch one of 3 time slots for the coach transfer from Milan to Baveno (about an hour north on Lake Maggiore). Unfortunately for us our flight arrived at 12.30pm and the 2nd transfer departed at noon, so we had a 3.5 hour wait till 4pm for the last one! No amount of schedule searching could get us to Milan's Malpensa Airport to enable a shorter wait!
We transferred from Terminal 2 across to Terminal 1 and found where the pickup would be and then with cases in tow we wandered a bit before finding a place to wait and grab some lunch! The hours passed very slowly and we were all much relieved when we saw our Tour Director at the meeting point and we could board the coach.
There were about a dozen others of our tour getting the transfer and to our dismay they were all much, much older than us!! Oh Lordy - a "blue rinse set" trip comin up! Two of them had unfortunately not read their info properly and had missed the earlier transfer and they got stuck into Sally, our Tour Director, in no short order! Totally unnecessary and not a good way to start our tour!
So with that little incident out of the way we hit the highway north - a quite interesting drive - until we reached the beautiful Lake Maggiore and the little town of Baveno on the shores of the lake. There had been a late change of hotel for us and we had been moved about 3kms down the road to the glorious little town of Stresa! We drove passed many very old but stylish hotels until we reached ours - the grandly named Grand Hotel Bristol! The foyer was full of ornate chandeliers, with gold decoration everywhere - very grandiose and our room was quite comfy although in typical Italian fashion it was lacking things like tissues and proper air- con!
After a freshen up we joined the rest of our party of 44 for a talk from Sally before headin for a local restaurant, right on the shore of Lake Maggiore, in Baveno for a Welcome Dinner. It was a great spot with views out over the lake towards the island of Isola Bella.
 About half of the group would be well over our age and some have severe mobility issues, so I don't think trip is going to be a barrel of laughs!
Our dinner gave us all the chance to introduce ourselves - and you would believe that three were actually 3 oldies from Bethanie Fields at Eaton - along with a majority of Aussies! Small world isn't it?
The meal was superb, the local wines were pretty good and we all enjoyed a good night!