After our farewells to Francoise we set off for Brive . After having really fine days sometimes very hot we had our first rainy day today. This was a little disappointing as we were going to visit some gardens in Terrasson on the way to Brive. We thought it may clear by the time we got there but it just kept on and so did we! We filled up with diesel and allowed the rain to do the car wash for us. We found our way to Brive successfully and followed the directions to the railway station which brought us into the correct street for the hire car office. Wonderful - thank the Lord.
We booked into the hotel and were able to use the lift this time and took our bags to the room. We then returned the car - all in correct order. Phil very happy about this. We once again visited the Orange shop re our phones etc - the girl here was quite helpful.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a cafe for Kebabs and ice cream and Moroccan peppermint tea. All very nice except Phil not keen on the tea. We bought a baguette for the customary vegemite meal plus some pastries - they really know how to bake these in France. We decided on an early night as we were on a 5 am train to Paris the following day.
We slept fairly well . Went across to the station then we had two flights of stairs to negotiate to get to F platform - hooray we made it ! Even half an hour early.We settled into our reserved seats for the 4 1/2 hour journey to Paris Austerlitz . After arriving here we headed for McDonalds and egg & bacon muffins & coffee with milk. Our next hurdle was to get to Gare de Lyon to get the train to Charles de Gaulle airport. Directions on the computer at home seem so easy just a 10-15 minutes walk across the river . Not quite the same as being at peak traffic time dragging ones suitcase and carrying a back pack and hoping the tower you see in the distance is the right place. Fortunately it was and with help from a couple of 'angels' we arrived at the airport on time for our flight to Dresden via Dusseldorf. We left 1/2 an hour late but arrived fairly well to time , collected our bags and headed for the exit. It was so nice to be warmly greeted by Hanna & Hans .It was like 5 yrs since our last meeting had vanished, so great to catch up again .After a delicious soup meal we retired upstairs and slept wonderfully well - it was a long but enjoyable day.