After a whirlwind 2 days in Tokyo, our first taste of Japan, we were all a bit sad to leave but very excited to heading to Paris and the start of our European Christmas adventure.
We had an ungodly 4.50am alarm set for our trip back into Haneda airport. We’d decided we’d try and get the earlier of the 2 direct trains. We got packed up quickly enough, but in our coffee deprived state I had put Anto’s transport card in my pocket and the 2 minutes of searching for it meant we were a bit late leaving and we might miss the connection, so Anto decided we’d go with one of the train options that involved a change. This meant slightly more walking and somehow stairs with bags, our least favourite thing, especially in the dark.
We had put all our coats on for the walk to the train as it was supposed to be cold, and we figured we’d need them when we arrived in Paris. Anto and I quickly warmed up (a bit too much) with bag dragging and by the time we made the train were cooking.
For our 2 days in Tokyo, Soren had been hanging out to go on a monorail. It turns out our revised route had the monorail, much to his delight. Astrid and Zinnia on the other hand were not a big fan of the sideways tilt and were looking rather green! The only one grinning while tilting over looking at the lights of the airport appearing was Soren….
Reunited for breakfast…
We made it on schedule to Haneda airport around 6am. We located our other large suitcase from the luggage storage, very glad we’d packed so we didn’t need to drag all the bags into Tokyo for our short stopover.
After some tedious checking in we made it to the JAL lounge about 6.30am and found Di and Max and some much needed food and coffee!
It had only been a matter of a few days since Di had done the early morning emergency drive to Sydney to drop us to the airport when our flight was delayed, but now we were finally in Tokyo together and Paris bound….
Boarding was just after 8am and we were a bit late taking off but settled in with some movies and some beautiful sunny views of Tokyo as we jetted off.
Farewell Japan….
Our Premium cabin was pretty empty for this leg, and with a 14 hour flight ahead we were appreciating the leg room. Di and Max were up in Business class, living it up. But sadly for the kids they were stuck with us, although attempted to pay them the odd visit, much to the business class hosties annoyance.
Zinnia got an amazing kids meal. The JAL kids meals are really cute and also huge! The rest of us also weren’t starving. Although the food in business class did seem to be better, the premium and economy was certainly better than many airlines and we were enjoying the local cuisine.
An unexpected detour…
We noticed when we left Japan, we immediately took a flight path that was going over Russia towards the North pole rather than the traditional one over Europe. With so many conflicts in Europe and the middle East we could understand why.
By 4-5 hours into the flight we had to try and get some rest, as it was going to be a very long day before we made it to Paris.
An Aurora Spectacular…..
As we headed up to the Arctic Circle, about 6 hours into the flight, we were all awake again (I hadn’t actually slept, just closed my eyes for 10 minutes). We had the window blinds closed but a hostie had come around to tell us there was aurora out the window. Cue much excitement and my camera being whipped out quick smart.
We’d been lucky enough to get some Northern Lights a couple of nights during our motor home adventure around Iceland back in 2018. But this was much stronger than those auroras.
We all spent about an hour fiddling with camera settings to get some amazing shots and our faces pressed against the plane windows watching the lights dance on the wing.
The kids had run up to business class to alert Di and Max to the show out the window. We all felt very blessed to be able to get such an show just en route to Paris. First Mt Fuji flying into Tokyo, and now Northern Lights on the way to Paris. Spectacular!
With the general excitement of the aurora, and an essentially day time flight there was not a lot of sleep for anyone in the 14 hour flight time. Due to our amended flight path, we crossed the date line multiple times before Arctic Circle and had actually been in darkness for some of the time (not that it helped with the sleeping). Finally there was sunrise a couple of hours before landing, and it was almost time for Paris!
As we were coming into Paris our flight path did look rather amusing……
Hello Paris…
As we landed in Paris we established none of the 7 of us got a lot of sleep in the 15 hours, so it was more of a case of ‘stay awake in Paris’ than ‘wake me up in Paris’……
Soon we were off the plane and finally admitted into France. A slightly petulant immigration officer confronted the Wuth’s, but they did let us in, eventually! Luggage was collected and 7 travel passes sorted and it was onto the old familiar RER B. It had been 5.5 years since our last visit to Paris but not much had changed other than everything seemed cleaner, post Olympics!
Despite landing around 3pm local time, by the time we got onto the RER it was almost 5pm and dark. It was rather quiet when we loaded on with all our suitcases but not for long, as we hit peak hour and we were quickly packed like sardines.
Anto resumed his familiar job of sitting on piles of bags while I kept jet-lagged kids awake in the crowds. Zinnia noted she couldn’t understand most of what people were saying but continued to practice how to order her croissants in French for the morning. It was around 8 degrees in Paris and we were definitely feeling the cold so the coats were on. How we’d scoff at those temperatures later in the trip.
Having been to Paris many times, we at least knew where we were going when we got off at Les Halles. There were plenty of Christmas lights and we were excited to explore our familiar haunts once we’d had some sleep!
After our couple of days in Japan where everyone is super polite, including on public transport, we were quickly reminded that is not the case in France. We reminded the kids that unlike Japan people will not politely let you up the escalator with you giant suitcase, you need to push and go….. Soon we had the bags to the apartment and quelled the fighting of tired children while Anto went off to collect the apartment key. We’d picked an apartment in our favourite 2nd Arrondissement and knew these streets well.
We made it to our apartment by 6pm local time, which felt like 2am in Tokyo….. No one was up for a late night but we were in Paris and needed to eat so head out for dinner supplies, which of course had to be baguette, French butter and cheese!
You can’t beat the freshly baked baguettes and delicious French butter! We might have been tired but we’d made it and the Christmas adventure had begun.
After more than 24 hours awake for most of us it was off for some actual sleep…. The kids were all asleep by 8 and Adults by 9. We were more than happy to see an actual bed. Paris adventures were in store for the morning…..
Up next…..
Our first day in Paris saw us checking out amazing Christmas windows, engaging in some retail therapy at Galeries Lafayette and eating our way through plenty of delicious French food!
