We woke to an overcast grey Paris day; clouds were low threatening rain, which thankfully didn't set in until late afternoon while we were en route to Charles de Gaulle to catch our flight to Bristol, UK. Allan went out for fresh patisseries from the bakery while the others took their turn through the shower.  

As the weather threatened, we headed out for walk to Eifel Tower and we had plenty of time to pack later, as our flight departed 7pm; although we had yet to receive confirmation from Laure whether we could check-out late .  We went the route we were familiar, back down Rue Cler, along down Motte Picquet, passed the Metro subway to the Ecole Militaire end of Champ des Mars with the Tower at the river end.

While cutting across a car park, Susan was accosted by a scammer, although she wasn't aware he as scammer at first. Susan called me because the scammer had found a males gold ring, said it was too big for his fingers and did I want it; he was 'giving' it to us. I was not interested in this at all, suspicious after the hawkers of Italy. When I walked away the scammers revealed his purpose; he asked Susan for 2 Euro for a coffee. The ring was just a ruse to get her attention.

We got halfway along Champ de Mars, attempted to take a photo and realised the SD card memory had been left in laptop in the apartment!  Allan took a shorter route and was back within half an hour. When we reached the base of the Tower; no one was really interested in queuing for a ride up the Tower and wouldn't see much in the low cloud . The girls wanted souvenir. I tried in vain to persuade them that the souvenir stalls at the base should be the last place and we would find another shop on the way back or at the airport.  20 Euros later they both had pendants and Susan a key ring.

We made our way back to Rue Cler via Allan's short cut, passing many inviting cafes on the way, but we had to pack and confirm our checkout time. Back at the apartment, there was an email form Laure. We could check-out when we were ready and leave the keys in the mailbox. So we finished packing and went out for a café lunch. Our last café meal was at Café du Marche on corner of Rue Cler and Rue du Champ de Mars; we had a great meal and were well looked after by an English speaking waitress.

Our Parishuttle transfer was booked for 3pm, to meet us at the end of Rue Cler on the corner of Motte-Piquet. The idea being Motte-Picquet was more accessible and would save time. It back-fired; the driver didn't get the message about the revised pick-up and we lost about 20min. I was impressed by driver making up the lost time by using a traffic density cellphone app to avoid main routes and traffic build-up. Unfortunately when we reached a motorway we were undone again, crawling along due to road works and rain. We still arrived at Charles de Gaulle in good time, but the driver had to cancel his return pick-up .

Unlike Rome easyjet, the Charles de Gaulle queue was painfully slow and we risked missing the final check-in on our 7pm flight. There were a number of different flights to other parts of Europe in the queue, which was going nowhere; then, just in time, extra staff appeared and cleared the line - as if back from a meal break.

Our flight to Bristol UK was a short 75 minutes arriving 15 minutes after we left - we crossed a time zone. The weather also cleared as we headed east and had a nice view of the rolling English countryside into Bristol. Susan's sister Karen was there to meet us. All five of us and our luggage crammed into Karen's Corolla hatch and headed cross country for Bath via the back roads.

Just on dusk, we arrived in Combe Down on the outskirts of Bath where we were to stay the next three days with Karen and Hugh, daughter Kate who had joined us for a few days in Tuscany and was there from Milan, and son Jim was arriving from London tomorrow.