Oh la la, it's Paris again!

Everything was going okay, but we eventually needed a stop to refuel, buy up on some edibles and go to the loo etc etc… and I’m so glad we did it when we did… We just pulled out back onto the highway and were happily toddling along when we saw it… brake lights in front of us coming on and traffic coming to a stop. Oh bugger another traffic jam. We came to a stop and watched as smoke began to billow from a vehicle about 400 meters in front of us. Luke and I got out of the car to stretch our legs (as was everyone else around us) and then we saw flames leaping into the air and a small “BOOM” something had exploded. Thick black smoke continued to pour into the sky and all we could think was “Geez, hope everyone’s alright and no one was hurt” and “oh boy, this is going to take a loooong time” We looked behind us and sure enough traffic was banking up fast. Fire engines, ambulances, police and later Hazard spill vehicles whizzed by us in great numbers and all we could do was sit here, waiting and waiting. We then noticed that a lot of the cars behind us were being incredibly illegal and turning around and driving down the one way street emergency lane. Then the cars in front of us began to do this and we were left wondering “do we do this too?” Behind us, about 400 meters away was a turn off, it just meant that we’d be going up a down ramp, but so was everyone else, and besides which it seemed that no one was allowed down this at the moment… so, after about an hour debating this, we decided to go for it. Max turned the car around and we whizzed up the road in the wrong direction and were instructed by police to head up the ramp. If the police were suggesting it then it wasn’t so bad to be doing it we figured later.

On the road again Max got us to our train station in time for the next train that left in an hour, so we head off on a small wander about the town looking through the windows as the shops were mostly closed being a Sunday. Time passed quickly and it was soon time for us to be getting on the train back to Paris. This meant saying goodbye to Max for the last time. It was hard. Max is such a wonderful, kind and friendly guy, we just wanted to bring him with us! It was sad to say goodbye to Max but know that we will keep in touch with him and will see him again sometime. We really think that he should come out to Australia, he’d love it there!

The train seemed to take FOREVER (reality it was only 3 hours) but it just seemed to trundle along at an incredibly slow pace. We eventually, after what seemed like eternity made it to our back packers and we happily crashed into bed that night and slept soundly.

written by  Chris and Emily on August 30, 2009 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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