Lapland for the Polar Night, + Austria and France

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New year's day arrives and we're on a TGV to Paris.

The train is really moving.


This gets us to Paris Gare de l'est in about 2 hours. It's non stop all the way from Strasbourg.

Here of course pretty much everyone has to transfer to the Metro to get to their final destination.

A big tip here is to use the app and download metro tickets on your phone. Then just tap your phone at the turnstiles.

There were ridiculous queues of people 20-30 deep at the physical ticket machines. They were snaked back so far that it was actually difficult for people to walk past them to get to the platforms. Wild.

We boarded the metro and rode a few stops to Pont Neuf.

 

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We didn't have any specific plans in Paris. It was just a short visit because this is where I was able to find award seats for the trip home:
CDG - HEL - SIN stopover SYD

The French National Library is worth a visit

 

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The weather was cold but extremely clear. Probably the clearest sky I have ever seen in a major city in Western Europe.

This made for some spectacular sights outside the Louvre.

 

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Wrapping this one up, we have a lovely meal for our last night in Paris at Le Moliere, a small family run restaurant.



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Then the next day it's off to CDG to begin the journey home.

Our flights as far as Singapore are awards, followed by a paid connection on QF2 back to AU.

First up it's Finnair to HEL. There's a 5 hour layover, so we spend most of this Lounge Lizarding.

Then the long redeye through to SIN on an A350. One nice thing about the A350's on Finnair, is that they have a few "comfort" rows at the start of economy with an extra 3-4 inches of seat pitch. If you have OW status you can select these at no charge.

 

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We have a 2 night stopover at SIN, and our digs are the Pan Pacific at Marina Bay

This is a well located hotel, right next to a small mall and metro station. It's one stop to the MBS complex. Also good, you can now just tap your credit card to use the MRT! Haven't been to SIN for a while so I'm not sure when they added this.



Also next to the hotel is an alley called Nihon Street, which is known for its collection of Japanese restaurants. No one goes hungry in Singapore