Le Bourget

We are in Le Bourget to spend two days at the 52nd Paris Air Show. This is a nostalgic excursion for us, because our last visit to Le Bourget was on our honeymoon, thirty-two years ago! 

We are having a great time. Our hotel is only fifteen minutes walk away from the entrance gates to the air show. It's a very smart and comfortable hotel called the AC Marriott, and it has a gorgeous open air roof top bar and terrace overlooking the airport - far to the south you can see tiny outlines of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur! I presume that most guests this weekend are here for the Air Show; when we checked in we were given a tiny pair of binoculars as part of our welcome pack which was a nice touch. 

This morning we were up bright and early to go round the exhibitions and static display before the flying display began at lunch time. When I was getting ready in the bathroom before breakfast I wondered why James wasn't telling me to hurry up as he usually does. I went through into the bedroom and found James standing at the window transfixed by all the planes he could see from our runway-facing room! It reminded me of Tom watching birds through the window at home!

James loves aeroplanes and I was delighted to see him enjoying himself so much as we strolled around looking at all the planes. We listened to a really interesting wee lecture in the European Space Agency exhibit about how to launch satellites and we saw a presentation about the Ariane 6 and the Vega. We had prudently booked seats in the grandstand which was very comfortable and gave us great views of the flying display. It was really warm - almost too warm - but saved by a light breeze. The display went on for about five hours; the highlights for me were the F35 (which I saw with Ally last July at Rosyth) the A380 and the Rafale, but there were loads more. I enjoyed the display, but during any lulls in the action I read my current book (Assassination Vacation) on my Kindle. James says he didn't mind this at all.  We nipped back to our hotel to watch the last hour from the roof top bar while sipping cocktails. Excellent day!