Sunday, April 24th, Good-bye to Paris

The Good: Learning more French than I thought possible

The Bad: I’m not quite ready to leave

The Ugly: the confusion and chaos in attempting to find our gate at the airport. Yikes.

We ate our last French breakfast this morning. We gathered our bags. We walked to the gathering place to wait for our “coaches” to take us to the airport. We loaded the coaches, boarded the coaches and we were then on our way to Charles de Gaulle International Airport where Air France would take us home to Los Angeles. We got to the airport 2-1/2 hours before our flight would leave, giving us much time, to kind of relax, hang out, whatever, before the plane left. So little we knew then.

So by this time, I had informed our “guide” that I’d had my minor heart “event” and she was so very helpful with the girls as well as our bags. It was great. However, we were sent to four, yes four different areas at different ends of the terminal (two terminals) to check-in for our departure. It was some walk! Finally, in some dungeon/basement area, we got to a check-in line and waited. And waited. Finally, we did actually check in, and then we had to trek up to the boarding gate.

We had very little time to wait before Air France officials announced boarding. I had asked if we could pre-board because of having the 3-year old, and the very nice staff member came and got us to pre-board us, plus a few others with small children. It was great boarding a nearly empty plane with all of our things.

Whew! We had done it! Eight days in Paris and no really huge mishaps that couldn’t be handled. We made it onto the plane on time and would be going home soon. Or so we thought.

The plane sat on the tarmac for what seemed forever, but was actually an hour and twenty minutes before we could taxi and get cleared for take-off.

But we did take off. We flew over France, over England, over Greenland and the Arctic Circle, then began the slight descent over Manitoba, then Montana, Colorado, and finally into California airspace.

When we landed, there were a couple of sharp turns, one apparently accommodating for the other, but the plane did settle into a normal taxi’ing pattern, and then the whole back of the plane applauded.

We were back in Los Angeles!! YAY!! Home!! Scott left the three of us with the bags while he got the car from the parking structure. While we waited, we saw a bomb-sniffing dog inspect a huge package that had been left on the sidewalk, and also we saw an accident between a taxi and an SUV. Lots of activity here at the airport!

We got home with all of our bags, both of our children, and the two of us. We were happy to be home, that’s for sure. But we also all loved Paris (and London, too), and all the great touring we got to do.

Even with the mishaps of our French adventure, we still ranked this a 93% successful trip.

So I’m home now, and will return to my regularly programmed boring blah-blah.

There you are hereby updated on my trip to France. Too much info? Too bad. Skim it. Thank you to the four (or maybe five) people who have read this far. Please do comment, email me, let me know who you are in case I want to respond.

Good night!

Bon nuit!