I have some catching up to do

Boy, do I wish I took a computer with me on our trip.  I've had a few people ask about it, and I find that already I am forgetting things.  Frankly, it isn't as much fun to play catchup as it is to write my thoughts when they occurred.

Nonetheless, my aunt has asked.  My friend has asked.  My other friend has asked, and my husband has asked.  I promised, and so, I'll do the best I can over the next few days to tell you everything that happened.

When we arrived at the airport, of course we were tired, and a little bit confused.  There were some familiar things with the language, but it wasn't all computing for me.  We made it through customs, had our passports stamped and walked through the door where most people hoped to collect their luggage.  That was the first time we were grateful that we only travelled with carryon.

No sooner had we been ushered through those doors when we were faced with a really big crowd of people, all trying to figure out what was going on.  There were two soldiers with lightweight rifles doing their best to usher everyone to another side of the room.  We took our two bags and moved outside, as it seemed there would at least be a place to run to if we needed.  We didn't know if there had been another terrorist threat (there had) or if there was a problem with the building.  We only knew that there was a whole whack of people all trying to move in more or less the same direction.

Outside, we welcomed the opportunity to breathe a little easier.  But that didn't last long either because there were lots of flashing lights coming our way, and I do not like flashing lights.We needed to find a way to leave the airport.  We had planned on taking the train, but how to get to it was the question.

And Martin found the answer.  He is the one who realized that the other side of the airport seemed to be open still.  So we dodged a bit of traffic, moved around a number of people as confused as we were, and walked over there.  From there, we found our way to the train station, which was located in the airport.  I bought tickets, and away we went.

Did I say how glad we are that we just took carry-on?

Paris is Pqris on a French Keyboqrd

I am sitting at our charming hotel trying to type on a French keyboard.  I do this sometimes at work but somehow the letters have moved around on me here.  That, or I am still not awake...

Our trip has already been interesting.  Part of the airport was closed as soon as we landed and had our passports stamped.  It would have been easy to panic but we did not.  There were a LOT of people being herded out and my French is not sufficient to comprehend more than a snippet here and there.  Martin decided that we could walk over to the other terminal and this is what we did.  Then it was time to navigate the trains into the city.  I started to relax after we successfully got tickets and directions.  We have enough French to manage and we are, naturally, making all sorts of mistakes.

We were tired but we knew better than just to go to sleep.  We checked into our hotel, and then we showered and changed.  After that we went exploring...we had lunch at a little bistro, and quickly moved inside just before our sandwiches arrived.  It poured and poured...and we were safely inside drinking wine.  What a delight.  It also made us slow down a bit.  Our walk later took us to the Eiffel Tower, where we declined repeatedly to buy any of the miniature versions that were being hawked everywhere.  We saw the boat that we will cruise on for our last night in France, and we enjoyed the busyness and atmosphere of little side streets.  It was perfect...until we started to trip over ourselves with fatigue.

We returned to the hotel early and fell asleep in moments.  12 hours later, we are feeling like we can handle the world again.  Today we are tackling public transportation again, as we are travelling south to Avignon and then a bit further south to St. Remy de Provence for our cooking school. 

I love adventuring!