One more from me...
Not that I have to have the last word, but I had some additional stuff to share.
When we were on the train from Dijon, I tried to get a video of how fast that train (TGV) goes:
As Dan has mentioned, we had traditional French fare for our last dinner, and Dan was so excited to finally get this croque monsieur.
We woke up to a rainy but still beautiful view...
...and took our ride to the CGD airport. Let me say this: If I had to drive in Paris, I would slit my throat. That's not an exaggeration. The traffic is awful, and the drivers are nuts. Our driver on Tuesday morning was just as cool as a cucumber, negotiating a mercedes van around. Maybe you get used to it, but I'm amazed that there's not at least one story a day about someone getting killed in a road rage incident.
We almost didn't make it through the check in, because our passports and our Delta names don't match. Not a problem in the US, but the French lady at the Air France counter was not having it. We've not flown Delta in so long that I guess I didn't even think about it. I know that I had to enter our full names when we booked the tickets, but our frequent flyer names are different. Just something to look for.
We made it to our plane just as they were boarding (some AirFrance big-ass, double-decker plane - and we were on the top floor... had a great view - HA) and settled down for the nine-hour flight.
I don't know much about physics (except that this ^ is a fulcrum), and I really don't understand how a small plane - much less one that big, with that many people - gets and stays in the air. It's amazing. There was someone behind us who had a crying baby almost the whole time. I felt sorry for them as well as for the people sitting near them; we could hear that poor little thing even through the noise-cancelling earphones!
Landing in Atlanta, which is a huge, international airport, we expected the automated customs procedure: go to a kiosk, scan your passports, take your photos, and move on. But NO. ATL is not yet set up for that, so we stood in Disney-like lines for about 45 minutes, and our lines were shorter than the non-citizen lines! They did not have the customs area fully staffed, so we waited and waited... to have our passports checked and our photos taken - again. Ridiculous. When we finally got to the baggage claim, all of the luggage from the flight (of 500+ people) had been moved off of the thing that goes around because we were in customs for so damned long. Then we re-check bags and get to our next flight.
Air travel used to be so much fun.
We flew into the sunset, following it all the way from ATL to MEM, where Cody picked us up. We got home around 9 PM, which was 4 AM in Paris. And that was it. We were back from a marvelous trip. I'm ready to plan the next one. :)
When we were on the train from Dijon, I tried to get a video of how fast that train (TGV) goes:
In Paris, we walked to our hotel - about a 30-minute walk - and were thrilled to see the view, which Dan posted earlier. Here is my pano shot:
We woke up to a rainy but still beautiful view...
...and took our ride to the CGD airport. Let me say this: If I had to drive in Paris, I would slit my throat. That's not an exaggeration. The traffic is awful, and the drivers are nuts. Our driver on Tuesday morning was just as cool as a cucumber, negotiating a mercedes van around. Maybe you get used to it, but I'm amazed that there's not at least one story a day about someone getting killed in a road rage incident.
We almost didn't make it through the check in, because our passports and our Delta names don't match. Not a problem in the US, but the French lady at the Air France counter was not having it. We've not flown Delta in so long that I guess I didn't even think about it. I know that I had to enter our full names when we booked the tickets, but our frequent flyer names are different. Just something to look for.
We made it to our plane just as they were boarding (some AirFrance big-ass, double-decker plane - and we were on the top floor... had a great view - HA) and settled down for the nine-hour flight.
I don't know much about physics (except that this ^ is a fulcrum), and I really don't understand how a small plane - much less one that big, with that many people - gets and stays in the air. It's amazing. There was someone behind us who had a crying baby almost the whole time. I felt sorry for them as well as for the people sitting near them; we could hear that poor little thing even through the noise-cancelling earphones!
Landing in Atlanta, which is a huge, international airport, we expected the automated customs procedure: go to a kiosk, scan your passports, take your photos, and move on. But NO. ATL is not yet set up for that, so we stood in Disney-like lines for about 45 minutes, and our lines were shorter than the non-citizen lines! They did not have the customs area fully staffed, so we waited and waited... to have our passports checked and our photos taken - again. Ridiculous. When we finally got to the baggage claim, all of the luggage from the flight (of 500+ people) had been moved off of the thing that goes around because we were in customs for so damned long. Then we re-check bags and get to our next flight.
Air travel used to be so much fun.
We flew into the sunset, following it all the way from ATL to MEM, where Cody picked us up. We got home around 9 PM, which was 4 AM in Paris. And that was it. We were back from a marvelous trip. I'm ready to plan the next one. :)
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