
Our first dinner in France just 3 weeks ago.
We chose this for dessert. This yummy goodness features cream brulee,
ginger ice cream, double chocolate cake and espresso.
Hi, happy monday. I've been home a week now and am feeling much better than when I
last posted.
I feel more settled...I've completely unpacked as of a few days ago and now just need to find a place to put all my treasures. I will take pics eventually to share. I'll also be listing some of them on ebay in the next few days, Lord willing.
I thought I'd share bits of my first days of travel to get to france. I'd actually left my house at 4pm Friday Sept. 21st, eventually flying out of Portland to San Francisco. I caught a connecting flight to Boston and from Boston caught a puddle jumper to Raleigh Durham, NC where I was met by my parents who live in NC. My flight arrived around 10 am Saturday morn and I was so happy to see Mom & Dad. I'd slept on and off on all three planes but that's not saying much. My next flight left later that night and Mom was flying with me. We had 7 hours to kill so my parents had made plans to visit some close friends who lived near the airport. They let me borrow a bed and a shower while they went out to lunch. Such a treat! Actually sleeping horizontally!
I've slept a little and showered...but still wearing the same clothes...
*note to self....never again wear overalls on a plane...the security alarms get unhappy*
Upon checking in for our flight to London, I was told that we had a problem. Seems my passport had my maiden name for my sur name and my tickets had my married name. I stayed calm and eventually had my tickets updated using my maiden name to match the passport. phew!
The London airport was HUGE....after clearing customs we were released into this huge two story mall where everyone flying out would remain until their gate # was posted on the tv screens that filled the place - 45 minutes before departure. This was a hard one for Mom to swallow because she felt like she was dangling in limbo with no place to go....which was true. I was happy 'cause of the shops, relieved to find a starbucks and other than every muscle in my body being in pain from the 4 previous flights, was able to entertain myself. During the layover, I bought a westie magnet for Tami, a westie keychain for me as well as a wonderful round box of pink champagne truffles from Harrods. I browsed through an awesome book store, bought some funny postcards of the queen and prince charles, just big heads....found a shop that had Beatles souvenirs (Kimber's a huge beatles fan), I got her a box of ceramic beatles magnets. During my shopping time, my mom was exchanging US $$ for Euros, sitting on some benches reading a book and eventually guarding my carry on luggage. We had breakfast and then sat around more waiting for gate info. I sat and filled out 3 postcards for my girls and hubby, stood in a horrific line to buy stamps and by the time our gate was given, I grabbed my stuff, headed to the huge round post box, slipped the postcards inside and headed for the gate, TOTALLY proud of myself for mailing my first postcards before even reaching my final destination! (I'm postally challenged, btw) The walk to the gate was brutal....took ages to get the the escalators and once there, they were SOOOO TALL! we went up....walked a few feet and then went down another set. Once at the gate we had about 45 minutes to wait before boarding....(there were some delays, I think). While sitting together and chatting up an English woman who lives near Montpelier, I got a call from my hubby. He and Lily were just waking up. I put them on speaker phone so that mom could hear Lily (she's my dog) say "I love you". It's the kind of thing no one believe if they didn't hear it. Honestly, she said it clearer than she had ever done....my mom freaked! it sounds kinda like....."rrrrrriiiiiii rrroooo roouuuuuu!!"
Once it looked as if we would be boarding shortly....I began looking for my boarding pass....and looking...and then, the light bulb came on. I'd last seen my boarding pass when I was filling out postcards. I felt quite certain that yes, I'd dropped my boarding pass in the Post Box. I know me enough that I didn't freak out...things like this aren't too unusual for me. I got up, went to the desk, showed my passport and explained what I thought I'd done. The ladies at the desk totally cracked up and printed me out a new boarding pass.....phew #2.
The flight into France was the best one of the trip up to that point...not only did they feed us, all alcohol was free. Mom and I celebrated with 2 tiny bottles of champagne each. :)
oxox