23 June 2014

What a crazy morning….but it all worked out just fine!  John comes over to Europe via standby.  It’s very convenient and very inexpensive, but the “catch” is that you have to make sure that the planes aren’t so full that there are no seats left.  It wasn’t looking good from Dulles (in DC) to Paris, so John drove up to Newark.  There, he was able to catch a plane to Brussels.  The good news is that he made it.  The “oh my goodness” aspect was that he and I had no way to contact each other once he landed in Europe.  I really need to figure this aspect of technology out without paying the crazy fees Verizon charges.  I knew he was leaving from Newark because he had Whats-apped me from NJ. He made it interesting by not giving me the flight number, carrier, or time he was landing :o)

Luckily, I had wifi in the hotel so I was able to get online to see what was coming into Brussels.  United from Newark!  Yippee!  So, off I went to the train station to change my ticket to Paris and to buy a ticket for John so we could leave at 1217 in case we missed each other and needed to look for each other.  And, to buy a ticket from the airport to the train station for us both.  Do not get me started about US credit cards not having chips.  If they did, travel in Europe would be SO MUCH EASIER!  ARGH!!!

Made it out to the airport and arrived at the exit gate around 8am or so.  His plane landed at 7:40, so I figured I’d be way early.  Although the plane had disembarked and people were streaming out, John decided to change out of his uniform and into “civilian” clothes and he was a little later.  I was beginning to freak out a little when the crowd began to slow down!  But, we saw each other, thank goodness :o)

Took the train back to the hotel and let the kids, via technology, know John had made it.  Then, we went over to the train station to change our tickets to Paris once again!  The train left at 1031 and got us into Paris around noon.  Zippy little thing!  We had a compartment at the very front/end of the carriage.  It was the oddest thing….there were 8 seats and the main aisle in between with a door on both entrances/exits of the area of 8.  That meant that every time someone wanted to check on their baggage, or to go to the bathroom, or when the customs agents came through or when the ticket man came through or when someone wanted to randomly walk the car….door #1 opened & closed (woosh, urrrrr, clunk) and then door #2 opened and closed (woosh, urrrr, squeal, clunk).  John was exhausted and I was tired and no one in the car got any sleep at all.  It was seemingly a useless area with no need to have two doors.  There wasn’t even a “quiet car” notice, so who knows why it was how it was.

Eventually the train got to Charles DeGaulle airport and we got off in search of the car rental counter.  After walking a mile or so (I am not exaggerating in this case, CDG is HUGE!!) and going downstairs, we found the counter and proceeded to get our adorable little 2-door, Opel “Adam” car.  It looked sporty, but alas it had no guts.  But, it was a stylish beast, so that’s all that really mattered…..as people were zooming by us, we were able to look amazing!  Everyone was jealous, I’m sure, hahaha.  

The main problem with avoiding toll roads was that Tom-Tom decided to take us through Paris.  Not downtown, but along a ring road that was pretty much downtown.  Holy crap!  Luckily (??) for me, I’m used to driving on I-95/395/495, so a little traffic jam was par for the course.  But, ugh and yuck!

We had a place in Caen from where we would base our days.  We found it on homeaway.com/ vrbo.com.  It’s the same place we have our condo listed and we’ve been happy with the service.  We told Caroline that we would arrive around 4.  However, with everything that got changed, we quickly realized that we would be a bit later than that.

Aunt Barb let us borrow her European Tom-Tom and without it we would have been lost every single day!!  We punched in our final destination and asked to avoid the tolls.  Smart move as we saved oodles (yes, oodles!) of money, but not so smart in that it made us a little later.  The countryside was beautiful.  It reminded me of Iowa, mixed in with Nebraska.  Green, lush, crops (corn & wheat), and rolling hills).  But, more trees than those two states :o)

Eventually made it to Caen, where I had a meltdown about the parking.  To put it bluntly, I was a bitch to John.  I don’t know why he stays with me :o(  Anyhoo….after having my unattractive meltdown, which surely means I will need to go to confession for days….we managed to find the apartment.  Which was on the fourth floor with a narrow staircase.  Have I mentioned how much dang luggage I have???  Oh my goodness.  I left one of them in the car, as it had stuff I didn’t need.  That helped.  A little.  UGH!!

Cute little apartment.  One bedroom, tiny European shower, little kitchen….on a very busy street!  We opened up the windows to air out the place and there was a gorgeous breeze!  We settled in and went shopping for some breakfast food and water.  Came home, hopped into bed and I went right to sleep and slept for about 10 hours.  John, however, was kept up because of the bar crowd, so that made for a very tired boy on Tuesday.

No photos today, sorry!