We were up early on Canada Day to finish our packing, dress, eat, clean up Eric's apartment, and catch our taxi to the CDG airport. Eric met us at 8:30 when the taxi he had called for us was there to pick us up from his place. We gave him back the keys and put our suitcases into the cab.
The cab driver was funny she called the traffic "catastrophique" as we tried to get to the airport. She ended up having to U-turn and take another route due to some road closure or accident. It wasn't clear what it was, but people were getting out of their cars and walking around, craning their necks to figure out why traffic was not moving, a strange spectacle.
We made it to the airport in about one hour. We checked in for our flight, went through border control (this time the EU lineup took longer than the non-EU lineup- note to self, use other passport when exiting Europe), went through security, and then went and found lunch. We ate a fine sandwich and pastry (Mmm lemon tart and rhubarb pastry! Imagine if you found something delectable like that in a Canadian airport, flying might not be such a chore anymore . . .) from Paul (we had eaten there once before in Paris in the Louvre when we had a snack) and then found our gate.
Bill woke up two mornings ago with a cold and was doing poorly by this point. April was still really congested and feeling awful from the cold.
This time we did not wait until the last minute to board the plane, so we'd have overhead compartment space to put our carry-on bags unlike on the way over when they were so full that we could only stash one bag and had to keep the other under our seats.
This flight we had two seats by themselves, with no one across the aisle and no one behind us. April had the window. We were right by the bathrooms which was sometimes annoying, but convenient for such a long flight and with both April and Bill in a dreadful, dripping state and sorely in need of Kleenex frequently.
We tried to stay awake to get on local time, but since we were both so exhausted from the trip and sick, we kept dozing off and then starting awake. Top marks to Delta for being cheery and friendly, but the food is dreadful (but there's a lot of it! We're talking snack, meal, meal, meal for a 9.5 hour flight)). We had half of a baguette, croissants, and a pain au chocolat with us from our local bakery, so we offset some of the abysmal food with these treats.
About nine and a half hours later we arrive in SEA-TAC. We had to go through U.S. Customs (the border guard made a joke about how could we be tired when we were Hepburns in Paris- it's just so natural, we should be in our element), pick up our suitcases, put them on another conveyor belt, and then go through security again (this time with shoes off.) Security pissed at Bill and April for not removing dirty Kleenexes from their pockets before going through the scanner and the security woman took it as an excuse to feel up April. No surprises there, April is always picked on in security for some strange reason.
We went and found our revised gate and planted. Bill was really doing badly and did not want to even eat dinner, but April said he had to eat something. He then made a request for fruit salad or maybe pineapple (oh yeah, that's easy in an airport), or fruit only and perhaps some fruit juice to wash it all down. It was clear to April that Bill had suddenly transformed from human to fruit bat on the plane perhaps as a result of jumping nine time zones all in one go. April went out and foraged for a fruit only dinner for Bill and was fortunately able to find a fruit salad with pineapple in it and fresh squeezed orange juice.
We boarded our Alaska/ Horizon flight to Victoria at 7:40 PM. We were careful through each take off and landing to suck on candies to avoid barotrauma of our ears since we both had bad colds (April got this coming back from Las Vegas one year- you don't want it- trust her).
We arrived in Victoria ahead of schedule at 8:07 P.M.. We collected our suitcases which both made it and then went through Canadian customs. We acquired a taxi and took it home watching the Canada revelers catching buses downtown.
We went out to pick up our treasured cat, Lamont, from April's cousin who kindly took care of him for three weeks, and then we returned home to crash just before 10:00 PM.
4.37 km walked today.
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| Waiting to board at CDG airport in Paris |
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| Goodbye last baguette |
