January 25, 2012

We arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 6AM (midnight –body time).  First thing, Sophie and I hit the ladies room.  Don’t know who needed it more? I put her pee pee mat on the floor and she was thrilled to use it. (TMI ? – oh well)  We then headed to Immigration first where they do passport control.  We sailed right through!!  After that, baggage claim where you wait and hope your bags all arrive.  There was some confusion by the announcer on the plane as to which carousel our luggage would arrive at, so people from the flight wandered between the two choices.  Our bags all arrived and thankfully they provide carts for luggage as we were loaded down.  Next, onto Customs where we were worried about getting through with my medication and the dog.  I had visions of every bag being opened and inspected ( I did pack an aerosol hairspray after all).  Then I had nightmares of strip searches and machine gun wielding guards.  I had all Sophie’s papers ready to show and expected to be taken to the French version of the USDA office.  Well, in France, you walk through and if they wave at you, you must stop, but if they nod, you just go on.  We got the nod, but wanted to be honest, so I held up Sophie’s carrier to make sure they saw the dog.  He smiled and said “Go on”.  WHAT ?......no one ever checked any of her paperwork on either side. Amazing!  I had been asking people to pray for a smooth way, but this was truly more than I expected.  I know if I hadn’t gone to all the work to have her papers in order, we would have been stopped.  So we’re in the country legally, Sophie I’m not sure about, according to the French government, she doesn’t exist!

As we walked from the airport to the attached train station with our mound of luggage and other assorted items I was once again welcomed with the “smells of France”.  For those of you who don’t know, I have a hyper sense of smell and bad or strong odors really bother me.  Well, as you pass people who obviously live in the train station and airport with all their possessions on luggage carts you can’t help but notice some funky smells.  Take the one lady drying her laundry along the radiators (oh yum) or the guy sleeping on the floor right on the walkway where you have to pass ( shudder). 

We then proceeded to a free bench, which was a rare thing, where we spent three hours waiting for our train.  It was then that my body started feeling really tired and it was sooooo cold.  So picture me at my finest…..tired, cold, uncomfortable, whiney, trying not to smell and waiting for what felt like an eternity.  I really don’t enjoy travelling, oh I like going, and I love being new places and seeing new people, it’s just the transportation side of it I hate.  I really don’t know how Ross does it week after week, year after year.

Getting on the train was an event in itself, we had to give up our luggage trolley, I wish I had a photo of us pulling and dragging it all.  Then, ahhhhh, I slept on the hour and a half train ride from Paris to Tours.  I pity the other travelers as I caught myself “snorfulling” several times.  That’s my word for when you sleep upright but must snore a bit and kind of choke yourself awake.  Yea, as we got off the train, a co-worker of Ross was also arriving and ran to help drag our things.  And, thank you SKF, they had arranged for a driver to pick us up. It was funny hearing them say our name, everyone here pronounces it Mac-cool-uck!!  The driver took us to SKF where they had a rental car waiting for us.  Then, finally after we had now pretty much been up the better part of 24 hours, we drove to our rental house in Luynes.