First Leg

France was wonderful, but it sure is good to be home.  I packed mostly long-sleeved items  thinking that the weather would be a bit cooler than it had been in OK. I took a light jacket, but hoped that the long-sleeves would be perfect. Well, the weather was perfect and the long-sleeves were a bit too warm. I was constantly pushing them up my arms. Most of the time the long-sleeves were fine, but now and then when in a crowd or warm area with no breeze, I overheated. We did lots of bike riding and walking and sometimes that overheated me. All in all, it was good, but sometimes I wished for a short-sleeved T-shirt and my sandals.

I'll start with my trip over to France.  I took Spirit Airlines to Cancun and then France airlines to Paris.  The Spirit airlines was cheap and not-so-comfy, but it was a short hop. The people on it were headed to Cancun and were in party mode. So it was loud. I kept thinking that it was similar to riding a bus to Cancun  - minus the live chickens.

Once in Cancun, I had to get my luggage, go through customs, and get to a different terminal. Customs was rather tough compared to other places. I kept thinking, "What are they worried that we are bringing into Mexico?" When I finally got out to the bus stop to catch the shuttle to the other terminal, I was accosted by taxi drivers. The first one told me that it would be 30 minutes before the next bus and it would take 40 minutes for it to get to the right terminal - and that I would not make my next plane. It totally freaked me out. Even though I knew he was scamming me, I was freaking a bit on the inside. I finally got rid of him, but more taxi drivers approached me. Each had a different timeline/story, but the gist was that I would not make it to my next plane if I did not pay $20 to take a taxi. I put on my best scowl and stink-eye to discourage the drivers. Eventually I got on the shuttle to the next terminal. Some other American ladies got on, too, and we shared our taxi driver stories.  I made it in plenty of time for my flight, but did not appreciate the hassle.

The flight itself was interesting. People flying from Cancun to Paris were mostly people from France.  No one seemed to speak English.  I did meet a Mexican lady who did not speak French or English, but we communicated in my bad Spanish and her bad English. Both of us seemed tickled to communicate at all. The flight was not that full, so I was able to stretch out across the seat row and sleep.

Once in Paris, I made my way to the train station to wait on Toby. I did some sketching and serious people watching. We eventually caught the train to Angers (sister city to Austin). We did it all without a hitch.