Baguettes everywhere

Hello everyone,

So it turns out that flying long distances is exactly as we remembered it, long. It turns out that I have not gotten any shorter and the leg room has not gotten any bigger. Add to that a French couple who refused to understand my explanation that if they put their chair back all the way, they were going to get a pair of knees right in the back. Christine as always my darling wife offered some of her space, but unfotrunately my body has not gotten any more flexible than our last flight and all the contorting in the world didn't produce a wink of sleep.

Tired and bleary eyed, we landed in Paris at 8:15 in the morning, a full hour ahead of schedule. This was a positive turn of events, and we rushed to the car rental counter to find we were first in line to get our car and get the heck out of the airport. It turns out our luck couldn't last for more than a few minutes as a bomb threat was announced and very serious looking French troops swarmed the airport to conduct a thorough search. We kept getting pushed back further and further from the rental check in counter as the search dragged on for what seemed like hours in our sleep deprived stupour (it was actually about an hour and half). By the time the ban was lifted we arrived 5th in line back in the counter and had to 45 minutes for our next crack at getting our car - a brand new VW Golf!

Now we enter the start of 6 weeks where we will alternate driving and navigating each other through Europe. We have an agreement up front that we are going to get lost a lot, yelled at and honked at by locals, and yes probably even a little annoyed with each other over poor listening/following direction skills.

Groggy as we were, Christine did a magnificent job of guiding us to the hotel, and we were able to see a bit of Paris as I drove around the outskirts of the city (we will definitely NOT be driving around the Arc D'Triumphe). Unable to check in because we were too early, we went out for a bit of sightseeing and have already spotted more under the arm baguette wielding individuals that we can count. We visited Napolean's tomb at L'Hotel Invalide and the Ecole Militaire surrounding it. Who knew that such a short guy needed such a large and imposing tomb -p but very beautiful.

On the Subway ride back to the hotel we had to take turns poking each other so we would not fall asleep and miss our transfers and stops. We have now checked into the hotel, got a 2 hour nap to try to tide us over to sleep tonight and are now ready to go and get our own baguette to stuff under the arm.

That's all there is at the moment.

Talk to you all soon!