The Rest of the Story...

So this was NOT a photo we expected to take on our European vacation.

Our itinerary called for us to fly from Paris to London, London to Seattle, and Seattle to Medford. Our flight from Paris was delayed about 30 minutes. While still in the air, a flight attendant came to our seats to inform us that we had missed our London connection. (I have to admit that British Airways attention was amazing. We have never received service like this on an American airline.) The flight attendant assured us that they would take care of us and told us that an agent would meet us at the gate in London.

When we landed in London, the same flight attendant escorted us off the plane and connected us with an agent who sent us to a rebooking desk. We were quickly rebooked on a flight from London to Las Vegas with a connection to San Francisco then Medford.

Ahh...all was good. We were actually scheduled to arrive home 10 minutes before our original flights!

We had to run to our gate in London, only to find that they had two long lines for boarding, one for women and children, one for men. Everyone was frisked and carry-ons were searched. We had already been through the traditional security check! This delayed the flight a little, so when we landed in Vegas, went through customs, and retrieved our luggage, we had to run to the domestic terminal. We arrived at the United desk and tried to check-in at the kiosk, but were too late. Our flight was closed. Deja vu! We returned to the British Airways desk in the international terminal. They rebooked us for the next day, reserved a hotel room for us (and paid for it) and ordered a shuttle. The service was amazing.

After being up for 24 hours straight, things weren't all bad. We got a good night's sleep (nope, no casinos - too exhausted) and were up for the 8:00 AM flight to San Francisco. All went smoothly and we were home by noon on Saturday.

A week later, we were pretty much readjusted to pacific daylight savings time, sorting through 3,000 photos and video, and loving our memories of a fabulous European adventure.

...and now, you know, the rest of the story.

We'll always have Paris.

Dear Friends,



This is our last blog entry for Paris. So sad. It has been a fantastic adventure. There is so much to see that we have not seen, we know we’ll be back. Most of the fountains were still off for the winter and the gardens didn’t have much greenery or flowers. It was amazing how much some of the trees leafed out while we here this week. In a few weeks, there will be green everywhere, another reason to return.

The French sure know how to serve a continental breakfast. We went to a café we had not been to before and were surprised by what they called a continental breakfast. It came with two fried eggs, half a grapefruit, croissant, baguette, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. I guess it depends what continent you’re on. We were stuffed.

After breakfast we spent the morning at the Pompidou Center of Modern Art. There were some works that were not quite our cup of tea, but it was definitely interesting. We then spent some time exploring the area around the Pompidou while we waited for Nikita and Katrin (Nikita’s boss from last summer in Medford) to arrive. Katrin was coming in from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Nikita was meeting her in Paris for the day before they headed back to Rouen. We had lunch with them, fondue again (yum!), in Little Athens, and then headed up to Montmarte via the Metro.
The weather was gorgeous at Montmarte and there were people everywhere. The many steps heading up to Sacre Couer were lined with people just enjoying the sun and the entertainers. We toured around looking at the art work and small shops and shot more photos. Katrin and Nitita had to catch a train to Rouen, about 5:00 PM. It was so good to see them, it was hard to say goodbye. We have really missed Nikita. Who knows when we’ll be able to connect again. We walked around Montmarte some more, had a delicious gelato, and then headed back to the hotel to rest the feet a bit before heading to dinner.

A French Italian dinner hit the spot tonight with a gelato chaser and a walk around the town before returning to our room to pack (ugh!). Over dinner we talked about our observations and surprises for our first visit to France…here are some of the things we came up with.

• Cafés are everywhere. Almost all of them are open for breakfast lunch and dinner. Seating is very tight and you often are sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone you don’t know. In France, no big deal. No one freaks out about their personal space. Also, when sitting outdoors in a café, people are typically sitting side-by-side facing the street, the ultimate people watching spot.
• A basket of sliced baguettes are served at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner regardless of the cuisine being served. Mansy French dishes come with frites (french fries), at least in the cafés. Many dishes, including some pizza, are served with a fried egg on top. Crepe stands are everywhere – come on America, let’s get with the program!
• The French don’t serve lattes and mochas, unless it’s at Starbucks. In French cafés it’s café crème, which is coffee with steamed milk.
• In restaurants, the server brings a handheld credit card machine to your table. Your credit card never leaves your sight. Awesome idea that really needs to take hold in the States. Tipping is not expected in France and there is no spot for it on the credit card receipt…interesting.
• It’s not uncommon for men and women to share a restroom, once again in France, no big deal.
• In Paris, more French speak English, and sometimes quite well, than we were lead to believe. Most were also willing to speak English. Katrin commented today that when she was learning French, she purposely did not come to Paris because the Parisians were all too willing to jump into English when she was struggling with the language.
• It’s common for people to NOT pick up after their dog. This is quite nasty on the city sidewalks.
• Men aren’t afraid to wear color. We saw lots of purple and lavender, as well as red. Women do wear real fur in France, but not excessively. Almost everyone, men and women, wear scarves both for warmth and fashion. (Rich had to buy two, himself.)

I’m sure there are many more things that will come to mind as we travel home. Although this is our last blog from Europe, we hope that we will continue to have more opportunities to travel. With opening a restaurant, things will change for the next year, but hopefully we’ll be back on the road again soon.

To all of you who faithfully read our blog every day, merci beaucoup. We are so pleased that we were able to share this special time with our special friends and family.

Au revoir! We’ll see you at home soon.

Love,
Rich & Will