Day 8--The Journey Home



Our alarm did not go off as early as we hoped and our wake-up call did not come until we were just about the leave the room. So both of fail safes failed and we were a bit rushed to get to the airport in time to catch our flights.



It was with a bit of a depressed air that we left the hotel that morning, knowing that when we descended down into the underground Metro station we would not see the beautiful Paris again for a long time, if ever. We took just a moment to take one last look around. It was early, most everything was closed and we were almost the only people out on the street even though the sun had been up for a few hours. Sadly, we left the street and started our way home.



We took two Metro trains to a large station called Gare de Nord where we switched to another train system called the RER to get to the airport. While there I was whacked in the side of the face by a door and jammed my thumb so hard pushing a button that part of my nail tore off and started to bleed. This was not the way I wanted to leave Paris, but at least I did not lose my ticket this time and my glasses did not break when they went flying off from getting hit in the face.



The rest of the trip was uneventful, although we were slightly stressed for a few minutes because we weren't sure for a time whether or not we were on the right train. Thankfully we were, which turned out to be a good thing because when I finally reached the ticket desk at the airport to check in I only had five minutes to spare before they stopped taking passengers. That was cutting it close and I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I had been any later. I had to submit to a fairly thorough random security search on my way to the plane but I didn't care. The flight seemed especially long but at least this time they were playing some halfway decent movies. I hardly slept a wink though even though I had a whole row to myself this time and I got to completely lay down across the seats. I was cold and could not get comfortable. It felt like the plane had the air conditioning on, for what reason I can't fathom. All in all I was very glad to be home but had a wonderful time in Paris.



My only regrets: I wish I had been able to speak the language better. As I feared, I had a very difficult time understanding what anyone said to me in French. The next time I go, and I really hope there is a next time, I want to practice more on this before going. I would also have liked to get out into the surrounding countryside more instead of being limited only to Paris. Don't get me wrong, Paris is worth many vacations, but I know France has so much more to offer and it would have been nice to have the chance to see it. The only thing that I wanted to see in Paris that we missed was getting a chance to go into the catacombs, but they were closed for the winter. Too bad, but again, if I get to go again that will be on my list of things to do. This was one of the best vacations I have ever had and I would go again in a split second without thinking twice if the chance was given to me.