With the arrival of Friday morning, there is more than just fog in the air. The excitement and, of course, a whirlwind of activity that goes along with 6 people packing, having breakfast, and getting in the car so we don’t miss our TGV from Bordeaux to Paris/Montparnasse is measureable. There’s a noticeable air of giddiness about going back home which, from my standpoint, is seriously tempered with a sense of sadness about ending this great trip. This France portion of my blog has been such a wonderful labor of love, I wonder if I keep writing about our trip that, maybe, it just won’t end. But, even “crazy me” knows that’s not gonna’ happen.
From a practical standpoint, we’ve learned a lot from our trip to the house just days earlier(direction: Paris to Bordeaux and onward to Pey Au Bruc). Getting sandwich fixings to eat on the train are a must, to avoid the awful and very pricey food sold in the “bar car” (as it turns out, this was not only a great idea, it was a salvation. The announcer on the train, as we are underway, lets us know that there will be no food/bar service on this particular train….can you imagine if we’d counted on buying food???). From our arrival into Bordeaux, David and I also know where to leave the girls and the luggage AND where to return the rental car. All this gets done and the move to the “voie” (platform) for our departing train goes “smooth as butter”. Turns out we’re already hungry – so we whip out our sandwiches, drinks and get busy with lunch right there, next to our piles of luggage. Even with Idris’ two additional bags – we do just fine and, before you know it, we are pulling into the Montparnasse station in Paris.
Another lesson learned is to make sure transportation is arranged ahead of time. We knew we’d need to take either the metro, a taxi, or arrange for a car/driver to get us from Gare Montparnasse to Charles deGaulle airport, where we had three rooms booked for the night, before leaving tomorrow on our flight to SFO. A couple of days ago we opted for the airport shuttle service that had done such a great job of finding us when we arrived out of customs at Charles deGaulle airport; getting us smoothly to Hotel Muguet. They came through for us this time, meeting us at the platform, just a few minutes after our arrival into Paris. The drive to the Sheraton Charles deGaulle (touted as the only hotel within the airport – and, fortunately for us, just a short walk from our departure terminal) took over an hour and a half. Rush hour and a holiday weekend made for some slow going as we traversed Paris to get north and out onto the highway to the airport.
The Sheraton was a welcome sight as we got to our rooms (very, very, very comfortable….great showers……such a great location, as I mentioned) and met downstairs for dinner in their dining room. Okay/decent food at outrageous prices. The cost of convenience, for sure.
Everyone had a great night’s sleep and we woke up in time to get downstairs for the complimentary breakfast (we were on the Club Floor at the hotel – a few extra American Express Points meant access to the Club Room, which we raided last night for some after dinner tartlets….and, of course, an easy in/easy out breakfast buffet in the downstairs restaurant, this morning).
All of our luggage in tow we headed for the international departures gate, checked in and then headed down one floor to the Air France lounge to wait for our flight to begin boarding. David was glad to see that they had diet Pepsi (called Pepsi Max, here in France) – the first time we saw any Pepsi products since leaving the USA. Coke must have a monopoly here. Even though it tasted different than in the US – it was nice to have it.
On to our gate, for boarding, and we were off for our quick 10.5 hour flight back to SFO. The return flight was, as before, on a Boeing 747. This aircraft, however, was a lot older than the first one – and the in-flight food service was rushed and mediocre when compared to our SFO-Paris flight. Also, the videos were the old-fashioned kind – where you clicked through various channels and could only see movies in progress (our arrival flight had “on demand” viewing). The choices were pretty pathetic – lacking in ANYTHING for the girls to really enjoy. Bummer. They were absolute angels during the flight – even I was more restless than they were.
Arrival into SFO was pretty easy, we cleared customs and the moment of saying our goodbyes had arrived. My dad was in the international arrivals lounge and David, Jacqueline, Morgan, Margaux, and Madeline headed out for their car, which was in the long term parking lot. About 15 minutes out from the airport Jacqueline called – their car battery was dead. I told my dad we should turn around….At that very moment Jacqueline said that help was on the way from the airport garage staff. The Lepplas got a jump-start and headed for Bruce and Jackie’s house – to drop of Idris’ luggage. They kept the motor running so as to not risk another battery incident and headed home.
I got to my dad’s house in Pleasanton and napped….woke up and had a bit to eat with my dad and then slept through the night. Time to return to reality….though I’ll be at my dad’s for another week – resting up and waiting to attend the retirement party for Bob Moorefield, my band teacher, at Foothill High School, here in Pleasanton (next Saturday). I’ll probably post some reflections and thoughts about the trip, throughout the week – along with some photos which we didn’t get on the blog. For now – it’s time to catch up from jet-lag. Sorry to not be in France – but nice to be “home” after the long two day car-train-limo-plane trip back.
Here are some final trip photos from the train station in Bordeaux, at Charles de Gaulle airport, and on the plane ride back to San Francisco.
