Mommy's Arrival Notes

Hey Everyone!

So Mommy read my first post and now has some things that she would like to share with all of you...


Bonjour mes amis! The final days before our departure were chaos, but from the moment we checked in at the airline counter in San Diego things went smoothly for the journey. On the flight to Dallas, I had the aisle seat in the exit row in front of Alicia's window seat. The nice man with the exit window seat surprised me by offering to trade seats with Alicia. I've never seen anyone give up the coveted exit row so I guess I owe this forward now.

Before take-off, I sent a few emails from my blackberry including one to my cousin Rory who works near the Dallas airport. She wasn't able to giet away from a meeting to visit us during our 3-hour layover. Although I usually complain about a layover more than 45 minutes, I did not regret choosing this long lay-over. No worry, no stress about making the connection and the lugguage arrived in Paris with us. We strolled around the newest terminal at DFW, which is like a small city when it comes to shopping and dining, so that Alicia could decide on her last meal. Popeye's Chicken almost won! Before eating, we enjoyed the $5,000 massage chairs at Brookstone to prepare our legs for the 8-hour Paris flight and made some random small purchases. After the BBQ, I grabbed a Texas margarita and then it was boarding time.

While I was still trying to make room for me, my travel bag and the pillow and blanket, Michelle introduced herself to Alicia and we learned that they were in the same program. Michelle and Alicia are both nervous about their adventure and I think that it was almost therapeutic that they could talk about their excitement and their uncertainty on the way to France. Other than Gus doing a terrific job as our flight attendant, traveling on American was pretty ho-hum. American's entertainment program is far behind the times and the food and beverage service is too limited for a flight of this length.

Lots of walking upon our arrival. The train station was at the opposite end of the terminal from our arrival gate. I could have found my way without Alicia because symbols are used for important information at the Paris airport. Purchasing the train tickets was amusing. Alicia forgot that I do not understand French well enough to follow at normal conversational speed. After the counter agent explained the travel options, Alicia asked me what I wanted to do. I had to remind her to translate the choices for me. It took several encounters for Alicia to remember that she needed to translate for me. Alicia would converse in French and turn to me wordlessly waiting for my input. Some of these times, I had to laugh because we found out the other person spoke a fair amount of English when they started helping Alicia translate for me.

I may not be able to explain how difficult it is to drive here. I had experienced roundabouts on a prior trip to the Marseilles region in the south and managed them ok. It turns out that was child's play. In Caen if there is a street sign, its small, set back from the road and not visible until after you're crossed the street. Traffic signals are miniature, placed low and off to the side. Lanes disappear or become a turn-only lane without warning. The highways are numbered mysteriously and the sign for an exit is often only at the exit. In the villages around Caen (which are a mixture of old and new), the signs in roundabouts are just after the exit. Did we mention that we were not trying to visit those villages? We were hopelessly lost using the directions from the hotel clerk who did seem a little tentative. A gas station attendant advised Alicia that it was easy to get to the shopping mall from there. We were hopelessly lost again but drove through a village wedding (pretty much literally) and came upon two gendarme (cops). One did not seem to know the way out of the village and the other was helpful, giving us a scenic route that felt wrong but voila the shopping center suddenly appeared before us. Interestingly, my haphazard driving did not seem to upset other drivers. The limited honking mostly happened if I did not zoom off when a light turned green. Otherwise, drivers veered madly around me as if this is the expected way to drive. There's a really big concrete thing that has become our landmark for getting back to central Caen.

C'est tous for now. Au revoir!
Regina