When I started looking for flights to and from France, I discovered that there were lots more flights that required me to leave from somewhere besides Detroit than there were flights direct from DTW (Detroit) to CDG (Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris).
The two I looked at most closely left from Cincinnati and from Pittsburgh. The Cinci one got to Paris at 6:10 am................. The Pittsburgh one got in at 8:20.
It won't surprise you that I took the Pittsburgh one.
I flew on a smallish jet to Pittsburgh. The 21st was the first time I'd gone out to the "small plane" part of the Delta (ex-Northwest) terminal complex.
You go down an escalator, and can either ride on loooong slidewalks, or can walk across to the other terimal. I thought I was going to be sitting way more than enough, for the next 12 hours or so, so I walked.
It was very cool down there. Dark-ish, with big frosted-plastic panels on the sides. They had wave-y patterns in them, and colored lights played across them.
When I first got down there it was blue/green/oceany.
There was soothing music, too.
This is a really bad pic, but perhaps you can get a feeling for what it was like -- slidewalks on the sides, and a big open space in the center. Colors, (imagine the music)...................
Say what you will about Northwest, those people built a REALLY nice terminal complex in Detroit.
If you're ever having a long layover there, one thing to do would be to cross under to the small plane part, just to see the sound and light show.....
So. Here we are, waiting to board for Pittsburgh.
I took my rolling take-on-the-plane-with-me suitcase, and bought a new backpack so I'd have one with a belt designed to put the weight on my pelvis rather than my shoulders. This is an extremely good design (if you expect a lot of weight -- guide books and so on -- get a real belt, not a puny strap). I was very glad to have the new pack..........................
The flight to Pittsburgh is very quick. It's only about 4.5 -- 5 hours by car, and the air time was less than 40 minutes.
I was amused to see this poster in the airport............
The Pittsburgh airport has CVS (or was it Rite Aid?) -- anyway -- actual stuff that people might actually need, and for NOT exorbitant prices, either. I bought a pint of skim milk for a dollar, I think (or was it 80 cents?).
When I waited by the gate, I used the vast and always-reliable knowledge I've gleaned from the web to see if I could tell who was French, and who wasn't.
Young guy with bluetooth phone thing in his ear, walking back and forth and back and forth (and back and forth), speaking animatedly in French to whoever was on the other end of his phone call? French.
Young guy with American clothes (French people do NOT wear running shoes. Well, I didn't notice what they wore on their feet when they were actually running for exercise, as many people were, in Paris, but just in their normal lives, for walking around? Never.) and American hair and grungy backpack? American.
Woman of about my age, with a very interesting leather jacket, past-shoulder-length casually tousled hair, and a tshirt with interesting printing on it? Guessing French. Wait -- she started reading a French newspaper. Definitely French.
Etc.
It turned out she was on my left on the plane. She had just left her 20-ish daughter in Norman, Oklahoma, for a year-abroad college exchange program. This, of course, gave us an instant connection, as I was going to visit my 20-ish daughter in France........ She lives near Bordeaux (which was on my itinerary) and, with her family, runs the shop which sells the interesting leather goods (Living Angel, should you be lucky enough to visit St. Emilion and find her shop, please tell her that woman from the plane after she left her daughter in Oklahoma says "hi!"). This would be the same St. Emilion known for wines. My daughter and I hoped to visit St. Emilion (which is supposed to be a charming village, as well as being a wine-lover's Mecca), but it turned out to be not-that-easy-to-get-to.
Public transportation is wonderful in France (the USA could benefit from emulating that!), but there are some places that are hard to get to without a car.....
In any case, with her bit of English and my bit of French, we managed to understand each other most of the time (at least, that's my belief and I'm sticking to it!). We chatted for quite a while, and then discovered that the woman on my right (who was a good deal younger than we) was Russian but living in Paris. Her French was very good, and her English was better than my French..........
So embarassing, that we Americans are so liguistically challenged, compared to just about everyone else...........
The Russian woman's (4-yr-old) daughter was in Moscow with her grandparents. When all of that was arranged, no one could have predicted the terrible hot temperatures, or, worse, the fires. I'd seen satellite pictures of the smoke over Russia, but had not realized that the fires were the "underground coal is burning" sort, rather than forest fires that might actually go out. I believe the underground sort, once started, are basically "you're hosed; nothing can be done" sorts of things. I read about that -- in National Geographic? -- happening in Pennsylvania, I think.....
I always feel different about things like "that smoke in Moscow" when I "know" someone who has been affected by it.....
The woman said that she thought it was going to be this nice chance for her daughter to go spend time with gramma and grampa, and then it was too hot and too much pollution to leave the apartment........
:-(
In any case ... after my "Un Gars et Une Fille" youtube "I can't understand more than 10% of this!!!!" scare, it was very reassuring to find that two (or three) people (who are trying) can really make a good deal of sense out of what others are trying to convey.
One must not mind sounding like an idiot, making mistakes of tense, gender, etc, etc, etc, and a bit if mime is generally helpful, but if you *try*, people will help you.
Sort of like adults with little kids, people will offer you what they believe is the correct word, and will, agreeing with you, correct your usage........
Of course REMEMBERING the correction so one can use it the next time is another issue...... :-)
One of my continual errors was using "enseigner" when I meant "envoyer." "Envoyer" is "to send", while "enseigner" is "to teach." I am sure that part of my difficulty is that "voyer" is "to look" and "enseigner" sounds more like "send".....
I told a lot of people that I needed stamps to teach postcards to the USA..... :-)
One time I had just told a nice post office clerk that very thing. Someone corrected me "enVOYer", and the post office clerk smiled and said she knew what I meant. I laughed and said I couldn't seem to remember, and she told me I just needed more practice. I laughed again, and told her I needed to write it down over and over, like in school, "envoyer envoyer envoyer" and she laughed, too.
That was very typical of my interactions with people. I tried, I made mistakes, I apologized, I tried again, and people were very forgiving, and very helpful. For which I was effusively grateful. I think, most of the time, we were all satisfied with the interaction.....
It really takes A LOT of stamina to continue to understand, and particularly to continue to *produce* a foreign language one is not used to using. There were many (MANY) times when I just looked blankly at someone who was trying to help me, for what seemed like a very long time, before trying some other combination of words and gestures (or relying on my daughter to help :-) ).............
Anyway -- back to that plane ride to France......
It was very interesting to listen to a French woman and a Russian woman talking about "what Americans are like." They agreed that we are very direct. We say what we mean. They agreed that French people in the south of France are also likely to say what they mean, but that in the north, (especially Paris), less so, and "In Moscow, no one ever says what they mean; they always say the opposite" (that, from the Russian woman, who had been all over the world, apparently -- "When I was in Singapore..." and here and there and everywhere).
The French woman was pleased with Norman, Oklahoma, as a place to have left her daughter. She felt that people there were friendly and helpful and that her kid would be ok. Always comforting..............
I'm not sure it was generally felt (between my two companions) that Americans are friendly. It was felt that we ACT friendly, but it may be a surface friendliness rather than a genuine friendliness. At least, that's what I think I remember (writing now after I got home on Sept 10) thinking was said.........
(I feel stupid saying "the French woman" and "the Russian woman" but we sort of never exchanged names.......................................... Always too busy with something else to say, I guess....................)
I wanted to get as much sleep as possible on that flight, but my well-traveled companion on the right wanted to talk. I finally just closed my eyes and hoped I could sleep. I think I got about three hours, all told.............
Here is my first glimpse of France, after we all woke up and the window blinds were up.
We parted ways as we left the plane. One for another flight to Bordeaux, me for the light-rail into Paris, and I'm not sure where the Russian was going next.......
In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.
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