.
One last espresso in Paris. That's la Place de la Nation, behind the vehicles.
You can see the pavement is wet. It rained during the night, but the 10th was another in our set of gorgeous days.
One last look around before we descend to the Metro.
A French mail-carrier's cart.
One last glimpse of Sacré Coeur.
My daughter rode part of the way to the airport with me, and then went to enjoy another day in Paris. One of her college friends had just arrived in the city, and she also had plans to meet someone she'd known from the Boston University program in 2008.
It seemed odd to leave without her, after almost three weeks together, but it wasn't too hard, as she would come home in just three days.
In the words of a little kid she knew, when in Paris in 2008,: "Ciao, ciao, bye-bye!" À bientôt!
You can see my daughter's take on this day
here, and the remainder of her stay in Paris is
here.
Charles de Gaulle is a relatively new airport. It has interesting architecture. See the partial "green roof" on the flat building?
This is just visible, left center, above. I like the texture.......
Once you get through security in the Air France terminal, almost everything looks a lot like the Champs Élysées. All the usual ritzy expensive stores.
I am, of course, much more interested in macarons than in jewelry, perfume, makeup, or luggage.
Another beautiful day. We were surely lucky with the weather!
(Liking all the diagonals -- clouds, terminal, wing.....)
CDG is a busy airport.
On our way to the USA.
You knew I was scanning for monuments. Luckily, I was on the correct side of the airplane.
See?
No? Here, I'll help.
Now, see?
La Tour Eiffel, et
la Tour Montparnasse. I think that dot of light with the smear of light beneath it, pretty much equidistant between the towers, and a bit closer to us, is
le Grand Palais.
I'll note that pics from airplanes are even worse than pics from a
train a grande vitesse. The windows aren't the best, and the haze ..... oh dear, the haze............
Thank goodness for Photoshop Elements. Duplicate the layer, and use "hard light" blending mode...... The result isn't what one would hope for, but............
Hey! It just occurred to me that this is the next series, after the blurry-tree pics! Of course it is. Now all we have to do is come up with the manifesto.................. I will have to speak with my associate about this.......
Those of you who fly internationally, often, may find this boring.
This trip was the first time I had my own tv.
I love maps, I love flying, I LOVE knowing where I am.........
Isn't this fun? We went to Rouen, we went to Tours.............
The map shifted from closer to farther in a cycle. We went to Bordeaux......
Where it says Toulouse it could just as well say Bayonne or Carcassonne.......
All of those cities are close together, compared to how far the USA is from any of them.........
After the set of maps, this information was displayed.
Of course I was still looking out the window, too.
I thought this might be recognizable on Google maps, and I bet I found it.
I believe this is pretty much due east of
les Îles Chausey. The lower right corner of this pic points a bit west of north, I think.
One last look at
la belle France.
We won't be too sad, though -- look what they've brought us.
This is the first time I'd flown Air France, and it was lovely. I'd take it again, any time!
This was chicken in a curry sauce, and it was very nice.
Veggies and pasta in vinaigrette. Also good.
I don't seem to have recorded the cheese that was also part of this meal. I saved it, and my bread, to eat later. The cheese had a lot more flavor than those little foil-wrapped pieces of cheese usually have.....
The flight attendants came around with a big bin of those little loaves of bread. Multiple times. Nice.
I'm told that Kate's Law is "Do not open yogurt toward yourself."
My corollary is "That goes double for gazpacho that was packaged on land and is to be opened at 30,000 feet." Luckily, my shirt was dark.
This was tasty, too. Airplane food that actually tastes like something. What a concept........
Dessert was a tiny little pastry (cute, but, alas, pretty tasteless).
Coffee. Note dark gray surface on tray-table. It was ... not quite sticky, exactly, but it was rubbery, and it stopped all the stuff on it from sliding around the way stuff slides on a typical hard-plastic tray-table.
What a simple and yet VERY GOOD idea.............
My last cup of French coffee, in front of a view (all cloudy, at this point).
More reasons to love Air France.
It seemed like a long flight. I felt like a little kid -- "Aren't we THERE yet?" I knew I had it easy -- I have co-workers who have family in India, China, Taiwan. For them, an 8-hour flight would be a vast improvement over the length of their trips home. I knew that, but still. I guess my novel wasn't exciting enough.
It seemed like forever until we were half-way home.............
But, eventually, we were.
I thought it was funny, that of all the cities west of the Mississippi, they show Abilene. Nothing against Abilene, it is just a lot smaller and less well known than Houston, or Denver, or Winnipeg....
When we were about an hour out of Detroit, they woke people up, and served a snack. This is toasted cumin seed, on the bread, with butter and cheese inside. I liked the toasted seeds (but would prefer no butter with my cheese).
Something else I believe I've identified, looking at Google maps. I think this is the western end of Lake Ontario, and that the city is Hamilton, Ontario.
Having the map on my tv surely made it SO much easier to find places on the map.... Made it *possible* is the actual truth, I'm sure.
They told us that we were beginning our descent over Toronto. I am sure I saw the CNN tower, but I guess I didn't get any pics.
Almost home, now.
Detroit Metro.
The cloverleaf, bottom center, is I94 and Merriman Road.
I wondered how we'd be traversing customs.
The answer is -- there's a bottom layer under the Northwest terminal that I never knew existed.
We went down there and walked a LONG way. Eventually we fetched up at customs. We had to go through, and then collect any checked baggage and talk to yet another customs person. I hadn't checked anything, so I just asked that last customs guy if I was done. He said I was, and that was that.
It struck me as odd that we were admonished NOT to use cell phones. Not on the plane, not walking, not in the customs place. I hadn't expected to NOT be able to communicate with my better half, who had arrived to pick me up.....
It also seemed odd that we were admonished NOT to use any recording devices of any kind while in the customs area. I can sort of understand that, I guess, but I wondered what on earth was supposed to be a big secret. I saw people in booths talking to people outside booths, and that was that. Maybe that's the secret -- no secrets..........................
When I was finally finished I found a Delta employee and asked her where the heck I was. I knew where I wanted to be, but how was I to get there?
That was when I found out I was in the basement, and needed to go upstairs. I did, and there I was, in the usual baggage-claim area from which I was to be picked up.
I called, at last, and let him know where I was, and why I hadn't called sooner. We met where we usually meet, and went *home*.
It was a wonderful, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime trip. SO glad I went. And glad to be home.
Happy sigh.
.
