Our last dinner in Paris was at a close cafe'. Susan wasn't hungary as she'd had a bigger lunch...I'd enjoyed my soup, but needed a bit more. So, it was finally time for a hamburger with a fried egg on top. I'd forgotten that's SOP for European burgers and Susan was very skeptical. So, I ordered a burger and FF. It's really very good....perhaps not something I will start cooking or ordering in the states, but .....when in Paris!! Good thing it was a short walk home, it was starting to rain. Susan showered and jumped in bed...it was goign to be an early morning.
Yes, all good things must come to an end. The alarm went off at 445a on Tues morning....I hit the shower and sleeping beauty moaned....Susan is not a morning gal!! But she was dressed by the time I came out of the shower. We had a 530a airport shuttle pickup. We finally made the decision that metro or bus was just more than we wanted to hassle with and we kept getting conflicting info...so when we were offered a direct airport shuttle for 18euro each, we jumped on it. This turned out to be a perfect plan, especially since we woke up to rain. This shuttle was small and had picked up 4 others before us. After us we headed to Orly for them. That turned out to be 15min....we had to laugh since when we arrived at Orly we took shuttle/bus/metro and lots of walking and managed to turn a direct drive of 15 min into a 3hr adventure...wow, lesson learned there. After leaving Orly it was about 45min to CDG. We were there in plenty of time. Susan had spent enough in one store to get a VAT tax refund form. So we got that handled. The scoop on the very expensive VAT is that if you spend over 180 euro in one store, AND you ask for the tax refund form you can get that stamped at the airport and get is refunded. However, if you spend more than that but in man y different stores....tough, you can't get any back. Well, that was my case.....so I just eat that!!!
We then got checked in at Delta....we were both a little over 23kg but were told we were ok, and that we would definately get on. Wow...we never hear that....very cool. Yahoo, no more baggage issues and we knew we had a seat, just didn't know which one. Mattered not, we were ready to head home. Then we were off to get a bite of something and head to the gate to wait. Duty free shops were open, nothing was too appealing...so off for coffee and pastry. However, I spotted a Laudree' store, yummy macaroons and other goodies. So spent my last 25 euro on goodies...some I ate, some actually made it all the way back. Susan enjoyed her last pastry and cappuccino...then, we were off to the gate to wait. Boarding started very soon and went just fine.
We were on and ready to go..............
Good bye Paris...........soon we would be back in the land of knowing where to flush a toilet, understanding directions, being able to read a menu............but for me, having to go back to work....yuck....
10hrs later we landed in ATL.........not too bad a flt, I slept 4hrs...woohoo. Susan didn't sleep as well. We got seperated in customs....but probably a good thing since I had to go through the "special" line because I was honest about having "meat products"....I had bought some wild boar salami that was vaccumed sealed...but that didn't matter...they took it. So, I'm guessing some customs official enjoyed my special treat last night!!! Bummer, that was supposed to be part of my Italian night of cooking....oh well....I've got soem other goodies. Susan breezed through and was re-checked for her Indy flt.....I got stopped again because of a jar of Plum jam but I worked that one out. I told Susan to go ahead I ahd no idea how long I was going to be in customs.....I was getting to know them all!!! I finally got cleared and headed out.
As I drove home, it was interesting to actually be able to read the road signs.....it was 74 in ATL and was good to be home. Mom was waiting on me and had fulfilled my request om veggies for dinner. I talked her ears off for about 3hrs then we had squash/green beans/cremaed corn and BBQ chicken.........wow that was good....thanks Mom.
I'm hoping to cook my Italian dinner next week...need to hurry before I forget all that I learned.
Well....life will get routine again, so blogs my get few and far between.....thanks for following, it was a wonderful 50th celebration!!!
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