france

Bonjour!  We are in France, WOW!  Getting here was a longggggggg trip, but we are here!

This is my fourth trip to Europe.  I visited Paris and Chartres in 1978 as a senior in high school with my French class.  Then in 2012, with Katie in Florence, Rome, and Paris.  Again in 2015 with Katie and Todd, in Italy, France, England, and Ireland.

Today is Sunday, May 26 and we are only 6 hours ahead of Florida time.  We left Osaka on May 24–one day before my 90-day limit was up.  We decided to take a taxi to the train station instead of the 20 minute walk.  Our backpacks are pretty heavy unfortunately and we had a very long day/night ahead.

Our train to the airport was easy enough and it looked like a great day for flying.  

Katie usually reads on the train, but today she watched her city slide by.  

We had to be out of the apartment by 11 a.m. and our flight was at 4 p.m., so with an hour by train we had plenty of time to relax at the airport.  Katie got hung up at security because it turned out she had to fill out some papers.

The Osaka Airport is on a small man-made island just west of the city, cleverly perched over the water.  It is a moderate size airport with lots of windows to watch the flights.  

We had great seats with no one sitting next to us and you would see the airport below.

First we had to stop in Shanghai, which is a quick 2 1/2 hour flight.  They even served us dinner of fish, which turned out to be eel.  The bread was filled with bean paste.  I ate the fruit haha!  The landing into Shanghai was beautiful with ships as far as the eye could see.   

On the way in, I flew Japan Air.  There was a nonstop to Paris from Osaka on Japan Air, but it was more than twice the cost of our 2 tickets on Air China with 1 stop in Shanghai (Todd and Priscila had a similar flight but had to stop in Beijing). Our layover was 6.5 hours and I knew on that day I’d be wishing we had taken the nonstop but that was a pretty big savings.

To exit this plane, we went down steps onto the tarmac like on t.v…..then we were all smushed onto a huuuuge bus to take us to the terminal.  As you can imagine, the airport in Shanghai was huge but laid out okay.  It wasn’t long before the Japanese/Chinese cultural differences were apparent.  Katie stayed with our stuff at a table while I got Burger King for dinner–I know, ridiculous.  The clerk did not smile or make eye contact and she literally chucked the packets of ketchup onto the tray, then tossed the receipt.  I nearly laughed out loud and thought it was more like being at home haha!

The men at the security check were terse and intimidating.  No smiles or thank you’s here.  Katie had an extra battery charger in her purse, which seemed to make the guy mad, so he started looking at me and saying, “Battery pack???”  No, I didn’t have one, I said with a smile.  It was not bad, just so different.

We made our way to the gate for our midnight flight.  The people here were not quiet and reserved like in Japan, and were yelling to each other across the seats…..again more like home.  We were loaded back onto a shuttle and no kidding we were pushed in side by side.  When we got off the bus everyone rushed the stairs to the plane, pushing ahead.  I wasn’t sure why because we had assigned seats of course.  A guy came rushing forward and slammed into me.  He was white and maybe speaking German.  People yelled a little because he pushed his way onto the stairs.  It was midnight and we were outside on a tarmac in China so it was a bit weird.  But as the guy made his way up the stairs it was like he was not medically well and just needed to get inside.  Soon we were in our great seats.  This plane had 2-4-2 seats, so we were by ourselves on our window seat.  The male and female flight attendants were very professional and worked to get everyone settled.

After quite some time we still hadn’t taken off and I noticed there were many empty seats.  Maybe 20 minutes later a new rush of all Chinese people flooded the plane.  It looked like they had held the plane for another one from another city in China.  It was loud and chaotic while everyone got on board.  Finally about 1 hour after our designated time, we were in the air–it was the smoothest take-off.

Around what must’ve been 2 a.m. Shanghai time (3 a.m. Osaka time), they served dinner.  The announcements were in Chinese then English, the prerecorded ones by a guy with an Australian accent.  If you want spicy, take the chicken, non-spicy take the pork.  I knew we wouldn’t eat much and by now Katie was asleep–we were exhausted already.  I nibbled on my bean paste roll and must’ve dozed off because when I came around my tray was gone.

Just as on the flight to Japan 89 days ago, it was quiet and all the windows were shut.  Everyone had their lights off and maybe I slept…..not much but I had The Hobbit on, which is 3 hours.  At some point they turned off the screens and I could only hear the movie.  I heard it end and was glad because 3 hours had past, but that meant we were not even half way.  Ugh.

The flight took us over Russia, India, Eastern Europe……it was 12.5 hours direct from Shanghai to Paris.  When we finally arrived, no one would let us out into the aisle, including the Europeans.  I just tried not to care.  People are at their absolutely worst at this point.  When we got into the mob for immigration it was just chaos.  Katie was mad–and she was right that in Japan it would not have been this way.  It probably took another hour.  But, we were in France wow!

We were meeting a friend of Katie’s in Lille at 6 p.m.  So we waited at the airport for a couple hours.  The food there was already sooooooo much easier to deal with.  And with my little bit of French this time it was me who handled lunch–a delicious ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette which they serve with the most delicious butter.  I got Katie an apple pastry which I remembered she loved and when she bit into it her face lit up–the French really know how to do pastries!

At the advice of her friend we had reserved a bus, so at noon we hopped on board.  It was a quiet 2-hour trip through the lovely French countryside to Lille, on the border of Belgium.  We past many small towns in the distance, each with a beautiful church spire obvious from afar.

Katie’s friend met us in Lille at 6 p.m. and we drove to his home in Valenciennes, just 30 minutes southeast.  We’ve only been here 24 hours after our 40 hour journey and it’s already been amazing!  But that story is for another day!  For now it feels good just to have a great night’s sleep in a bed and have successfully relocated our blue dot on the map.