to France

It was an early start today as we were headed to France . . . taking the Eurostar from London to Paris and then driving to the region of Normandy. The train was super fast and travels at speeds up to 180 mph . . . it even goes under the English Channel. I think Colin was disappointed that he did not see water outside the windows . . . in his mind the train was going to travel into the water not inside a tunnel.We arrived at a Paris train station (don't remember which one and really not important either). The plan was to grab a quick train to the airport to pick up the rental car but this is France after all and when you plan things never work out. The ticket machine only took coins or credit cards with chips . . . neither of which I had in my possession as we had just come from London so my pockets were full of pounds. We finally managed to get enough euros (17 to be exact) to buy our tickets at the machine versus the super long line at the one and only ticket booth open on a Wednesday at 2pm. Go figure! There was a sense of urgency as we knew Paris traffic would be a total zoo and could add hours to our drive time . . . we picked up the rental car and quickly got on the road . . . after two wrong turns we were headed in the right direction and traffic was great!

We drove about thirty minutes outside of Paris when Colin started to complain that he was hungry . . . go figure I forgot lunch AGAIN. He then started to get sick and of course there was no place around to eat. We continued to drive and he finally fell asleep . . . we saw a McDonald's and pulled right in. I am not a fan of McDonald's but some times you just have to take one for the team. We ordered and I took Colin outside while we waited for the food . . . the playground was closed and as we were opening the door it caught my eye . . . wi-fi . . . OMG, it had been 5 days since I had been connected and I quickly whipped out my iTouch . . . OMG, it was a free internet connection and McDonald's. I managed to text and eat at the same time . . . SO very excited . . . but with all things we had to get back on the road but at least I had my little internet fix.

The drive along the French countryside was beautiful! It was exactly how I had imagined . . . beautiful old stone houses with sheep and cows roaming around. As we approached the hotel, I started to get very nervous . . . the sign said campground . . . seriously what had I reserved for the night? I went to check in and was given the key to go inspect the room to see if it was okay . . . it was fine so returned to pay. It was very dated but clean . . . bathroom looked brand new so what could be wrong as it was only one night? It was definitely a downgrade from our hotel in London. The best part was as we walked about 100 meters and we saw this . . .

. . . how could anything be a problem when you see that? We walked around the town and returned to the hotel early as we wanted to be there when the doors opened at 9:00am. As we started getting ready for bed I could not find the air conditioner control . . . oh great no A/C . . . well this is Europe and it could be worse! I'm SO excited about tomorrow.