Getting here

Don't expect a lot of pretty pictures showing my trip here. It wasn't pretty.

I left home June 24th and went as far as Washington DC. I didn't want to have Angel in her carrier for 14 hours. She does ride in the cabin with me but 14 hours in her carrier seemed pretty claustrophic to me (of course sitting 11 hours in economy class if pretty clautrophic too). So I flew to Washington, checked into a very plain and boring hotel by the airport for the night. Next day flew out of Dulles at 5:30 pm and arrived at DeGaulle at 7 am.

Well coming here for 2 1/2 months, and packing not only for myself but my dog, made "pack light" not an option. However, although I thought I had done really well until I picked up my luggage at DeGaulle. Yikes!! I had my larger than a carrier suitcase (weighted 50 pounds packed), a companion luggage satchel that fastens onto the suitcase filled with toiletries, various electronic gadgets and cords etc. (weighed 25 pounds packed), my laptop case, Angel's carrier, and oh yes Angel. I really thought I could manage it but as I tried to navigate to get to the train to Paris it was obvious that I had overdone it. I got to an escalator going down to the trains and tried to make it down. I certainly didn't want to hurt Angel, me, or another person so I waited until no one was in fron of me on the escalator and wheeled my luggage on and stepped behind it with Angel. Well, let me tell you when a 50 pound suitcase with a 25 pound satchel strapped to it starts to lean foware you've just got to let it go. I yelled "Watch out" at the top of my lungs and hoped for the best.

A young man ran forward and rescued my luggage. He was on his way to Paris and by chance even was going to the same station as me (which meant we had to change trains once). He was from Australia, has been living in Madrid (illegally) for 3 years and was visiting Paris to meet a friend who was flying in from Malaysia. After that he was going to spend a couple of months hiking the Camino over the Pyrenees for two months and then go fishing in Galicia. He said he always leaves Madrid in the summer as it is just too hot. Anyway he was very kind to me and even watched my luggage while I took Angel outside to pee before boarding my train to Beziers.

The train ride was pretty ghastly. I've always taken second class trains when I've been here - they haven't crowded and don't look much different than the first class ones. Well I've learned my lesson. In the summer the trains are very crowded, the second class ones don't seem well ventilated, and the bathrooms seems to be "over the top" if you know what I mean. Besides that there appeared to be a large contingent of a Chinese touring group in my car and they talked to each other non-stop at maximum volume the entire way. I had to hold Angel on my lap for the entire ride as well.

I arrived at Bezier (thank goodness it was a direct train and I didn't have to switch
) and Mel and Sharon were at the station to pick me up. I've never been so glad to get to a destination.

That was Saturday the 26th.