Our Family: France, 2011

So we left for France on Tuesday, the 15th of February. Our trip there was a little hairy to say the least. We flew to Boston and then discovered that our flight from Boston to Paris was scheduled way too close and that the international portal was at the opposite end of the airport. We talked to the flight attendant and she let us get off the plane first and then we just started running. At one point when we were running through the airport, Sean looked over at me and said, "I feel like we're on the Amazing Race!" We got to our portal and found that they had closed the flight. They sent us to a VIP checkin to try and figure out an alternative to get to Paris. Sean was talking to the airline employees and I took Hayes to the bathroom. When I was walking back, I look up, and it's Phil, from the Amazing Race, checking in at the counter right next to Sean. Because I really don't trust myself with what comes out of my mouth when I meet celebrities, I just looked at Phil, smiled big and said, "HI!" He said hi back but the whole time Sean was checking in, I was sneaking glances at Phil. When he would talk, I was thinking, "It's Phil's voice!" I looked down at his feet, and low and behold, it was Phil's boots! I was about to ask him if he saw us running back there and if we could count it as an audition for the show but I restrained myself.

They ended up rerouting us to Amsterdam and then a one hour flight from Amsterdam to Paris. The flight from Boston to Amsterdam went pretty good. It was in the middle of the night so Hayes slept a lot of the time and they gave us the whole middle section to ourselves so he was able to lay down. The flight from Amsterdam to Paris wasn't as good. By this time Hayes had had it and we had had it too. Luckily it was only an hour flight. We got to Paris and went to the luggage claim. No luggage! Sean had most of his stuff in his carry-on but we had checked mine and Hayes' bags. Not good. All I had were the diapers in my diaper bag and the clothes on our backs. No makeup, no toothbrushes, no nothing.

We went and got our rental car, a sweet little black Mercedes, and drove to Orleans, where Sean would be working, about an hour and 15 minutes south of Paris. I was exhausted at this point and could barely keep my eyes open. When we got to Orleans, we found our hotel and the guy there was very nice and gave us some toothbrushes and toothpaste. Sean had to go into work. Hayes and I were starving but I didn't know where to go to get food. We were dirty, our clothes were dirty, we were so tired and hungry and I had started to wonder what I'd done, maybe I should have just stayed home. Sean came home from work and we got in the car to try and find somewhere to eat. That was a big joke. We found this street that had all these restaurants on it but you couldn't drive on it and there was no place to park. When we did find a parking space, we asked some girls if it was ok if we parked there and they said, "no, it is forbidden". We finally found a spot, still don't know if it was forbidden or not, and then walked to the restaurant street. Let's just say none of the restaurants there were kid friendly. We found an Indian food place and decided to eat there. After a few close calls with Hayes almost breaking dishes, we decided to get it to go and ate it at the hotel. It wasn't the best Indian food but it worked. Still wondering what I'd done. I was looking at my camera in the hotel room that night and I found a picture that I had accidentally taken when I was packing. It made me so homesick.