9-15-08 Fly out, by Jodi

We leave for LAX airport at 5:00am to catch our 8:30am flight. We had a stopover in Philadelphia, just enough time to find the right gate and we were off again. I was able to nap about 1½ hours, first time ever on a plane, Terry didn’t sleep at all.

9-16-08 Arrive Paris

We arrived 40 minutes early but ended up standing in the customs line for an hour. We found an ATM to get some Euros, and had the information desk phone AutoFrance for our shuttle pickup to get our car. The lease couldn’t be any easier, we signed some papers, they gave us the keys with a few quick instructions about the car and we were on our way to the nearest gas station. Our car takes diesel, E1.40 per liter, which translates to about $6 per gallon and with the exchange rate it ends up at about $8 per gallon – ouch! A good thing is the diesel was getting about 55 miles per gallon per our calculations. The gas station also had a small store ala 7-11, so we grabbed some snacks and drinks for the road.

The traffic going from the airport thru Paris is reminiscent of LA traffic – it took us forever to get out of dodge. I did get a peek of the Eiffel Tower from afar as we drove the ring road. Once out on the highway, the traffic lifted and the landscape turned to farms and cows pretty quick, a very relaxing drive.

We drove to Caen to visit the Caen WW II Memorial Museum, which lasted a couple of hours. We probably didn’t enjoy it as much as we should have because we had been awake for so long. We grabbed a sandwich in their cafeteria and sat and ate in the seating area.

We left the museum and drove 30 minutes longer to our B&B outside of Bayeux, a very peaceful, old farm with antique furnishings and a big room.

It is now about 4:00 and a note on the front door asks us to please come in, everything was unlocked. We unpack and settle in, and smell heavenly food smells. Turns out, our B&B host also have a small restaurant for dinner only. Too bad we weren’t hungry, just tired! We turned in around 8:00, exhausted.