Sep 10/11 - leaving civilization

Yesterday was an autobahn / autoroute day for the most part. It was easy driving from Zurich to Meaux and paid our dues when we got off the autoroute, almost as much as the day before entering Switzerland. We ate at one of the service centers, a great meal typical of the French at half the cost of a similar meal in the Swiss service center the day before.

Downtown Meaux was pretty well shut down for the Saturday street market and we ended up routing into a covered parking lot that had been freshly washed -- indicative, likely, of a vegetable market that had been just cleared. We were one of the first cars into the lot and it quickly was filling -- what great timing ! There was another exit from the lot but rather than drive, we walked and found our hotel less than a block away. More great luck ! Back to the car, we drove to the hotel and after pushing the buzzer, they lifted the gate, secure and parked at last.

It was a little after 4pm at that point and we'd seen the cathedral from the road. Our hotel room faces the river and the cathedral across the Marne river (I think) and we walked up and found a service underway. We realized afterwards that it wasn't Mass, per se, it was a wedding. For the rest of the afternoon there was wedding after wedding, probably 1/2 hour each, with wedding parties and brides everywhere. From the posted Mass times, I could see that there was no Saturday Mass here, but at the companion church a few blocks away (as we later discovered). I set off to find that church while Sandy walked the market. Coincidentally we both ended up across the street from one another, and headed back to relax since Mass wasn't until 6:30.

Since we had lots of time we opted to sit in an outdoor cafe right across from the Cathedral and watch the festivities. We hadn't been there long when a bunch of cars came rolling up, people hanging out of them everywhere. A Ferrari, BMW after BMW, more Mercedes than I cared to count, Porsches ... there was a lot of rolling money ! The cars were streaming through the mostly-walking crowd and it was largely a street party. That was our entertainment for the day !

Back to the hotel, I dropped off the camera and headed to the 6:30 Mass. Sandy had a shower and washed her hair and then we met at a restaurant across from the church where we had a great dinner in their enclosed garden. The last supper ...

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Europe is so civilized. In one restaurant a person's dog was sitting on their lap. The dogs are in the service centers with the people. Dogs, after all, are cleaner than most people. You cannot catch a disease from a dog, but you can from that sneezing person behind you !

Food is wonderful. Yes, there are McD's everywhere, but all you have to do is go into a grocery store and see the vastly smaller section for junk and prepared food to realize that it's a different world -- a better world.

The roads are civilized. Speed limits are high on the autoroutes -- generally 130kph -- and people for the most part drive slower than the speed limit. They drive at a reasonable speed for their car and for gas mileage. Drivers don't hog the left lane. They know how to drive.

People are aware of the rest of the world, not like the U.S. where the attitude is basically that it either doesn't exist or it doesn't matter.

Lastly and most important, people know how to live. They are outdoor in a cafe, rather than sitting in a McD's drive-through locked up by themselves.

It's almost time for breakfast and then the day's odyssey begins.

Will travel on 9/11 ten years later be difficult ? I don't know but ...

Onward !