Sep 7/8 - where's the nearest toilet ?

Like a heavy smoker who needs to know that he/she has some in reserve, I needed to know where the toilet was in case I needed it.  In fact, for the flight back, when I did seat selection, I should have simply reserved the toilet.  That would have made the trip easier and, in fact, less disgusting.  There's nothing worse than using an airline toilet after a hundred other users.  I could have taken time-lapse photography of how that little room deteriorated over the trip, posted it on Facebook, had it gone viral and had my 15 minutes of fame !

Backing up ...

I was feeling pretty worn out by the time we drove to Meaux, which is basically 6 hours on an Autoroute, an expensive one at that.  I drove for a while and then handed the wheel over to Sandy.  A little coffee made me feel better, but not enough to take the wheel back. 

We came to the first major toll -- these are ticket tolls, take a ticket and then pay when you exit, depending on how far you've driven, like most of the New York Thruway.  There was a huge backup for two of the stations and nothing at most of the others.  We couldn't read the signage that far away and were stuck in the long queues, only realizing later that the non-existent queue stations were credit card ones, which of course we could have used ?  Well, when we got to the front, we found out that none of our credit cards would work.  The TD chip card always works as a last resort, but not on this highway.  We had cash, inserted that into the machine and were on our way.

The second half of the drive proceeded and we hit another station, basically the second half of the A-whatever that runs from Bordeaux to Paris -- again long queue for a couple, nothing for the ones indicating credit cards.  Sandy wanted to head for the credit cards, I said no ... but she was the driver and we all need to make our own mistakes, right ?  Up we went, inserted card 1, rejected, card 2, rejected, no cash slot on these machines.  By this point there were a few cars queued up behind us and horns started.  With no-where to go, she pushed the info button and someone came on, back and forth for a bit and oh, about 5 minutes later, a man came over, tried our credit card, agreed that it didn't work, worked cash from his cash pouch.  Away we went.  Same highway, same situation, same result expected, right ?  Oh well, it added a little spice, without which life is bland.

We got to Meaux in good time, parked, checked in, figured out later that the Ibis Styles was called Hotel Richelieu when we were last here because the TV said welcome when we turned it on.  Someone forgot to reprogram the in-house TV channel.  I was cold, feeling crummy, Sandy went out and found more imodium and some electrolytes for me.  Well, the electrolytes box was individual pouches meant to be added to a baby bottle (picture on the front).  Hey, electrolytes are all the same, right ?  No, they didn't taste good.  I downed one pouch and left the others. 

We found a restaurant, Chinese, that had a buffet.  Imagine, last night in France, eating Chinese and drinking water.  She had a glass of wine and managed with the buffet.  I had a nibble or two and then Sandy asked the waiter about soup.  Yes, there was soup on the regular menu.  I ordered the asparagus soup.  Here's the recipe.  Half fill bowl with chopped white asparagus.  Fill rest of bowl with salt.  Nuke until water from asparagus dissolves salt.  Serve hot.    I may have needed other electrolytes afterwards, but not salt.  Oh yes, there were bits of egg yolk floating around in there, so there was at least one other ingredient.

Of course that didn't make for a very good night either. 

Traffic was heavy to the airport but we made it in good time.  I dropped Sandy at T3 with the luggage and went to T1 to turn in the rental, took the shuttle train and long walk back to T3, we checked in, all was well.  Our flight, which had been moved to an earlier departure time, was delayed to the original departure time about an hour later, so we hung out in CDG for a long while.

The flight was bearable.  I was never in dire need, just made regular trips, but it was disgusting.

The queue in PET airport for customs was huge.  There must have been 500 people.  The process is multi-step -- scan passports and declaration sheet, answer questions (all on machine), the queue again, brief ok with immigration officer (extra stations put on using lecterns for the occasion), pick up luggage, which is already on carousel due to huge queue in immigration, thank goodness, queue again, turn in photocopy of declaration that has been provided by aforementioned machine.  Is this progress ?  Is this taking fewer people to handle ?  I don't really think so !

Anyway, it was a delight to see Jim and Sheryl's smiling faces, get closed up in their car, far from the madding crowd (Thomas Hardy) and head to Hemmingford.   The first thing that I did was have a shower, cleaning all that airline head from myself. 

Jim grilled chicken; Sheryl did green beans, salad, potatoes.  I ate, what the hell, not a lot but I ate. 

It may be my imagination but perhaps it's calming down, just a little. 

It's been a tough end to the trip, but it was a good one.  Even knowing that this would happen, I'd do it again. 

Homeward.  Northward.