Avec Beatrice

It has been an eventful past few days.

On our way into the airport, Sam and I got frisked by security. I don't know why, exactly, but we were "randomly chosen" to be frisked. The two of us. Together. Yes, I know. Quite random. The padded up and down our legs and thighs and apparently the dude frisking Sam kept telling him to look at the people going through his stuff (because in front of us were people rifling through our backpacks). We complied, of course, but it just felt over-the-top and unnecessary.

When we got to our waiting area, we were still very excited, energetic, and full of hope for our trip.

The plane ride was a wee bit rough; I don't ever remember it being such an uncomfortable ordeal. But I was smaller last time I rode the plane and therefore able to sleep easier in the seats. Well, take off made me feel gross and my ears NEVER popped... of course, later I found out that I was also stuffy and full of mucous, so in retrospect that is probably why. But seriously, I had trouble hearing things.

Sam and I tried to watch one of the inflight movies. The one where Johnny Depp is an iguana or a chameleon or something, and he suddenly becomes sheriff. I didn't know what was going on because I couldn't hear anything through my headset, so I quickly gave up on it.

In flight dinner was delicious, but I felt too gross to eat all of its deliciousness. This was probably due to the fact that I was full of mucous. Sam got some red wine to accompany his wondiferlous chicken curry.

Additionally, a woman fainted infront of us on the plane. It was a little scary.

Well, eventually the long flight ended and we got off at Heathrow in London to switch planes. But guess what! The bus that took us from the plane to the port brought us ONE MINUTE late. Because we were ONE MINUTE late (and not for the actual take-off, mind you. Late for the appropriate time to board, which was thirty minutes earlier than take-off), Sam and I missed our flight.

Fortunately, we were booked for another plane without an issue and given 20 pounds for food.  By the way, British folk are incredibly nice. Every single one of them we talked to was so helpful.

Unfortunately (besides missing the flight being unfortunate) we had to wait five hours until the next plane that went to Orly in Paris. I was quite miserable and feeling worse. I had a headache and already went through so many tissues, my nose was starting to turn red.

 And, as you can see, we are not as perky as had been oh-say, 13 hours before? I know I was starting to go crazy. You can tell. I've got the crazies in my eyes.


We ate a place in the Heathrow airport called EAT. I got a delicious sandwich and the cashier woman was really really helpful. I was tired and out of it, and almost on the verge of tears. I'm sure she could probably tell. She helped me out, got me a fruit salad and an apple and all these other things. It was a lot of food for 10 pounds.

Eventually, we made it to France and received a warm welcome from Beatrice and one of her daughters, Genevieve-Marie. It was wonderful seeing them and Beatrice gave me an enormous hug. When we got to their house, they fed us and Sam and I went to sleep.

Around some crazy hour in the night, I woke up full of snot and spent the rest of my evening sneezing and blowing my nose until the skin under it was red. At around 9am, Beatrice gave me some medicine and I finally slept.

The next day started late. Sam and I woke up slowly. I got to steal his nasal spray for my own using. After that, we ate lunch and then went through Paris (my uncle Laurant drove us) to see where Grand-pere stayed.

It was hard, seeing his room. All of his pictures of family and such. And there were pictures of me too, and pictures I drew for him. I cried a little at first, but after some tea I helped pack up some of his things. Sam helped too. He also took this pictures from outside on the roof:

After that, I felt really sick on the metro. That is when Beatrice told me I was like my mom and did not travel well. I thought," Oh. That is good, I guess." I slept until dinner time when we got back. Dinner was good. I didn't eat a lot at first, but finished up some more later.

Beatrice and her family live in the city of Houilles, so all day today was Houilles-Day. Sam and I got to walk around. We looked for a place to buy a pre-paid phone but couldn't find anything. It was a nice walk regardless.

Afterwards, Beatrice took us to the train station so we could reserve tickets with our Eurorail pass. Well, looks like transportation luck is not with us. Apparently, in France, you have to book your seats 2-3 months in advance! And there was absolutely nothing for us. So Sam and I had to end up purchasing new tickets all over again. It was crazy!

We purchased a Youth Pass so everything would be cheaper too, and had to get these pictures taken. It was our souvenir of France.



 This is us quite unhappy.
We were quite unhappy, you see.

Beatrice told us later that France is too complicated with the train system and that French people are crazy. I appreciated her sympathies.

Oh, and this is their kitty. Except it is not their kitty, its their neighbor's kitty. But this kitty doesn't like their neighbor anymore and lives with them and eats with them (Beatrice and her family, not the neighbor).

This is Beatrice's family. We leave tomorrow on a train to Brittany!