So Far So Good!

 

The look of jet lag!

We are finally at the end of a day that sort of started yesterday.  Liv and the kids have crashed between 8 & 9 pm local time, after spending all of yester/today flying.

It all started with Cam channeling his inner Stroker Ace and getting us to the airport right on time with his vernerable trailer full of boxes- 

 

And leaving us with a picture that was eerily familiar from 4 years ago -

Somehow it felt like less stuff this time. The Icelandair folks were nice as always, and after a watchful eye was utilized to ensure that the TSA did a proper job of retaping after they inspected, we were off.

There were many uncertainties when we finally made it to Paris, but the air tags said that the bikes had flown with us, even if it semed like hours before they finally were dragged out to us -

After being assured by the man who brought them out that we could only get them through customs by stacking them vertically on their noses (not a way I would ever intentionally move a bike box), we put them on our little luggage cart wide and tall, and just steam rolled through the baggage claim area.  The security at customs took one look at our three luggage carts heaped with boxes and bags, and just opened the double doors to the street and sent us on our way, no paperwork, no questions, no lines, just "please leave".  That was not on our best case scenario bingo card, but we rolled with it and then tackled the next big leap of faith.  We had been assured that instead of turning ourselves inside out trying to book a special van from the states to haul our large load, (which hadn't really worked for us in England last time) all we had to do was go to the head of the taxi line and say "Van please."  Weirdly, it mostly worked.  The Taxi Matron took one look at the boxes and our pile and the four of us and began to equivocate, but was willing to get us a van to see if we could convince the driver.  Sure enough, in not too long, we were fairly snugly ensconced in Paul's lovely van - 

Just your run of the mill Lebanese former Canadian  Pastry Chef turned Parisian cab driver experience (if I had a dollar for every time I have heard that line...)

He got us to our airB&B with no challenges, and most importantly, we got his number to book him directly for the ride back to the airport next month.

Liv went out foraging while the kids tried to stay awake and I unboxed bikes.  The wonderful landlord of this place has offered to store our boxes (and bikes while we are in Italy) in the basement here, which is another huge challenge removed from our planning.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy while we do two museum tours, then sunshine for the near future.  We will take whatever we get, and look forward to getting on the road.

Thanks for reading, and we will have to see what goes peculiarly wrong in our near future!

Dave & the Fam