Post 3: Flightplan

Hey! So it took a while for the wi-fi to be set up and working in our little appartement so I am just now creating the first post across the pond!

The airport and flight experience was lovely... It started with a lovely cab driver who passed around a handout of the world's largest suspension bridge, which happens to be here in France!
When we got to the airport with our 7 huge bags plus carry-ons, we realized Tess had packed all of her toiletries in her carry-on so a speedy reorganization was necessary. Security went smoothly until a carry-on bag that was meant to be a checked bag was home to my toiletries... Oh well, bye bye Pantene Pro-V!

Mom became a heroine for me and Tess when she went back out from security to get little bottles for our larger fragrant products :)

Tess and Mom sat together and had zero sleep while sitting in front of "Turban Man." Tess believed that Turban Man was to be trusted.

I sat in a cozy little row with Olivia and Dad. We made friends with a cute French family and their baggage... Behind us there were some dedicated readers (Twilight Saga Fans) who couldn't seem to figure out how to use the folding trays that were attached to the back of our seats. The trays became a bit loud and rambunctious.

The individual TVs provided us with some interesting personal entertainment:
Tess: Amadeus, Alice in Wonderland, Serenity and Balance (taught her how to breathe peacefully) and a failed attempt to watch Wolfman.. "just a little too intense" [No sleep on the plane]
Olivia: Valentine's Day, NCIS, 2012, New Moon, Grey's Anatomy (never fully completing any of the shows or movies) and then she tried to enjoy some slow loading video games. [about 20 minutes of sleep]
Claire: It's Complicated, Love Actually & NCIS--I watched the movies and show from start to finish and was still able to be the only Dillon to sleep for about 2 hours on Olivia's arm and Dad's arm rest. [2-ish hrs of sleep on the plane]
Dad: Tried to avoid watching TV and attempted to sleep with his head on the tray in front of him... after that did not work he schemed to sleep on the floor, which also failed. After avoiding the selections he went through each genre repeatedly. Le Mans...he can't remember which shows that he obviously did not enjoy them [30-40 min of sporatic sleep]
Mom: The Ghost Writer, Amadeus and was forced to watch Serenity and Balance (by Tessala) [No sleep on the plane]

After an overall lovely experience on the plane, we exited the baggage claim expecting to find "Dominique" who would drive us to our apartement...we Dominique was a no-show but Stefan, his employee arrived with a town car for the 5 of us with our 7 suitcases (no such thing as traveling light). We ended up ditching the trimmed and clean Stefan for a more friendly and streetsmart Stefan with a decent size van! An excellent trade off, we all agree!

The ride from the airport seemed never-ending (probably like this post... :)) but Stefan was our hero who listened to Harry Conick Jr. and gave us recommendations for our rental van for next week. Merci beaucoup Stefan!!