Trip Survived

  After 6 flights, driving a right hand drive car on the wrong side of the road and two 25 plus hour days we made it to France and back successfully. The traveling was obviously quite long but relatively easy with no real problems. We made all our flight connections and had no hassles getting through the various passport and customs bits. So after all that how was it, let me surmise it in a list of thoughts that came up:-

1. French drivers are pretty shitty, wandering around in lanes and other dangerous driving things. I saw more dented cars there than here in the USA which I though was bad in the first place.
2. Our nephew is so big now especially since he is only almost 4. Also he has a thing for pirates right now with multiple viewings of the Aardman pirate movie and going to the pirate themed restaurant.
3. The area of France we visited reminded me how young the USA is. So much there is very old even down to the house we stayed in being built in 1836.
4. A baby can be incredibly clingy as our niece is right now. She really wanted to hold on to her mother most of the time or at least be in sight of her. If she didn't get to be with her mother she got very noisy.
5. We saw where my wife worked in France before I met her up in the mountains. It was a bit foggy and clouded over but it is strange to go somewhere your wife was before you met given so much we've experienced together since then.
6. One thing about old houses, they are creaky and hard to heat up. It got cold and noisy in the gite we stayed in there.
7. Doing basic computer maintenance made me a genius in the eyes of my sister in law and her husband. Scary when you think how much computers will feature in the future. Hopefully our nephew and niece pick it up a bit better than their parents.
8. We required an extra suitcase to bring back all the chocolate with us since our original one would have been overweight (again).
9. Being home is so much better than being in someones house. It felt so good to be back home afterwards.
10. Cats only take a day or two to get used to you being back after being away for 10 days. Nicely even Archer seemed to have missed us.

  I think that's it for now, my brain doesn't know what else to think of. Oh also I lost another 3 lbs in France despite eating pastries and stuff. No idea how that happened. Hopefully I'll be able to eat all the yummy stuff my wife is making and still lose weight (mince pies!!!!).