September 18 and 19

September 18


A day of mostly traveling from St Malo to Paris with a stop in Chartres to see the cathedral. So lots of time to just watch the French country side.

 

I caught this sign and road, somewhere nearby lives my friend Virginia! No time to hi-jack the bus for a visit, but I was in the area of France known as The Perche, the home of where Percheron horses were developed.

We got to Chartres about lunchtime so we were let loose to have lunch on our own and to find a few local goodies.

We then met up with our guide to take us through the cathedral and the gorgeous stained glass windows. The cathedral was not damaged during World War II.

The guide talked about "reading" stained glass windows, at least those from the 12th and 13th century. Bottom to top, look to see if there was a patron on the window and, then, looking for the rose windows.

As with many buildings it is being restored and cleaned, the after and the before on the quire screen around the altar.

The final hotel room of the trip, the last night was near Charles de Gaulle airport, so what should be a short jaunt in the morning to pick up the flight.

A quirk of the room, you had to put your key card in this slot to keep the lights on! But that way things get turned off, TV etc.

My last dinner in France, I went bold, I order chicken Pad Thai!

September 19

Homeward bound. There was a group of 6 of us on the same flight so we filled up the shuttle and even with all of the traffic we got a place to park near our airline. We were greeted by a rep of the tour company who got us all checked in for our flights, baggage tags printed, boarding passes printed. Then came the marathons of lines.

1. Drop off the checked bag, so get in a line and are asked by some people if you packed your own bag, then actually get it over the the airline people to turn it in. Got it up on the scale and it read 31 kilos. OMG, that equates with 68 pounds, I started off at 26. Maybe I bought a few things but I didn't think that much. Although I had stuffed everything I could in there to make my carry on as light as possible.

2. Walked maybe 50 yards and another check point, scanning boarding passes, nothing else and letting you proceed.

3. Boarder patrol. Gotta get the passport stamped for leaving the country, they even stamped it on the same page as coming in. Nice and neat.

4. Line for security. Get into a line, then they scan your boarding pass and put you into another line. What I found out later is that they are looking to see how soon your flight leaves, if you need to get pushed up to meet your flight, they walk you to the next area. So more lines but I had time. Security was easy, didn't have to take out phone or any electronics, so it was quick. They did put a sticker on my passport to show I had made it through security.

All of this took about 45 minutes and once you get through you are met with duty free heaven if you are a shopper. I didn't take any pictures, but all of the luxury French brands were there. Gucci, Chanel, Cartier. Not that I was going to buy anything or even wanting a look.

So about 30 minutes to kill before boarding started but I found the gate and was ready to sit. Flight to Detroit was uneventful although they kept feeding us. I swear about every two hours they came through with food and drink of some sort. I had an aisle seat and could see the bathroom so could do my thing when I wanted.

Landed, customs has changed on the US side as well. Put your passport in the scanner, answer questions, get your receipt. Then another line to be blessed by an actual agent. He wanted to know how much I spent. I guessed $500 and I was pretty close.

Claimed the suitcase and said farewell to my fellow travelers, dragged my bag over to the airline drop off and was very nicely directed to take the escalators up three levels to go through security. I did, no lines, although I needed to get my boarding pass reprinted to show I had TSA precheck.

Found the final gate at the farthest end of the terminal and could sit down and text my friends I was back in the USA and just waiting for the final flight in a few hours.

Final hop back to MKE, my friend was waiting right outside the terminal, we loaded up and were home in about 45 minutes. I could relax, sit down and have my lap invaded by my cat. I missed him and I think he missed me too.

It took a few days to get everything unpacked, sorted out and all. Get through over 2000 pictures, of which you have only seen a few.

It was an amazing trip, I had a great time and I am now on to figuring out what my next adventure will be.