Leaving San Diego!

Well I honestly feel like my trip to France was last minute. I had only even thought of it as a possibility about a month before I actually left. I thought about it a lot and kept going back and forth between going and not going. It seemed like there were so many factors! I weighed all the facts and finally made the desicion to go. I'd been keeping an eye on the ticket prices and it seemed like it was a good deal on them right then as well. I figured this opportunity doesn't come to every one and it doesn't come very often!




Long story short, the ticket was purchased a week before the flight was to leave. On July 29, 2011 ealry in the morning, I set off for a most amazing adventure. A friend of mine, Clarke, was kind to drive me to the airport bright and early. Security and all took a little longer than I had anticipated and barely made it to the plane on time! Soon I was safely on my flight to Houston though. I was very excited and nervous - having no idea what to expect and knowing that I wasn't too great at the French language. But off I went!





The flight to Houston, Texas went well. I was soon on the plane headed across half of the United States and across the Atlantic, to land in Paris, France. It seemed a little surreal, not really having any idea of what to picture for when I arrived. I would just be finding out things as I went along! I never went to sleep for the entire trip from San Diego to Paris!

Once the map in the airplane was showing that we were flying over the British Isles and approaching Europe, I could hardly believe it but it started to become more real and I could hardly wait till we landed. These were places that I only ever looked at on global maps, not physically fly over or visit! What would it be like? It was morning just as we were coming to Europe so I was blessed to see a most beautiful surise over the English Channel from the plane. It was breathtaking.



Well when the plane landed I was thrilled to just be soaking everything in. I was enchanted by the foreign language being spoken around me and the new culture that I was now completely surrounded by. This is a picture of me after I got off the plane... even though I didn't feel tired at all, I think I was subconsciencly exhausted. My main concern was to get my baggage, and then find a train or bus that would take me from the Charles-de-Gaulle aeroport to the Montparnasse gare in time to catch my train to La Rochelle to meet up with Celeste. The Montparnasse gare (train station) was on an opposite side of Paris. I prayed that all would go well in that regard and it did. It was fairly simple to find a bus quickly enough (I was quite excited to use what little french I knew, even though the people at the information desk spoke english) and soon I was safely at the gare with planty of time to spare.