Citotel Hotel De Harlay Compiègne

Well - would you believe the excess baggage fee cost the same amount as my ticket? I knew I would (actually work would) be hit with the charge, but the equivalent cost of another ticket? I guess it was still cheaper than having someone fly from the US by having me divert on my way back from vacation.

After leaving late from Heathrow, we got another delay in Paris. Get this, the power to all the jet ways was lost. So another 20-30 minutes of sitting on a plane. So by the time I got off the plane, got my bags, and headed for the train - I knew I was going ...

... through a little chicken wire, we figured, why not? For the record, it was totally worth it…and we were very careful not to fall off any ancient walls or mess up anything historical, promise.

After eating lunch inside the town (peanut butter and jelly! Seems not too exciting, but when peanut butter is as expensive as it is here, trust me, this is a treat), we headed off to our second stop, Laon...read on!

... all of which must fit in a one quart bag, pull out the laptop and camera equipment, remove shoes etc.) I had 90 minutes to do all this, but by the time I jumped through all the hoops, the Air France flight was boarding.

The 747 was and not too full, I was pleased to have two empty seats beside me, which is getting to be very rare experience flying these days. The pilot welcomed us over the intercom and among other things informed us that we would likely encounter ...

... of the plane. I got evil stares from everyone as I was taking my bag up front while we were still moving. But I barely made it to the other plane. They told me I wouldn't have to go through security again. But as I know when transiting CDG, there is no way around it. Luckily, I'm good at taking things off and having my bag organized to assist. Sure wish I went through Amsterdam instead.

... impressions of places and CDG airport struck me as 'dingy.'  It is old and colorless with shades of grey, has vast arching spaces and tons of bewildered looking people. My first experience in Europe and on a high speed train was fabulous.  It was quiet, smooth, relatively comfortable, fairly economical, fast and efficient.  We need some of that in the US.  How great would it be to link up some of the cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio with high speed trains?

... I suggested we go check it out. Since she had a car we drove to the bowling alley, which proved a little tricky to find, but we made it. When we got there the place was of course packed. Not only did they have bowling, but they also had a go-kart track, lazer tag, and pool. It was also pretty expensive, so we passed, and headed back to Noyon. On Sunday, Suzanne had planned a tea party and invited assistants from Compiegne over to her place. There is ...

Amiens, where we ate at noon was not our main goal fior the trip that day. It was Gerberoy. A beauty but a little dissappointing. Dissappointing because there was an art fair and we were not able to enjoy its quiteness that normally exists. Our daughter had a lesson in school about the crême de Chantilly. In Gerberoy we decided to visit Chantilly.

... of St. Just-en-Chaussee probably wouldn't appreciate our pronunciation or the reason we chose to stop there. But it was another inspired choice, in the same way that Portico di Romagna was. We stopped at a Hotel/Bar and asked where we could get accommodation for the night. "Here, if you also have dinner" was the reply of the proprietor. The rooms were decorated classic country. The dining room tables were laid with ...

... we stand there for a while admiring our work. Then, the art teacher promised to cut the paper in pieces after it was dry and to hand everyone of us a piece, so that sometime in the future we could meet again and put the pieces of the paper together to make it whole one more time. At the evening we went to the mairie in order to be welcomed by the maire of Luzarches. It was boring, but we got pretty postcards of Luzarches, so it wasn't a complete loss of time.