It seems almost silly to write about my last few hours in Paris. It's been nearly two weeks since my return and Paris seems impossibly far away again.
But despite my mixed day without Jeanne, my last hours in Paris were lovely.
I woke up completely rested and recovered from homesickness. I was genuinely sad to be leaving Paris. I wanted another week! But I got dressed and hauled my bags to the lobby.
The front desk staff was very sweet in their goodbyes. I was sorry that Mounira wasn't there. She'd been the most effusively charming host we could have hoped for.
The shuttle arrived on time and I was lucky enough to be the final passenger. Straight to Charles de Gaulle!
There was no traffic on a Saturday morning and we got there much earlier than expected. I passed through customs and ended up having a lovely chat with my ticket agent in French. It was a good measure of how much my French had improved in just a week. (All of that's gone now, I'm afraid, but for a week I was really riding high on the language curve!)
Off to the gate and some final random shopping. A quick hit at Fauchon, some last minute magnets for my aunts, and one of those exciting neck pillows that I've always envied on other passengers from a company called BE RELAX! (That thing paid for itself on the trip home.)
I had a final baguette sandwich that was pure joy (and more than made up for my final tragic meal) and bought approximately 500 gallons of water because I was tired of being dehydrated. And hilariously, one of my classmates (Thomas) was on my flight. I turned around in the line to board and there he was! I knew he was going to be in Paris at the same time, but I didn't expect to bump into him on the flight home!
I'm pretty sure we had a German flight crew. They looked German. Their accent (when speaking English) was German. They were the most cheerful and efficient and friendly staff EVER. I don't know how they managed to be slightly robotic and yet completely warm at the same time, but they did.
My flight attendant was utterly fantastic and seemed sincerely interested in providing us with the best and most comfortable flight possible. And her efforts were successful. I had a bulkhead aisle seat. We sat down, had drinks service, had a meal, I watched four movies, had another meal, and boom we were home! (You never expect to make wonderful discoveries from airplane food, but my chicken had a side of bulgar wheat which was fantastic! It's a grain I've never really paid much attention to before, but now plan to!)
The flight was the easy part, customs was another story. But after the lines and hassles and forms, I was out the other end and my good friend Amy T. was waiting for me. It was nice to see a friendly face and a ride home.
Home may not be Paris, but it is home. It's good to be back and dream of the prochaine fois....