Paris, then Back to Chicago
It was such a wonderful trip, I was very sorry to end it on such an irritating note. But I dragged myself out of bed early on Sunday, took several dramamine, and walked to the train station, where we caught the regional train to Lyon, and then transferred to the TGV back to Paris.
Although I just wanted to sleep, I couldn't, but at least the scenery was interesting and ever-changing.
Vineyards
along the Rhone
Finally, arriving in Paris at Gare du Lyon (below), all I wanted was to find our hotel and go to bed. I had hoped for a pleasant last night back in Paris; I hoped to walk down to Notre Dame and see it again (my last visit was 1976). But we were tired and a bit disoriented, and it took a while to locate our hotel, Hotel Lyon-Bastille, a 3-star hotel near the train station (I assumed it would be easy to catch a taxi there back to the airport, which it was). We finally found rue du Parrot and checked in to our room--nice service, and the smallest elevator I have ever been in, barely room for me and a suitcase (Tom took the stairs to the 5th floor). The room was comfortable, and the view out the window was the ultimate Paris street scene. We had a light dinner of kebabs and rice at a nice Turkish restaurant (Cappadocia), then went to bed.
On Monday morning, we awoke early to catch a 10:00 taxi for our 12:40 flight back to Chicago. De Gaulle Airport was a nightmare. The line stretched through 3 halls of the terminal. Finally around noon, someone pulled us out of line and moved us to the front so we could catch our flight on time--of course, then we had to go through passport control, security, and customs. We arrived at our gate right at 12:40, to find the flight was delayed 3 hours (you can just make out terminal 2 through the fog in the photo below, as we were boarding the plane). And there was no where to sit, as the New York flight in the next bay was also late boarding. As the plane was taking off, we had more excitement, as the ceiling started leaking a steady stream of water directly on Tom's head--the flight attendants said it was the cooling system, and we shouldn't worry. Right. After an interminable flight, we finally saw the golden lights of Chicago along the lakefront. Back to reality.
