"Paree" Chickadee July 7, 2023
Hello from.... Parris???
You read that correctly. And no, this was not part of the plan.
Well, the delay in Houston cause quite a kink in the plans. It turns out, the Paris airport is actually 3 different airports (terminals) in one. If your flight comes in one and leaves another, you are looking forward to a three-hour commute to your next gate. Every building stands alone and requires customs and security clearance to exit and enter.
So, we landed in terminal one, traveled as fast as we could to terminal two and missed our flight by over an hour. All American Airline reps were gone, as were all attendants or representatives in the entire terminal. We made it through the phones lines to find that we had new flights assigned….. back in terminal one. We rushed back through it all, customs, train, security… to find that we missed the new flight as well. Another call, and another assignment left us rebooked for the following day. This sounded like bad news until we realized that we were stranded in Paris!!!
We checked into a hotel close to the airport where we slept like logs and woke to eat the best breakfast of our lives. To top that, we were only a few minutes from the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel tower!
When I started doing work overseas, my mother said she would love to join me. However, the caveat was that I would need to be working in Italy or France. Humanitarian work has taken me to many places but never Europe. That is, until this trip... that my mother happens to be accompanying me on.
Mom just cried and cried as she expressed how overwhelmed she was. This is her first trip out of the country and she never imagined she would ever see France. Here she obligated herself to a tough work in a hot country where she would have to drink more than she sweat and take Malaria pills daily. To see her in Paris was such a gift as we prepared ourselves for the work to come. I wouldn't take this detour back for the world.
Much Needed Rest: Check
Best Hotel Breakfast: Check, Check
Picture of a Kenyan Chickadee with the Eiffel Tower: Check, Check, Check
The chickens all seemed to enjoy the sights. They all wanted pictures in front of the Eiffel tower and were quite the love birds walking across Love Lock Bridge.
