The Long Way Home

We're home. Obviously.But I realize now that I never told the excruciating story of how, exactly our 18 hour trip itinerary turned into 3 days of travel.

After our cleaning spree and three hours of sleep the night before at ALOES, we managed to enjoy a incredibly relaxing and sleep-filled evening and night with our great friends Janice and Jeramy. It had been snowing pretty steadily for a few days and we were beginning to get worried about our impending voyage but were determined to stay positive.

Well, we were feeling positive until we flipped the page of our French phrase-a-day calendar to this eerie premonition of a phrase if I ever saw one.

And despite a night of even more snowfall, Jeramy sucked it up and drove us all the way to the Luxembourg airport (about 45 minutes without snow) on roads that looked like this or worse. Since France doesn't normally get nearly the snow we get here in the northeastern United States, they aren't in the habit of performing much winter maintenance.

We had checked the status of our flight online and although the Luxembourg airport's website showed hardly any delays, we came upon an entirely different situation when we arrived at the airport and checked in after only an hour or so in the car. We were told by the counter worker that not only was she unable to issue the boardin passes for our subsequent flights (something about Delta airlines not being in cooperation with Lux airport) but to top it off, our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. We knew this would cause problems when we made it to Paris since we would have to somehow manage to leave one terminal in Paris, make it to another terminal, get boarding passes, then get through security and to our flight all within 30 minutes. But there was no turning back at this point; if we wanted to get home, Paris was as good as anywhere. We then walked downstairs to the departures area to find that almost all flights going out of Luxembourg were delayed, some by 6 or 7 hours. It looked like everyone was feeling stranded. 

Our plane did leave at it's scheduled delayed time (which is much more than could be said for many other flights leaving Lux) and the flight went smoothly for how much snow had fallen the night before. Hearing others talk on the flight made us realize just how much mayhem the inclimate weather would likely cause; it seemed that the entire back half of the plane where we sat would be missing or had already missed their connecting flight in Paris. We would all be spending lots of time together in Charles de Gaulle whether we wanted to or not. 

We attempted to make to our gate upon arrival in Charles de Gaulle. We ran though the terminals then waited in line at the Delta ticketing desk for a good 15 minutes only to be told that even though our flight was technically through Delta, only the Air France ticketing desk could help us. So we ran down to the Air France desk to find ourselves in the longest and slowest moving line I have ever been in at an airport. It turned out that our arrival had corresponded with the closure of Heathrow airport in London and the giant line in front of us was made up of one or two planes worth of people trying to get a re-scheduled flight into an airport where no flights were scheduled. Michael waited in line while I tracked down a rogue Air France worker who agreed to check on the status of our flight since we may still have some hope of getting out. Unfortunately for us, that flight was the last Charles de Gaulle to Detroit flight to make it out without delays before the real delays started.

We stayed in line for awhile, hardly moving at all, when we started hearing security warnings over the loudspeaker pertaining to a unclaimed bag at the gate were we were all patiently waiting in line. After 5 or so announcements asking the owner of the bag to return and claim it, the swat team and military gunmen descended upon the area and pushed us all out of line and down the hallway. After 20 minutes or so of waiting, the barriers were finally taken down and there was a mad dash for the start of the line. Being young and agile, we managed to greatly increase our line place but it turned out to be useless because only minutes later we heard a rumor just before the announcement that we needed to move the entire line way down the hall to the last ticketing gate, which led to yet another mad dash. Despite our relatively good place in line we still waited around for at least 2 hours before making it to the front of the line where we were able to speak to an agent. Within 10 minutes we had been set up with a new flight itinerary for the next day, a dinner voucher and a voucher for a hotel with breakfast.

At dinner we started to feel closer to home already simply because of a glass of orange juice served with ice (!) and a straw (!).

After dinner we made our way towards our hotel (an Ibis, which is a very common French hotel). We got off of the airport tram and there it was! (Or so we though.) We waited in line there only to be told that we were at the wrong Ibis and we needed to go out to the shuttle stop to be taken to our Ibis on the outskirts of the outskirts of town. So we went, and we waited, and we waited. And eventually we started to hear rumors that the hotel shuttles had stopped because of the snow and that they *might* begin to run again if the roads are plowed. What?!? 

I went out to check the taxis but was told by other waiters that they had just had an altercation with a cab driver who refused to take anyone to hotels, so I turned on my heels and went back inside.

After a bit, Michael and I went back on the tram to the main terminal to speak with the Air France reps who assured us that a bus would be there soon. We were finally met by a large charter bus that must have been hired by the airline to shuttle us all out to the hotels. The ride rough, the roads were terrible and the driver spent most of the drive calling the powers that be on his radio to inform them that "les routes ne sont ni salés" (the roads are not salted), and this was unacceptable. But finally, we made it.

And it was lovely.

 

 And one last French styled breakfast was thoroughly enjoyed.

We left the next morning with the snow still coming down (in the same hired shuttle, the  normal ones had still not started up again).

And after 6 hours of delays, lots of worry, terminal changes, multiple goes through security and lots more worry, we finally were on the plane and in the air somewhere over the Atlantic. As you can see, Air France knows how to feed it's customers. We spent the 9 hour flight happily eating, drinking, watching Toy Story III and attempting to stay awake despite landing in Detroit when our bodies thought it was 3am. 

We touched down many hours after the Detroit international wing normally closes so instead of having roughly 30 customs agents to shuffle us through, we waited in line while 9 overtime agents struggled to handle two large planes full (roughly 600 people). We were then further questioned and checked because of some questionable items that we brought back (seeds, food).

Thankfully though, the Delta ticket desk in Detroit was prepared for our late arrival and as we walked toward the desk we were stopped by an agent at a table who asked our name and handed us our hotel voucher, food vouchers ($36 to spend in one night since our hotel had a continental breakfast) and our re-scheduled flight for the next day. And after re-checking our bags (they had to go through customs with us) we walked out to our waiting hotel shuttle and collapsed into our seats, just happy to be back on US soil.

Again, we had nice accomodations, much larger but not quite as sleek and modern as the Paris Ibis.

What a very flattering picture; thanks Michael for capturing this moment of washing my underwear out in the hotel sink.

 $30 worth of terrible, horrible, American take-out pizza and ribs. Don't get me wrong, it tasted wonderful but was hard on a digestion unaccustomed to American style take out. I'm fairly certain there was at least 5x the amount of cheese that we would have put on any Friday night pizza.

We slept soundly but only until about 5am when our internal clocks said "whoa, it's 11 and you're not up!?". We got to the airport early after our continental breakfast and after various de-icing and runway delays we finally got off the ground.

Now I will say that I am not the most calm of airplane riders and this flight did not do well for my nerves. There was no lack of turbulence and difficulty landing (we circled the runway multiple times) and to make matters worse, Michael and I were separated due to the lateness of our reservations so I had no one's hand to squeeze while it was all happening. 

But we finally made it down and made it home; and I couldn't have been happier.

Arrivals

 They made it! Safe and sound.

 There was only a short delay at the airport; 50 minutes where were were able to run out of the airport (thus renewing our 30 minutes of free parking) to buy Luxembourgian gas at a whopping 20 cents less per liter than in France (that's the rough equivalent of 80 cents less per gallon.

 And even after all that travel they were still up for the scenic route home which gave us a fabulous view of the Moselle river valley (and wine region).

We stopped at our favorite grocery store and picked up the essentials (beef, mushrooms, peal onions and wine) for a great pot of boeuf bourguignon.

Mmm...well worth the 3+ hours it took to cook.

Today we hung around for a bit making plans and reservations then headed to to the thrift store for costumes for Kimber's 2nd birthday party/costume party. Dad and I went as Steelers player while mom went as a fan and Michael managed to find the makings of an Italian soccer player's costume. As you can see though, the food was great at the party; the most complete American spread I've seen since being here including: cheese dip, mexican layer dip, spinach dip and dirt 'n worms cupcakes!

We spent a great time eating, playing Halloween pictionary and playing with kids galore. Were any of you aware that my Dad is a child magnet?

After the party we headed into town for a quick walking tour before our delicious dinner reservations.

Valentine Weekend in the Country of Love

Since buying our car last Monday we had managed (up until last weekend) to do nothing but use to to shop. Not for expensive stuff, mind you. We were more interested in comparing our local grocery stores to the others we had heard of from students with cars. Yes, we are domesticated dorks/foodies. Our first outing was to the Auchan on the north of the city, which was a disappointment. It was old and dirty and honestly, the prices didn't seem that different. From our little excursion, however, we did ascertain that they have a wonderful selection of Belgian beers by the bottle, cheap nori for sushi making and...wait for it, RAW SHRIMP. Since moving to France, we have not once been able to find raw shrimp. It's odd, back in the US, people argue (mainly in food sections of newspapers) that the FDA stifles us too much with mandatory milk and cheese pasteurization. They argue in France, they obviously trust their residents to make their own food related decisions, which is true in the dairy department. However, it has become strangely apparent that the French government, while very lenient in their milk laws, does not trust the French people to cook their own crustaceans. I don't even know that we used shrimp all that often back home but believe me, I noticed when I couldn't attain the raw form (cooked shrimp are all over, and they are cooked perfectly, I might add). So, knowing we wouldn't be up that way for awhile, we grabbed a bag of shrimp which we used to make a yummy shrimp scampi on Thursday night.

Friday afternoon we made another trip to the E. Leclerk near Janice and Jeremy's apartment. To say the least, it is now our favorite hypermarché (French for supermarket). It's very large and nice...oh, and the fish section doesn't smell like old fish (unlike Cora). And as the icing on the cake, they seem to have a good many wines in our low price range in their absolutely immense wine section.

After another enjoyable afternoon in the grocery store, we were invited up to Leah and Kyle's apartment to partake in some delicious southern fare. Kyle made us a batch of cheesy grits (well, it was really polenta, but it's not easy locating southern food supplies in rural France) topped off with sausage and peppers. It was delicious in all of it's cheezy, buttery goodness and I hope, will inspire us to delve into the world of cornmeal mash. And after dinner, we enjoyed some yummy stewed apples and conversation.

On Saturday we set off on our first real (mini) car trip with Lune Rousse, which is what the French call the April Moon. We wanted to keep in the astronomical genre for the car's name since my Saab back home is StellaLuna, and since rousse is what one would call a redhead, it seemed fitting. We do have a long break coming up at the end of this week, so with that in mind, we decided to just make a short day trip up to explore the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (meaning it is ruled by a Grand Duke). After reading a bit, we decided to pick an old castle to go to, then wing it from there. The first castle was a bit of a disappointment but with the help of our trusty gps, we found another that was much more interesting, although closed (what did we expect on a Saturday afternoon?). On our way to the 3rd castle, we went through a town that hosts the home of the Grand Duke. The house and grounds were insanely huge and we managed to get a few drive-by pictures before parking for some better views. Michael walked up to the gate in order to take a picture when a grumpy looking security guard (as if there are any other kinds of security guards) poked his head through the blinds of the guardhouse, knocked on the window, and very sternly waved his finger at us. So instead of taking a picture there, we moved around the exterior until we found a good shot of the mansion without a nearby guardhouse (shown on the right).

After stopping at one final castle, which was by far the most impressive, we decided that if we spent much more time driving through the beautiful Luxembourg countryside, we would lose any chance at getting to the grocery store before they closed until Monday. Again, with the help of our gps, we found yet another E.Leclerk in a northern suburb of Metz and as if this is even possible, this one was bigger than the first! We stocked up for that night and Valentine's day and headed home for pizza and a Chimay beer tasting.

Valentine's day was a lovely and relaxing day in for us in the kitchen (what else is new?). We started our feast with some escargot and then Michael surprised me with  a jar of foie gras entier (meaning the liver is kept intact rather than ground up as we had before) and a bottle of Sauternes which is what you apparently have to drink with foie gras. It is quite expensive to buy in the states so why not try it here where is not cheap, but not going to break the bank. For our  main course we put a couple of quail on the rotisserie with cumin and orange juice and made some delicious garlic mashed potatoes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last year). We had a rosé Crémant de Borgogne (pink for Valentine's day) which is a sparkling wine with our dinner and for dessert, we made an easy chocolate whiskey bundt cake. I will leave you with my favorite picture of the weekend, my wonderful husband (wearing his shirt -- I steal it all the time).