


after a tumultous week wrapping up (almost) piles of work, i finally boarded the plane for paris on thursday. a couple of things i have learned about traveling to paris:
1. have a plan for meeting people, saying you will meet at the car rental counter will not suffice. mostly because there are 4+ counters for each place.
2. use the same travel service for plane and car rental. otherwise you may start your car reservation on the same day you left the states, or one day earlier than you arrive in paris. at that point, you will pay 4x your original reservation price to get a car on the spot.
beyond that and some other drama driving around the big city, we made it to our little Gite and were pleasantly surprised with the accomodations. the climbing so far is beyond comparison and we have met up with some old friends from the states. my french is completely worthless but it is almost more fun to go to the market, point at something, hold out some money and let them take what they need. the people have been nothing but friendly and energetic.
i feel like i am in an old world war 2 movie driving around through these old french villages. having a hard time uploading photos...