About 9 months ago, I began to coordinate a trip to France with a friend who lives in Lyon, France. She is an American, but has been living in Lyon for the past 5 years. She teaches English during the school year and coordinates trips to France during the summer months.
I have always loved to travel and I have even put together several group trips of my own to New York City. This was going to be the year that my sister and I would discover Paris, Normandy, Lyon and Annecy.
My sister and I have always been told that our descendants on our father's side came from France. Our maiden name is "Chappell". It is pronounced with the french accent. During WWI, our grandfather(our mother's father) was stationed in France. We have several postcards that he wrote to his mom during the war talking about his time in France.
With all of this in mind and neither my sister and I have been to France, we thought "2020" would be the year. In September, we began to talk with our friend, Becca, and we decided we wanted to share the fun and excitement with other friends. We let everyone know and seven other friends said that they wanted to be a part of this exciting trip.
Becca did an excellent job in putting together an itinerary. We wanted to see as much as we could in 12 days. We were spending several days in Paris and then we were taking the train to Normandy and then the train to Lyon and then we would discover Annecy. Of course, we would need to spend one more night in Paris before we flew back to the USA. We were so looking forward to visiting museums, eating at cafe's on the sidewalk, seeing where the invasion of Normandy took place, going to wineries, enjoying a cooking class and so much more.
For the past 8 months, I have been sending cards with the Eiffel Tower on it, as well as other items to the group to get them excited for this trip. I have a picture of the Eiffel Tower taped on my bathroom mirror. Every day I get to envision the Eiffel Tower. I practice speaking French with Duolingo each morning.
Clothing! Well, I purchased the cutest dresses with the cutest pair of Keds Tennis Shoes. I even purchased a 19 inch luggage so that I could carry on. That was definitely going to be a challenge, as I normally take everything plus the kitchen sink when I travel. This was going to be the trip that I would downsize. It was going to be me, my carry-on luggage and backpack. I was ready to explore the country of France with minimum amount of clothing and other items.
Today was the day that I was flying from Denver to Chicago with a four hour layover in Chicago before boarding United Airline for Charles de Gaulle Airport. All day long, I was thinking where would I be at this time if life hadn't turned upside down.
I can just imagine flying into Terminal B in Chicago and then meeting two other friends who were on the same flight to Paris. We would have to have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants "Tortas Frontera" in Terminal B and then walk over to Terminal C to go into the United Club(since we were flying International). I would also made sure that I had my 10,000 steps in before we boarded for Paris at 4:30 p.m.
Since this was a special trip, I was using my mileage points to upgrade to First Class. I wanted to be able to stretch out and have some leg room and to try to get some sleep before we landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at 9:30 am. Also in First Class, the flight attendants serve chocolate sundaes with whipped cream and a cherry on top after your meal. I was so looking forward to enjoying the ice cream sundae.
For the next 11 days, I am planning to go on a virtual tour of the places where I would have traveled to. Thank you for joining me as I discover and explore France!
2 comments:
It sucks that we cannot travel aat this stage and holidays planned and paid for have to be shelved at least for a bit
Pretty good attitude about it!
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