Home At Last

Hello everyone,

We arrived in Paris at 5:50 am local time this morning after what started as a very long day that was also emotionally trying as we had to say goodbye to our neighbors and dear friends Betty, Alfred, and Paul Alcock but before that.......we had to pill Gracie Mae and Nelliebelle and put them into their soft Kitty Carriers (by Sherpa, very very chic...) for the trans Atlantic flight from Dulles to Paris.  Nelliebelle was easy but Gracie Mae...............let's just say that it took me, Paul, and Cassie to chase her down, grab her, wrap her up in towel (papoose) and almost 6 tries until we were able to get the kitty tranquilizer down her throat (full dose!) and then left her in closed up in our family room for 30 minutes so the drugs would kick in before trying to get her into the Carrier (another 10 minute ordeal with me and Paul).  Nellie naturally was easy to get into the carrier but pretty unhappy about it.

Gracie yelled all the way to Dulles (about 3 hours) to the point we were going to put her in the cargo hold of the plane but the Air France Agent told us that she would have needed to be in a hard case instead of the soft one so we would end up carrying both cats on to the plane.  I'm getting ahead of myself here.  After arriving at Dulles, things finally started to go right.  Hertz assigned us a driver to the Toyota Sienna we'd been driving to drop us off at the terminal so we didn't have to drag all of our bags onto the shuttle (a miracle!) and as soon as we unloaded our bags and the cats, Gracie fell quiet!

We checked in and THEN had to go through security...........with the TSA...........and we had to get the cats out of their bags..........with hundreds of people behind us............without our shoes on..........it was quite a circus but the cats were so stoned (THANK YOU GENEVIEVE NEALE!) and the TSA guy was so nice that it went smoothly (another miracle!).

Then it was up several long escalators (Kian hates these) and onto the concourse where we'd board the Boeing 777 (BIG PLANE) for the flight to Paris.  We had about 45 minutes to kill and hung out in the Business Class Lounge (sweet) and boarded from there. 

The Air France folks (ALL OF THEM) were superb and once we boarded the plane the flight attendants cooed over the cats, twins, and our entire family.  Kian and Niall had never flown before so this was also a watershed event for them (as soon as we boarded we gave them each small doses of Valium) but after we arrived both told me that they really didn't feel any different after taking the pills.  I still suspect that the Valium took the edge off.

Anyway, the plane got ready for takeoff and the flight attendants strapped the cats into their own seats and then brought them back to us after we were in the air.  The guys did great and even slept for a while on the plane after supper (steak, potatoes, green beans which they snarfed).  I sat next to a really nice lady who is originally from Turkey who just adored the cats and who is starting a jewelry business in Paris. We chatted about lots of stuff and I introduced her to Cassie and we exchanged business cards.  The flight was pretty uneventful and after close to 8 hours we arrived in Paris at Charles De Gaul airport where NOBODY wanted to see any of the paperwork on the cats nor did anyone wand the cats to check their bar codes Genevieve went to such great lengths to do for us.  Go figure.....*

Cassie's colleague Frank Freudiger had already arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport.  The driver spoke little or no English and was listening to what sounded like one of those wacky morning shows we used to hear in the US with horns honking and they played euro-pop music and hip hop so we had that for the final drive from the airport to our neighborhood at around 7 AM and everything was REAL QUIET but the apartment is magnifique!  Kian and Niall immediately wanted to rest although Kian set up his computer first followed by Niall after a short nap.  Gracie climbed into Niall's bed and Nellie made the rounds until she calmed down.  Everyone settled in and after some emailing and other calls Cassie and I napped for a while.  It's going to take Gracie a while to recover from this.  Nellie has eaten but not Gracie although I suspect she will while everyone sleeps tonight.

Cassie took me to dinner tonight at Brasserie 16 which is about 3 blocks (big Parisian blocks) from our apartment and we had a KICK ASS dinner including desert which featured corrections on our French by our waiter who was very gracious and pleased we ordered from the French menu as opposed to their English one.  I suspect this will be one of our haunts here in the 16th.  On the way back we picked up 12 inch Subway (yes, THAT Subway....) subs for the twins who were well pleased with the early taste of home.  It's 8:40 here now and we're in for the evening.  I'm going to stay up as late as I can and so will the twins and we'll begin exploring the hood tomorrow.  So ends one of the most momentous days in the history of our family.

And after all these wonderful and amazing things..........pigeons are screwing on the ledges of our back windows.  I can hear them now.  Gotta get a couple of large rubber snakes and the Great Horned Owl that Tray gave us before we left.

Love to all everywhere!

Sid