Getting There

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry" -- who knew Stienbeck had done a lot of international air travel.

The trip to France started off with lines in Austin. Bad weather in Dallas canceled all American flights for the rest of the day to Dallas. At the American counter, we waited an hour while the airline ticket agent worked on finding a new set of flights. Our Austin-Dallas-London-Nice trip had changed to Austin-Chicago-London-Nice and the connection to Nice was oversold, so we were only confirmed for a day later. The flights to Chicago and London were uneventful, but long. Arriving in London, the fun started. Since our connection to Nice was unconfirmed we had to get our checked baggage (including my bike box) and carry it across the airport. After trekking across the airport with the bike and all our other luggage, British Airways informs us that there was really no chance of making any of the connections to Nice on Wednesday. The flights where oversold and the stand-by list had 15 people ahead of us. So with a flight confirmed the next day at 9, we headed back across the airport to get a hotel voucher from American Airlines.

Resigned to spending the night in London, we stopped to drop of the bike and a large suitcase at luggage storage shop. Back at the American desk to get our hotel room, the guy behind the desk assured us that he could get us to Nice. He booked us on new flight from London to Paris with an Air France connection from Paris to Nice. So... we turn around and go back pick up and pay for our luggage storage. Finally, we check in for a flight to Paris at leaves at 4. Originally, we had supposed to arrive in Nice at 1 and we have been in the London airport since 10. Mostly standing in lines and walking back and forth between airline desks. Finally, we board the plane to Paris. It pushed back for departure, and we proceed to go no where. After traveling for 24 hours, your sense of time gets a little poor. Eventually, we actually take off.

Carbo-loading at Heathrow

About 24 hours after leaving our house we finally land in France. Unfortunately, we are in Paris not Nice. In the Paris airport, we head through customs/immigration and start to look for our gate. We literally run through the airport trying to get to the Air France terminal. Arriving there the Air France attendant politely informs us our flight is leaving and there is no way we can get on. Of all our flights, this one actually leaves on time. And sorry Air France has no more flights to Nice tonight. Spurred on by unreasonable optimism, I run back across the airport to the British Airways desk to see if they can find us another flight. Nope. They do book us a room with meal vouchers at the Paris Hilton (insert joke here).

By this point of the trip, we just want a shower, change clothes, and to go to bed. However, our luggage is somewhere in the checked luggage dungeon not possible to access by mere mortals. It is now almost 9 at night in Paris (on Wednesday we think...). Now we have a confirmed flight first thing in the morning to Nice, our luggage already checked, and even two boarding passes.

We head over to the Paris Hilton via the shuttle bus. I check in and ask for basically anything they can give us: bath robe, shave kit, tooth brush, etc. The hotel personnel were very nice. Our airline vouchers get us a ridiculously expensive Italian buffet of mediocre quality (50 EUR per person). Thankfully, the next day is much smoother and we are in the Nice-nice sun by midday Thursday -- only one day late.

If getting there was half the fun, this race would be quite the saga. At least we made it safely with all of our luggage. My bike made it unscathed and unlost!