Our flight was at 7:25 pm at the Philadelphia airport on Sunday. We spent the day packing, getting last minute things, and at least for me, trying not to puke from nerves. We planned on leaving at 4 pm to give us plenty of time to go through customs. Close to 4, Jeremy handed me the plane tickets to hold while he brushed his teeth. As I’m reading them, I notice that the flight departs at 6:25, not 7:25. Oh boy. My nausea multiplies ten-fold and my chest hurts. Worst-case scenarios are flying through my mind one after another. We speed to the airport and go to check-in at one of the automated check-ins. Oh lord, it’s not working. So now we have to wait in line for an actual person to check us in. We get to security and only two lanes are open. Curses are uttered from my lips. It actually turned out to be a short line and went very quickly. More curses are uttered from my lips as I realized I forgot to wear socks and have to walk through security in my bare feet. I can practically see all the bacteria I’m wading in. We get to our gate with 45 minutes to spare so I’m actually grateful Jeremy messed up the times or it would have felt like forever and a day.
The flight is roughly 6 ½ hours and France is 6 hours ahead of NJ, and the ticket says our estimated arrival is 7:55. This gives us ample time to get to the bullet train at the gare de Lyon by 11:30. The bullet train is not like our trains here where you can just hop on. It has designated seats that sell out far in advance, therefore tickets have to be purchased in advance just like an airplane. We get in our seats at around 6 and wait. At this time, I realize I haven’t eaten all day besides a Halloween candy bar. At 6:30 we are told we are waiting for a few last minute bags to be loaded. At 6:40 we are told something is wrong and we are waiting for maintenance to tell us what it is. At 6:50 we are told the door to the cargo area won’t close and we are waiting for maintenance to tell us how long it will take. At 7 we are told it could take 45 minutes. At 7:02 my stomach reminds me I’m starving. At 7:25 everything is fixed and we are on our way at exactly the time Jeremy had originally thought the ticket was for. Dinner is served about an hour and a half in and they had a vegetarian option which pleased me very much as I had thought our fate was for Jeremy to eat both of our servings of meat while I ate both of our servings of vegetables. I tried to sleep but there was turbulence for almost the whole flight, not to mention the people in front of us had their seats completely reclined so me and my tall self could barely move. I couldn’t even sit up straight.
We ended up landing at 9 am and actually getting out of the plane by 9:30 due to a long taxi. We got in line for the money exchange machines and realized Jeremy left his special credit card at home. In France, credit cards have chips in place of mag strips which means all we have for money this week is the money in our wallets - $300 - because most machines in France will not read a card with a mag strip. So we exchanged our $300 for a measly 190€ because the airport charges a ridiculous amount and were on our way. By this time it’s 10 o’clock and we have an hour and a half to make it across Paris to the gare de Lyon. Luckily, we found a taxi driver who enjoyed breaking all the rules of the road, getting us there at 10:40. Any longer and I would have lost my stomach contents in his car. According to him, he is able to do this because the police don’t bother with him because he is Filipino. Apparently they don’t like to try and arrest Filipinos? Regardless, he got us there in record time and was startled by our tip which is not customary there.
We got on our train and got to Besançon a little before 2. The taxi driver that took us to Besançon was not so nice. She took advantage of our inability to speak French and jacked our fair, called a tariff there, up so instead of 0.81₤ per km it was almost double. When we got to the hotel we slept until dinner time, got pizza, and slept for the rest of the night. Food places are typically closed between lunch and dinner, or we would have just eaten right away and slept. At least the pizza was good!