Leaving my house at 12:30 pm... for a flight at 4:50 pm from Dulles... you would think we would have loads of time! After making it through the Air France baggage registration line and then security... where they made Josh take EVERYTHING out of his backpack and then repack and ran their hands through my hair because the body scan showed something on my head! ... we made it to the gate right as they were boarding! 30 minutes later and we would have missed the flight. Food for thought for anyone travelling international.

Our first international flight. Dinner... so so. Free alcohol! Free movies. The coolest thing about the flight was the camera on the tail of the plane that filmed take-off and landing and the GPS locater which showed where we were at all times! We did not heed advice and sleep immediately when we got on the plane. We realized about 10:30 our time... that we would be landing midnight Washington D.C. time in Paris... and in Paris it would be six in the morning! Needless to say... Alicia, Mom and I got NO SLEEP! Josh was the only lucky one who got a little shut eye.

Landing in Paris...WHAT a HUGE airport!! When standing in line to ask an airport employee for information... we met Grace! How blessed! Grace and her family (husband, son, daughter and mother-in-law) were travelling to Italy also! It seems that Grace's mother-in-law's 80th birthday was July 2nd and they were flying back to Italy where her family was. We would not have made it through the maze of the Paris airport without thier family. Grace's family were from Austrailia! They had not slept for 27 hours since they left via Singapore! So we felt like whimpy travellers.

Waiting the three hours for our connections was enjoyable because of the time making new friends with Grace, Matt, Jessica, Marc and Nana! (See picture). The kids were exchanging cultural backgrounds and stereotypes (including mocking each other's accents)! They were just so nice.

When our connection was finally boarding it was so interesting... because we had to go out across the tarmac and climb the portable stairs into the small Air France jet... just like the good old fashioned love stories (think Casablanca).

Crossing the Alps was murder on those of us with sensitive ears. We didn't even get to see the mountains because of cloud cover. Once again, Josh got some more sleep... I think Alicia did too, but not Mom or I!!