Our last week in France was simply NUTS! But, it was a good nuts.
We spent 2 weeks purging all of the things we didn't want to move back to the USA (BIG JOB!).
Then, we cleaned every nook and cranny of our apartment. (BIG JOB!)
All of our stuff was packed and loaded into a container headed toward America! (Here's the container in front of our apartment building.)
Ryan was particularly impressed that our moving truck was a Mercedes-Benz.
At this moment (in the photo below), we were just about done with our walk-through with our landlord, but the kids were entertaining themselves by watching something on the computer in our empty living room.
After our walk-through, we had to photocopy papers and head to both of our banks. Ah...the joys of French bureaucracy!
Here's Mark using the photocopier at the grocery store...
Here's Mark taking care of business at one bank. I think it's hilarious that I got a photo of the big line on the floor at the bank. You MUST stand behind this line to wait your turn. This is so very French. UGH!
Mark writing an impromptu 'official' letter in French (hand-written on photo copy paper) requesting some last thing at our other bank. Oh, the paperwork in this country is just over the top!!! I'm so thankful Mark can handle things like this without any trouble!
Between our appointments we passed the new Autolib station. You can get a card that allows you to drive these cars around Paris. You can get a car from one station, and then return it to any Autolib city around Paris. Pretty amazing, huh!
Lena had one last birthday party with her closest friends on our last day in Paris. What a lucky girl to have all of her good friends in one place to be able to say good-bye to them all - just before leaving! What a blessing!
I don't know how it happened, but we ended up with a flight leaving Paris at 8:25 a.m. This meant that we were supposed to be at the airport NO LATER than 5:25 a.m. since they recommend arriving 3 hours in advance for an international flight. UGH!!!! We took showers the night before, dressed in comfortable travel clothes, and crawled into bed. When the alarm went off, we just rolled out of bed and we were off!
We left Paris at 5 a.m. on a shuttle van headed for Charles de Gaulle airport. Here we are with all of our luggage at the airport.
We got through baggage check and security without any trouble and had plenty of time to spare before our flight took off. Here we are headed through the tube escalators.
The kids found great entertainment. This was one time that I was happy to let them play video games! And, they were free, too!
Here's the last photo I took in France. I just thought it was a fitting end. It's in French and English and it expressed my feelings. Thank you, France, for a wonderful 2.5 years!
Our flight was great. It was a smaller plane for an international flight, but they had a catalog of movies to choose from. I think we had the choice of 45 movies for our 9 hours on the plane! Everybody was thoroughly entertained the entire time. Yeah!
We landed in Newark, NJ and went through customs. I took this photo BEFORE I saw the sign prohibiting pictures in customs. Seeing the US flag again was just wonderful!!!! And I definitely have new appreciation for how wonderful it is to be a citizen. I am very proud to be an American!
We finished with US customs and got food at the Ruby Tuesdays in the airport. Our 4 hour layover (or something like that) went by quickly. Then, we boarded a plane for Minneapolis, MN.
We landed around 6:30 p.m. in MN - exactly 20 hours after we walked out the door in Paris. What a journey!
We were overwhelmed by the welcoming committee at the airport! Mark's family came out in full force! What a wonderful surprise after a long, long day of travel!
Here are photos of all the folks...
Andrew, Julie and Gabriella.
This was a big surprise. Randy and Shirl (she's in the next photo) just happened to be in town from Pennsylvania and made their way to the airport! And, Peter had just landed at the airport after spending a weekend in California for a class/seminar he was taking, so he joined the party!
Nancy and Shirl.
And, Jon, Kathy and Lisa were there too, but we didn't get individual photos with them at the airport.
It was so wonderful to see everybody!!!!
Here's Todd. He sort-of landed on the luggage and never left. Poor kid. He was so tired! He stayed awake the entire trip except for the last 1.5 hours.
Here we are, the very, very tired travelers who are very, very happy to be HOME!
That concludes our adventures in Paris, France!
But, I'll keep blogging at least until we get fully settled into life in the USA. We are trusting the Lord to provide all that is needed, and we know that He knows better than we do what we need. We'll let you know where He leads - hopefully very, very soon!
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