Departure and arrival

 April 11-12.

The day began overcast and rainy and pretty much stayed that way all day -- and in Detroit, too! That would all change by the time we got to Paris.

Susie finished packing this morning (she works wonders with packing cubes) and we had plenty of time to relax before having to leave for the airport. One of our neighbors, Don Trap, took us to the Grand Rapids airport Thursday afternoon. 

After checking our bags we went through a very quiet security check -- most TSA agents were just standing around wondering where the onslaught was, I suppose. Anyway, one TSA officer did pass along his theory that most folks were burned out from the recent spring break travels.

After getting to our gate we settled in with a couple of coffees in the brand-new concourse A while we cooled our heels for a couple of hours.

genuinely comfortable chairs

lots of wide open space with work stations everywhere

Eventually we boarded the small and quite narrow Bombardier aircraft. The plane was full, the ride bumpy but we were in Detroit in about 40 minutes. Plenty of time to find our way to another concourse (via a tunnel with out of order moving walkways thank you), a distance of some miles it seemed. But we found our gate and once again settled in to await further instructions.

The plane to Detroit

The Air France flight left on time and proved uneventful. The food was not bad and the flight attendants never stopped smiling, were solicitous of those who needed an extra hand or two, and were always willing to help whenever possible. To top it off we had the whole row to ourselves! It was the second to last one in the plane, but it was all ours!

Our plane landed in Paris slightly ahead of schedule. After queuing for about 20 minutes to get through passport control -- which will be absolutely crazy during the Olympics we thought -- we located our bags. Off we went to the RER line B train station and wound up queuing again, this time to get tickets for the ride into the city. 

We got off at the Gare de Lyon and walked across the street to our hotel for the night, Citizen M. 

Next: how we handle stepping forward to the future of hospitality. . .