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As we are waiting in the Oklahoma City airport terminal to get on the flight to Detroit, I met a nice guy who was also going to France to meet up with his wife who was in Germany. What a coincidence, we thought - he was a nice guy, full of advice since he goes to France often. The flight left OKC on time, no problems at all except these two other guys.

As we were finding our seats we overheard some people speaking French and thought, “no way - more people going to France today with us?” It turned out to be these two guys - one, a 20-something skinny blonde-haired guy whose haircut looked as if it had been done by Jim Henson (Muppets, Fraggle Rock, etc.); the other, an older (late 30s) and larger man with grey hair. It soon became clear that they decided this flight would be their classroom. French class had begun and the younger was the professeur.

They sat two rows behind Meghan and I on our side of the plane. Mom and Suz sat across the aisle from us. I don’t think my hearing is exceptional but Mom could hear them clearly the entire flight (and her hearing isn’t what it used to be) so I know they were speaking louder than they needed to. There was a college girl with an Ohio State sweatshirt on between us and them who seemed very nice but was ready to strangle them by the end of the flight. So was the rest of the planeload of passengers. But they did escape unscathed, a testament to the mild-tempered folks who live here in the heartland.

Our layover in Detroit was nice and quick. Just enough time to use the restroom and walk to our departure gate. When we got to the gate, the two guys were surprisingly not there. They did show up just before boarding, however, but luckily for us, were seated far enough away from us. The plane was incredibly empty for an international flight - each of us moved seats so we could stretch out a bit to sleep. Meghan was actually able to lay down across 3 seats while the rest of us made do with 2 each. I didn’t sleep much at all, neither did Mom.

Upon arriving in Paris, we went through customs just fine and went to figure out transportation. The strike was still going on so the RER was apparently not an option. Just as well, we bought tickets on a bus provided by Air France to shuttle us to Gare de Lyon (train station). We then pulled some Euros out of an ATM and walked outside into the cold rain to wait for the bus under an awning. We saw several buses come and go that were not the number we were waiting on. By the time the bus came, there were so many people lined up that the bus couldn’t accommodate all of them. Fortunately, we got on.

At the train station, we spoke to an SNCF representative who confirmed what RailEurope had told me the previous morning: during the strike, ticketholders can get on any train going to the destation on their tickets that day. This was due to a severely reduced number of trains running throughout the country. This was in fact, wonderful news because otherwise, we would have to wait until 7:44 PM that night. The next train on the board was due to leave at 4:20 PM. So that meant we would be heading to our beds 3 hours earlier than planned!

The other nice surprise was the train itself. Not only were we departing Paris earlier, but we were now going to ride a TGV (high speed train - 200 mph!) instead of the regular slow train that was on our tickets. Everyone loved the train. Only I had ridden a TGV before, and it had been several years since my last ride (Eurostar chunnel train in 2002). Susan remarked “it feels like we’re floating” as we pulled out of the train station. Although the TGVs are indeed steel-wheel trains, the suspension is so nice (to handle the tracks at 200 mph) that at low speeds, you don’t know you’re moving unless you look out the window.

Most of us nodded off during the train ride to Avignon, but we were OK, we got off at the correct stop and caught a bus to the city center - the Avignon TGV train station is a 10 minute bus ride away. Our hotel was a couple of blocks’ walk from the bus stop. We checked in, went to our rooms and passed out!