First Post in France

I am writing this on a French computer, so the keys are all switched around...but I will try my best to make this post make sense. I apologize if I fail; I am a bit jet lagged. Here's what's happened so far in the world of Becca:

I flew from Minneapolis to Iceland no problem. I sat next to a young couple on their way to London who had their 7 month old son in tow. As the other infants on the flight screamed and cried, he just smiled, giggled, and cooed. Good baby. I did run into my old 4th grade teacher while waiting at the gate before the flight. small world.

I unfortunately didn't get to see much of Iceland, since I had only an hour stop over, but their coffee is good, and the mountains that I saw in the distance from the air port window looked pretty. Anyway, I was too busy. Off to Paris! This flight was baby free, and after a 20 minute delay waiting for the folks coming in from the Boston flight, we took to the skies. I was nestled between an elderly woman from Fridley, MN with her husband. It was her first visit to Paris. On the other side of me was an older French gentleman from Mass. who I soon found out was a retired French professor @UMass heading to France to visit family. We chatted during the flight and he was patient with me and corrected my French like a good prof would. I joked that though he was retired, he wasn't done with students.

Both of my suitcases joined me at Charles de Gaulle, and then it was off to catch a bus to the train station. CDG is huge, and not much fun to navigate with two large suitcases and a carry on in tow. Nevertheless, I managed to find the bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited some more for the bus. I sat next to a 20 something French gal named Julie who, like the professor on the flight was kind and patient enough to chat with me. We stayed with each other all the way until her train arrived (mine came 30 minutes later) and she offered me a place to stay next time I was in Paris. I offered her the same in Beziers.

I really do prefer traveling by train. Such pretty sites to see from the window, sand colored stone farm houses with red tiled roofs, villages nestled in small valleys between rolling hills, sheep and cows, and vineyards, and sun. This time I sat next to a French woman who chatted with me even though I warned her that my French was even worse than usual due to jet lag. She got off in Nimes where the Feria was still going strong, and I continued on to Montpellier, where I was picked up from the train station by my cousin's wife's sister, and where I am staying right now. I owe her and her husband a huuuuuge thank you for putting me up for two nights. Their daughter will probably be my wake up call in the morning, but I don't mind cause she's a total cutie pie. I'm on to Beziers tomorrow and more adventures!

à bientot!