Travel Day to France

So our plane to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris left at 3 pm, so we naturally left Oppa's place at 9 am. There's actually a legitimate reason for this, so let me backtrack just a little.

We were flying from some cheapie airline that only leaves from the London Luton Airport and not Heathrow. These airports are like an hour apart. We could not, however, drive directly to this airport because Oppa had to return his car to the Hertz place at Heathrow. The airports are connected by a bus, so we had reservations for a bus shuttle at like 11 something or some time like that. His car only fit up to five people, so Oppa had to drop Umma and me off at the Reading train station so we could take a bus to Heathrow. I guess we really didn't have to leave that early. Whatever, we got to the Luton airport around 12:30 ish, an hour too early to check in. We spent most of that time in the WH Smith looking at books. I bought a book called the Pirates Daughter. It looked interesting, but I mostly got it because the word pirate was in the title and I am weird.

Anyway, after about an hour, we stod in line for the check in and did just that. We found out we would have to combine our carry on bags (we didn't check anything in since we would only be in France for like 3 days) to one, which was a stressful experience on its own. We went through security, which was a hassle as usual. I set off the alarm somehow and when they pat you down at this airport, they really, really pat you down. I'm sure a metal detector thingy could have been equally effective, but whatever.

We sat around the gate for a while after that, waiting for them to announce the gate the we would be in. I read my book until then. When they did it, we had to run down to our gate and stand in line. This airline doesn't assign seats, so the set up is very similar to Southwest. Other than that, the flight out to Paris was relatively uneventful. I just read my book which I ended up enjoying a lot more than I actually expected.

We got to the Paris airport and after getting through customs and purchasing a road map of France, we ran around the airport looking for the Hertz rental car place. While Oppa stressed to find this place, James and I stood in line for fries. We were all kind of hungry, so we bought a bunch of McDonalds fries to hold us over for our drive out to the Normandy area.

We get the car, which can surprisingly fit 7 people in it (tightly, but it can still fit all of us nonetheless), and start our journey out to Caen. I think the trip was like 2 and a half hours long or something like that. Not sure.

The drive was okay up until a certain point. It was like a fun little family road trip. Around 8 or something, however, the light went on indicating something was wrong with the car. Since the car manual was only in French and Mia's French classes did not go over automobile problems, we weren't exactly sure what the problem was. All we knew was that the car wouldn't go above 110 km/hr. We turned onto some random street and ended up driving for a while until we made it to some random gas station just outside of Le Havre. We stayed there for a while, trying to get a hold of Hertz to exchange the car or do something about the problem. We spent a good fifteen minutes there, either on hold or talking to the American office trying to get the right number to contact the French office before we gave up. I guess it didn't matter anyway because the moment we started the car up, the light and the problems all disappeared.

Now we were stuck in the middle of Le Havre, somewhat hungry because it was 9 ish around ths time and kind of lost. On the way out of the Le Havre area we stopped by this random restaurant so that we could eat and figure out where we were. This was actually a very interesting experience. So, we approach the doors to look at the menu and figure out if we want to eat there or not. The menu looks okay, but all we can see through the window are the restaurant patrons staring at us. We figured at this point that we had limited options food-wise, so we decided to eat there anyway.

The moment we enter the restaurant, we experience this sort of experience you would only see in old western films. Everyone inside turns around and stares at us. Maybe it was the Asian-ness. Maybe it was because we were in a small town and clearly did not belong. Maybe it is because we reek of the essence of American tourist. Whatever it was, the people inside were clearly not happy with our presence. To top that off, they managed to seat is in the center of the restaurant in this really silly patio table that did not belong in the restaurant. While we tried to sort out what we wanted to eat, they brought out a basket of bread that we very nervously and quickly ate. We ordered our food, and the food was okay. Oppa's sausage dish smelled strange. All of the people who stared at us initially all left, so it wasn't as uncomfortable. Our waitress was also very nice and she gave us detailed directions out of the area and to the Caen area as we left.

It was around 11 by this time and very dark and we still had an hour or so left in the drive. It was relatively easy to find and I fell asleep at some point along the way. I got woken up while we were in the general area because Oppa was stressing and trying to find our way to the hotel. It was actually not that hard to find though. Once we got there, Umma and Mia went inside to check in. We then parked, found our rooms, and I went to bed shortly after.