Why we train hard

Let's start at the end of the day. Air France had advised us to arrive at the airport 2 hours before our 9.59pm flight. Do not arrive earlier. We printed our baggage tags at a machine, unlike a lot of other people. The woman in front of us had lined up for an hour before being told she was in the wrong line for Mexico. The guy in front of her found out 10 minutes later that the reason his tags didn't print was because his flight had already departed. Perhaps these two people out of our line would ultimately save us. After lining up forever to drop our bags, then being told that my bag was too long and would need to go in as large baggage, then being told that the tag was not working.....sigh. Bags checked in. Will we see them again? Not sure.

To passport control we went. The sign said less than 30 minutes. Our boarding time arrived. We were still in line. Woohoo, we made it through. Then our hand luggage needed to go through security. Boarding closed at 9.30pm. It was now 9.27pm I think. The sprint from gate 39 to 30 was hard. I had Annette's bag and my stuff, and I hoped she had picked up my phone from the security tray. I made it by 9.29pm and the airline staff was nice enough to ID her from 100m away. 

We were given cups of water on boarding. I think they knew.

Today I bought new shoes, ate a brioche sausage roll, had cheeseburger and chips. After 2 attempts to use a public toilet failed, as they were out of order, we finally hit the jackpot. 

I will leave the rest to Annette. We are landing in Edinburgh. I also won husband of the year by attending the antique markets again, with Annette.

Now let's go back to the beginning. 

Checkout time was 10am, when we would head to the no. 96 bus to take us to luggage storage for the day. 6 people, 8 bags and a loaded bus (my new sitcom). BO was everywhere. There was a coughing lady, and anybody trying to get off the bus had to do the obstacle course of suitcases. Somehow we managed, dumped our bags and headed off for our last day in Paris.

Here is where Annette takes over until we get from the hamburger place to the airport. Editor: Claire took us by the Notre Dame and the River Seine. 

We had a lovely walk in the Luxemburg Gardens in beautiful sunshine (not so much of the oppressive heat of this week), with lunch from a nearby bakery. 

Editor: After lunch, I had time to go back to the antique markets of the first day, with success! Two brooches purchased.

We needed food after our day and before our flight. I chose wisely, cheeseburger and fries (French Fries are better in France). Annette tried to cram in one last French crepe and it made her a bit queasy.

Jeremy called to warn us; there may be stairs, was the message. Yes indeed. Such a great underground metro with no elevators or escalators. Annette with 2 and me with 1 (my hand luggage had been packed in my luggage) managed to let gravity work for us without killing ourselves or anybody who stood in our way - or indeed sat in our way, as the longest set of stairs had people sitting on both sides from top to bottom. We got to the airport in plenty of time????,

Ok, we made it to Edinburgh. Passport was checked quickly after our bags arrived in world record time. We waited there a while for Jeremy who was on a different flight. Then Passport control closed and we went in search of Jeremy. Whether you had something to declare or not didn't matter. The staff has all bailed and gone home.

Onto the bus we went and after getting off, had a walk up the highway, through a carpark, over the grass, before arriving at the Ibis to stay in the smallest 3 share room in history..a double with a single bunk on top and enough floor space for luggage. Heads hit on bed frame equalled 2.