Bonjour France - A Bumpy Ride

     I am writing this to you from my lovely little cottage near Vic Fezensac, Gers, France.  I'm out on the patio with my iced tea (I know what you're thinking, but I love iced tea - and it wasn't easy getting ice!) and my laptop.  There's a nice breeze and nice views.  This morning CoCo and I went into town to do a little exploring and sat at the Cafe Sport, with most of the town's occupants I think, had a Coca and did some people watching.  It seems the French thing to do on a Sunday morning is sit at a cafe/bar and have a beer! 
     Let me tell you what all I went through to get here!  I flew from Colorado Springs to Houston with no problems.  Then cousin Pat and Aunt Carolee (bless her little 91 year old heart!) came and picked me up at the hotel and we grabbed some fast food and came back to the hotel to eat in the lobby.  It was so good seeing them again.
     My flight from Houston to Frankfort was to leave at 3:45.  I planned to leave the hotel around 11 to make sure I had plenty of time for check in as I had my 2 large suitcases with me.  United said they could not check them all the way through as I had an overnight in Houston and would be traveling with a different airline.  Fortunately, the hotel let me leave the suitcases in their office so I didn't have to get them up to my room on the 5th floor.
     I decided it would be a good idea to double check with Lufthansa that even with my overnight layover in Frankfort, my luggage would go all the way through and I would not have to go through customs.  CoCo's international health certificate was in French as my vet tech assured me that we would not need it until arriving in Toulouse.  Well . . . . the catch in the system, as the Lufthansa lady told me, was that my layover was longer than 24 hours so I would have to collect my bags in Frankfort and go through customs - with the wrong papers.  Now I start to panic.  My visa for entering France stated the entry date as 9/1 not 8/31.  And CoCo's paperwork was not in German. 
     But I decided it was better to enter France a day early than risk the wrong paperwork for CoCo and having her quarantined in Germany or something equally awful since I didn't have German papers for her.  I asked Lufthansa lady if she could help me change my flight from Frankfort to Toulouse and when she checked on that she said that since I had made the reservation with my United Miles I would have to call them to change the reservation. 
     So, now I'm calling United and explaining the entire situation once again to someone I'm hoping can help me out.  All the while that I'm on the phone, I'm trying to get everything packed back into my backpack (which is completely stuffed) with one hand and calming CoCo who is wondering why my heart is beating like crazy.  The United reservation lady is very nice (I'm sure she could hear the panic and pleading in my voice) and tries to help as much as possible, but it seems every question I ask I am being asked to hold while she finds out the answer. 
     At this point I'm on the shuttle to the airport, juggling the phone, the backpack, my 2 large suitcases and CoCo!  It is about halfway from the hotel to the airport that she tells me her supervisor was able to help get me on a flight from Frankfort to Toulouse (there are only 2 of these per day) at 4:05.  This means I'll have a 7 hour layover in Frankfort - a far cry from the relaxing overnight I had hoped for.  But at least it meant that neither CoCo nor my 2 large suitcases would be going through customs in Germany.  One hurdle over - but more to come.
     Now we're on the wonderful Lufthansa 380 airbus with a seat on the upper level.  It's very nice up there, not as crowded as the lower level and there's a very nice German man next to me.  But I am feeling rather cramped as there's not much leg room with CoCo's carrier barely fitting under the seat in front of me - and no room in the overhead bin for my backpack which now has to be stowed on the next row over.
     About 10 minutes before departure they make an announcement that there are seats available in premium economy.  If interested, please inform a flight attendant.  Yes, I'm interested.  Let's make this 9 hour flight as comfy as possible after the rush of leaving the US!  So for $299 more I was shown to a much larger seat with lots of leg room and extra amenities and there's even an empty seat next to mine so that I can put CoCo's carrier in it instead of her having to stay on the floor the whole time!  yay!! 
     After landing in Frankfort, we went through passport check but no documentation was needed for CoCo!  But now I have about 5 hours to kill before I need to check in for the flight to Toulouse.  I don't want to sit the whole time as then the jet lag will really set in.  I need to keep moving.  I find the information desk and ask about a tourist bus that would take me into downtown Frankfort.  He suggests that I get the train pass for 10 euros that is good for all day and I can just ride the commuter train from the airport to downtown.  Then ride it back once I've done some exploring in the old town area.
     Sounded like a good idea . . . I checked my backpack and CoCo's carrier into the baggage service area, easily found the train platform (just underneath the baggage claim area) and headed into Frankfort.  We wandered for about 30 minutes, then had some lunch, then wandered some more and took a few photos. 

     I decided I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get back to the airport and pick up my backpack and get checked in for the Toulouse flight so we headed back with about 3 hours before check in time.  The train ride to the city had taken only 15 minutes so I felt good about the time returning.  However, once I got into the station and looked at all the timetables and wondered which train I needed (there was only one train that left the airport, but numerous trains that left from this downtown station).  I decided the quickest way to find out was to ask an information person.
     He told me I needed the train to Weisbaden and get off at the 5th stop.  I knew it was 5 stops coming from the airport so that made sense to me.  However, the 5th stop on that train route was no where near the airport.  It was a teeny tiny town on the outskirt of Frankfort.  I got off anyway and decided to just take a taxi from there to the airport.  But teeny tiny towns do not have taxis!  So my only choice was to take the train back into Frankfort and either find the right train or take a taxi from there.
     I still had some time to spare and so did not start panicking until I realized that the next train going back towards Frankfort did not come for another 30 minutes!  I had no choice but to wait there for the train and then hope that everything from that point on went smoothly.  When I got off at the station I immediately went outside to the taxi spot and a very nice lady driver said she would do everything she could to get me and CoCo to the airport quickly!  By then it was 2:00, when I was supposed to be at the passport check in for my flight at 4:05.  I still had to get my backpack and CoCo's carrier from baggage services and find my way up to the departures area and then find the correct passport line to get me into the Lufthansa concourses.
     At 2:30 I was on the right concourse and found my gate.  And collapsed on a chair, drenched in sweat and extremely thirsty.   I was so happy to be in the right place with time to spare and was saying not nice things about the information guy in Frankfort who told me the wrong train!  Then, wouldn't you know, the flight to Toulouse was delayed by 30 minutes!  Well, that gave me a little more time to dry out.
     I shall end this blog post by telling you that the entrance into Toulouse was also an adventure.  Passport check was very easy.  Then it was on to baggage claim to get my 2 large suitcases wondering how I was going to maneuver both of them, my backpack and CoCo's carrier out to find a taxi to take me the last minute reserved hotel room (remember I'm arriving in Toulouse a day earlier than originally planned abd so hotels.com helped me get a cheap hotel room near the airport).  I spotted my large white suitcase immediately and then waited and waited for the pink one. 
     Everyone else had claimed all the bags and the carousel was empty.  My bag was nowhere to be seen.  So now I'm filing a lost bag claim and worried about my phone going dead.  You see, in my hurry to leave the hotel in Houston I forgot to grab my phone charger, which didn't concern me too much because I had packed an extra one - in the pink suitcase! 
     Thankfully I still had a change of clothes  and everything I needed for one more night in my backpack and the lost baggage man assured me that my suitcase would be coming in around midnight and I could pick it up anytime after 10 the next morning.  I had to come back to the airport the next day anyway to pick up my rental car.  So I grabbed what I did have, found all of CoCo's paperwork to present to the customs official and  . . . . there was no customs official.  No one at all in the customs area!
     I spent no time wondering about that, walked outside into the French air, and found a taxi to take me to the little crappy hotel to spend the night.  Stay tuned for next week's account which will take up where this one left off.  I am so glad that you are all sharing in my grand adventure.  I promise to keep you all informed of every adventure I have.  With pictures, of course!!  Merci!