flight and arrival in Paris

After all the time, again, in security, we have time for running to

the bathroom, meeting the students, refilling water bottles and seeing the plane before we’re boarding and we get to pre-board with Oscar.  Which was good because we got to check out the double decker plane which was not like “my southwest plane” as Oscar calls  it.  I know there’s something cool about a well traveled child, but I also don’t know if he should have this much knowledge at this age of brands.  We get to sit together mainly because we force John’s students to give up their 

seats of 3 in a row and give them to us which works out well.  Oscar doesn’t want to sleep, doesn’t want to eat, can’t blame him about the eating, because the KLM food was the worst I’ve ever been served on a plane, and that’s having had KLM in the past.  I don’t know what happened on this night, but it’s wasn’t good.  Then, we all settled down to sleep.  Well, we tried.  There was too much talking around us and I had to beg, plead, and then threaten my kid to sleep.  I know that begging and pleading for a 3 year old to sleep is par for the 

course for most kids, but Oscar usually goes down pretty good when there is nothing exciting going on.  But, this is exciting and the threats had to come out when he wanted to touch daddy who was sleeping.  I had to tell him that daddy had to teach in the morning in Paris and  

really needed sleep, so if he touched him again, I would switch seats with him.  He doesn’t like the window, so this was akin to an actual threat.  I know, I’m a bad mother.  They’ll be plenty of opportunities to see that here.  But, he finally succumbed to sleep when it was actually late in Michigan and he couldn’t resist any longer.  We hit the ground running in Amsterdam to our plane for Paris.  Rachel got to leave almost an hour and a half later in Chicago and should arrive an hour and a half before us in Paris because of this layover, but when we get to Paris, she is still waiting for her luggage when 

 we are because of De Gaulle's horrible customs compared to Schipol's where we breezed through.  Why can't these huge airports learn from one another so that one is a horrible place?  After a manic taxi drive through Paris, we land at the hotel where they allow us into the rooms early which is awesome.  Oscar is still going through all of this and we're on our way to the L'Orangerie and the Tuilleries.  It's too cold, windy and overcast for playing though, so I walk up the Champs for a while, where he finally grabs an hour long nap in 

 the stroller.  Then we come back to the Tuilleries for some playing before meeting the group and heading back to the hotel because it's too ugly out for a boat ride.  We found a restaurant that gave Oscar a plate of bacon and I got a good burger, Rachel liked her salad, but it felt like we were in Ann Arbor.  It's was a hipster place, catering to a certain kind of Parisian that we were not and didn't have particularly French foods.  I mean, I got a burger....in Paris, because that looked like the best thing on the menu....sad