We took it easy on the last day. My fever was gone but I still didn't feel great and was pretty concerned Ben was going to come down with it at any second. We decided to go up to the top of Tour Montparnasse, just down the street from us, but it was too cloudy at the top.
We had two major goals for the day: find macarons and buy some art for the house. The macarons turned out to be easy. I was kind of wishing we'd set that goal earlier in the trip, because it made me realize in retrospect that we hadn't placed a high enough priority on dessert.
Then we walked up to the Seine to the little art stalls along the river near Notre Dame.
We found a couple of good ones! Maybe soon we'll get them framed and I'll post some pictures.
Then we went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. It was so good, exactly what I needed. Nothing better than tom kha gai when you're sick.
We should have bought more! These were gone instantly.
I got a bunch of French medicine, too. All their medicine is behind the counter and you have to ask for it, so that was kind of intimidating, but the lady spoke enough English to hook me up.
Then we started packing. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:50am and I had recently learned that you're supposed to be at Charles de Gaulle THREE HOURS before your flight, which was disheartening. Even more disheartening, though, was when I got this email at 9:00pm, literally as we were putting our stuff in suitcases.
Ugghghhhhh. We were supposed to fly from Paris to London to Raleigh, and the flight to London was cancelled because of fog. FOG. IT'S LONDON. I called British Airways and they helpfully said they could book me on a flight to New York which would then have an eight hour layover before heading back to Raleigh by midnight. Hey, no. So then I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a very nice gentleman with American Airlines who fixed the whole thing up. We ended up not leaving Paris until 10:45am instead, which was much better for the wakeup time. They booked us through Miami with only a four hour layover. Great.
Unfortunately, despite central Paris being clear and calm, there was a weird blizzard at the airport. I tipped our poor Uber driver an extra 20 Euros because I felt sorry for him having to drive in it. We did board the plane on time, but then sat there for three hours before takeoff so they could do de-icing. It was rough, man. Ben was starting to get the fever and I was still sick (but fortunately, wearing my new sweatpants, so at least I was relatively comfortable). It was hard to see how we were going to survive sitting on the ground at CDG for 3 hours followed a 9 hour flight followed by a layover in Miami followed by yet another flight and then a drive to our house from RDU. Plus it seemed like we would probably miss that 4 hour connection, anyway, given that we'd have to pass through customs and retrieve our bags and all that and had wasted 3 of the hours on the de-icing situation. I was convinced we were going to spend the night at a Miami Airport area Hampton Inn.
SITUATION: BLEAK
When we landed in Miami, though, we got special bright orange priority passes which we flashed along the customs/baggage/security procedure and everybody rushed us right through. VIP! By the time we were at the gate for the on-time Raleigh flight I felt filthy and exhausted and delirious but so, so relieved. WE MADE IT.
Now it's 27 days later and I am still not over this cold, by the way. It's been a real horrorshow of a January for both of us (and really, all of America, but for different reasons). I've been to the doctor three times and Ben's version of the illness turned into freaking pinkeye for a while. But we are on the mend, mostly, and after a couple of weeks of never wanting to get on an airplane again for the rest of my life, I'm already googling ideas for the next trip.
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