The Voyage Home

Our last view of Rennes: the train station.

We took a direct train from Rennes to Charles de Gaulle Airport and we're very glad we did. After our horrible experience trying to drag three huge suitcases up and down stairs in the Paris Metro on our way to Rennes in August, we were not going to repeat that. Our train got in around 5:30 and we checked into the Ibis hotel at the airport. We spent some time re-packing suitcases, trying to balance out the weight so that we wouldn't have to pay an overweight baggage fee. Around 7, we took the Paris commuter train into central Paris for dinner. We thought it would be depressing to eat our last meal in France at a crummy airport restaurant and that we should go into Paris one more time before we left.

Lisa's risotto at L'Ardoise Gourmand.

Since we didn't want to spend a lot of time traveling in the city, we decided to find a place near the Gare du Nord train station (the biggest, oldest, and busiest train station in Paris, by the way), the first stop the train made in central Paris. I looked up some places on-line before we left the hotel and once we got to the station, we wandered up a big street but didn't see anything too appetizing. So we turned down a side street and came upon L'Ardoise Gourmand, a restaurant I had seen on-line as being pretty good. It seemed reasonably priced so we decided to check it out. It was a pretty small place and very crowded and we got one of the last non-reserved tables. The service was a bit slow because one of the waiters didn't show up for work that night so there was only one waiter for the whole place. Beyond that, though, it was fantastic, easily one of the two or three best restaurants we've been to in France. It was full of local regulars who clearly knew the owner, Francois. He walked around the room talking to almost everyone since he knew them all. The food was fantastic. I had pesto bruschetta with a mixed salad with delicious dressing (a rarity in France - they don't know how to make interesting salad dressings for some reason) and for my main course I had a very tender cut of beef with an amazing wine/vinegar/shallot sauce and pureed potatoes. Lisa had a green bean salad and a tasty mushroom risotto. Lisa said she felt very classy eating there, despite being tired from so little sleep the last few days. It was definitely a restaurant we'd go back to next time we're in Paris - and next time, we'll make reservations!

Speaking of which, we saw a Chinese tourist couple in the restaurant who figured out how to defeat the waiter's excuse of "no reservations? we're full, sorry!" When told that there were no tables, the couple said (in English, of course), "We'll wait for a table." The waiter said, "But there are no tables." The woman said, "No, you don't understand. We want to eat here. We'll wait till there's a table available." The waiter had no idea what to do because in France, you don't wait for a table; if the restaurant's full and you don't have reservations, you leave and find a different restaurant. So he quickly found an empty table for them! Similarly, a man came in shortly after they did, was told there were no tables, so he made a reservation on the spot for a table in half an hour or so. He came back half an hour later only to find that the table he'd reserved had been given to someone else. So he calmly explained to the waiter, "I reserved that table and I would like to have it please." He waited patiently in the doorway for about ten minutes with his wife and daughter until the waiter moved the people at "his" table to another one. It was all a very interesting lesson in French restaurant etiquette, although I felt bad for the waiter since he was clearly overwhelmed that night.

Gare du Nord at night.

We left the restaurant around 11 and getting back to the airport proved to be an adventure. When we got  back to the Gare du Nord, we discovered there were no more trains out to the airport, which meant we might have had to take a very expensive cab back. But we saw a rather lost-looking young Chinese woman with a suitcase on the platform. Lisa approached and asked if she was going to the airport. She said she was and said that, as far as she understood, we could take a train close to the airport then take a shuttle bus the rest of the way. She didn't sound entirely sure, so we found a security guard and asked if that was true and he said yes. So, with the Chinese woman, we took a train to Aulnay-sous-Bois then found a bus to the airport. Unfortunately, the express bus was completely full by the time we got out of the station, so we had to take the "slow" bus that made all the intermediate stops. (Apparently, this is all necessary because of night-time track work on the line to the airport.) We didn't get back to the hotel till around 1 am, much later than we anticipated. We had a nice chat with the Chinese woman, though; she was leaving the next day for Russia where she was going to study. She was also so amazed that we were Americans returning to the US. I think we were the first Americans she'd ever met!

We essentially took a nap in the hotel, since we had to be up a bit after 5 in order to get to the check-in desk for an 8 am flight. Miraculously, we didn't have to pay extra for our bags, even though we had an additional checked bag and more weight than we should have had under Iceland Air's policy - but hey, we're not complaining! We flew through Reykjavik, meaning our first flight was about three hours long and our flight on to Boston was about five hours. We had an hour in the Reykjavik airport which we spent tasting Icelandic doughnuts and yogurt in the food court area. We saw two young tall Icelandic women with long blond hair each buying a big bottle of beer there, too. It was only 9:30 am, but, as I said to Lisa, these people are the descendents of Vikings, so of course they're going to start drinking first thing in the morning!

Iceland.

We also began to acclimate ourselves to being around Americans there, too, as the flight to Boston was almost all Americans. In the Reykjavik airport, there are no gate announcements of any kind - you just go to your gate, they eventually open the door, and you get on the plane. This caused a great deal of confusion for an older American couple behind us in line: "What's going on?" "The door's open. Are they boarding?" "I don't know; I didn't hear any announcement." "Well, people are going through. Should we go?" "I'm not sure. What rows are they boarding?" "I don't know, there was no announcement. Are we supposed to go?" And on and on. It was annoying and funny all at the same time. Also on the plane, there was a young British man sitting in the row behind us and we're pretty sure he didn't stop talking the entire flight, except when he was eating. He talked to the man next to him (whom we never heard speak) about everything under the sun: his job, flying, British monetary policy, the Icelandic language compared to other languages, living in a foreign country. It was amazing that he wasn't hoarse by the end of the flight!

Icelandic volcanoes.

From what we could see from the plane and through the airport windows, Iceland is a beautiful country. It's very flat, except for the many volcanoes, without a lot of trees or plants. Many of the volcanoes seemed to rise directly out of the ocean. We both think it would be a fun country to visit and hike around in for a week. Plus, since it's only about half-way to mainland Europe, flights are less expensive and Iceland Air has direct flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Reykjavik, which might come in handy for us next year!

Icelandic coastline.

Once in Boston, we went through customs, which really didn't take that long. Again, it was like an overload of Americans. We just weren't used to interacting with so many native English-speakers and so many overly-friendly people! On the customs form, we had to fill in all the countries we've visited since we last left the US. We actually ran out of room and had to write below the line to get them all in (for the record: Iceland, Ireland [airports only for both of those], France, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, Switzerland).

After customs, we indulged in some good trashy American food by eating a burrito and a burrito salad in the food court. Immediately, we were struck by how much saltier our food was than anything we'd had in France. Then it was off to our flight from Boston to Pittsburgh, where Lisa's mom was waiting to pick us up and take us back to their house, thus ending our wonderful nine-and-a-half-month European adventure.