DAY 65 - SAT 5/4 - Home At Last

It is D-Day! We can't believe it! But today we're getting it in our heads that our wonderful sojourn is finally coming to an end. Reality is sinking in, and you know what, I think we're ready to handle it. When you start dreaming about seeing your kids and grand kids, and sleeping in your own bed, then the time is right for it to be over. But boy did we have a great run!

Everything worked like clockwork this morning. Jean-Luc, the apartment owner, and his girlfriend, Silvie, were supposed to be here at 8:30 to check everything out before we left. They actually arrived at 8:15, and couldn't be nicer. And they loved having us as renters and want us to come back. Of course we would love to, but just don't know when.

They helped us lug all our stuff down to the car, and then we said our au revoirs, with big hugs and kiss-kisses, and off we went toward Nice. We were ahead of schedule, so we stopped along the way and had our last cafe, all quite bitter-sweet. We got to Europcar where we had to return the car. They already had the accident report from our little run in with a post, which we will settle up with our insurance company later. We got two large trolleys to put all our stuff on, and off we walked to Terminal 2. Someone told us we had to take a shuttle bus to Terminal 1 to sign in for our Delta flight. So we lugged our suitcases into the bus and off we Went. So far so good.

But when we get to Terminal 1 we are told that Delta isn't located here, but back in Terminal 2. Now things get a little hairy. So we have to schlep all our bags back over to the shuttle and take it back where we just came from. This sets us back about a half hour, but that is why we left extra time. We finally got back to Terminal 2, found the Delta check-in counter, and they tell us that we can only check one bag each, and we have 2 each, and that we have to pay 70 euros for each extra bag. When we came over originally, they only charged us for 1 extra bag and for some reason gave us a break and didn't charge us for the 2nd extra bag, but this time they weren't doing that. We tried to persuade them to do the same service, since we're frequent fliers, but all they could do was suggest that we take one of those extra bags as a carry on. Marty removed all the forbidden items so they wouldn't stop him at Security, and that worked so we didn't have to pay the extra charge for that one bag...phew, saved 70 euros on that one!

Then we had to find the Tax-Free office to get our invoices stamped so we could get back the taxes we had paid on our two big-ticket items. Well we finally found the customs office charged with this procedure hidden behind an escalator. The only problem was that there was a long line of people already waiting, and there was no one in that office. We must have waited at least 20 minutes, as the time for boarding our flight got closer and closer. Finally two customs officers arrived at the booth and started processing and stamping people's papers. After ours were stamped, we then had to find the American Express office to actually get the money back. We just made it with enough time to run into the duty-free store for some much needed perfume and make it to the gate on time. We were exhausted, boh physically and emotionally from all the running around and hassling...travel is not for the weak or faint of heart.

We finally got on the plane and immediately dozed off. The flight was great, uneventful, like we like it, and we actually arrived early at JFK. Our driver was waiting for us, and when we got in the car we started feeling relaxed and glad to be going home. 

                                          

                                          

When we arrived home, everything was not only in order, but Justin and Jaime had put flowers in the kitchen, and stocked the fridge with some basics, including, some lovely fruit and even croissants for the morning...how thoughtful and sweet!! And then our friend Gail called to say she was bringing over some dinner for us, delicious roasted salmon and tabuli, with a salad and vino...how lovely was that.

We listened to our full voicemail box, and now we're starting to unpack before we crash. I think it's almost 3am for us now and we're really fading.

Ciao a tutti...hope you enjoyed the Blog. We'll keep you posted on missing pictures.

Bonjour Scarsdale!
Bonne nuit...