Going Home . . .

      Our year in France was due to expire Friday, July 27th.  There were many things to do to get ready to depart.  We had to say goodbye to lots of people and take care of many details.  We even needed a doggy passport.  And on the night before we were to leave, Asha cashed in her "Daddy, you promised that we could sleep out in the yard before we left France" card:

Then, at midnight, all the automatic sprinklers turned on.  Oops.

     The morning we left, we posed for last photos in front of the house:

Fortunately, it was all business and no one was the slightest bit sentimental:

     We had 7 suitcases, our 1-year old Golden Retriever, and her travel kennel.  

     Our itinerary was as follows:  (1) drive 45 minutes from Vaison to Avignon train station; (2) turn in rental car; (3) board high speed train and travel 3 hours to Paris airport stop; (4) get off train, through airport (to a different terminal) and find shuttle to nearby hotel; (5) spend the night in Paris; (6) wake at 5:00 a.m. to walk dog before early flight; (6) take 5:45 a.m. shuttle back to airport; (7) check in regular baggage at 6:00; (8) take Ivy for a last walk around airport; (9) check in Ivy/kennel at 7:00; (10) board 8:20 a.m. flight and hope someone tells the pilot to turn on the pressurization and temperature control in the pet compartment; (11) fly 8 hours to New York; (12) collect luggage and, hopefully, dog, hopefully alive and well; (13) clear border control and customs (including illicit dog food); (14) get through JFK airport and find rental car shuttle and place for dog to relieve self; (15) collect rental car; (16) drive 3 hours from New York to house of Averil's cousin who lives in Malvern, Pennsylvania; (17) spend night with Averil's cousin; (18) in morning, visit Averil's aunt, uncle, and other cousin and have lunch with them; (19) drive 3 hours to Averil's family place at Lake Paupac in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, where we will stay for about 12 days before heading to Seattle on August 10th.

     There were a lot of steps in the process and many issues to consider.  Who would direct it all?  And who would carry the heavy suitcases?  Would this crazy-@$$ scheme work?  The official odds were 50-50.

     Fortunately, the luck of Lady Gaga smiled upon us.  Everything went off without a hitch.

     From the time we left the house, Ivy was the perfect traveling dog.  We got really lucky there!  And nothing went wrong anywhere along the chain of events.

     Here we are on the train ride to Paris:

     And in the airport in Paris:

And, in this picture, a man is wheeling Ivy off the plane and out of a secret door into the baggage area at JFK:

We were back in America (later confirmed by a stop at Burger King):

     We're slowly reintroducing ourselves to America in order to avoid cracking under the strain of culture shock.  A couple of cups of peanut butter a day and some down time at Lake Paupac ought to do it. 

Back in America at Lake Paupac

     Thanks for tuning in to Le Blog.  We hope you enjoyed the tales of our adventures, large and small.  But but now that we're back in the USA there's really not much more to say . . . except . . . "Did we really just do that?!"

     Actually, there's a tiny bit more to say . . . The General (no more "Le") will close out our 110th and final blog entry with these words:

                                                      "C'etait trop bien!"