Day 30 - Paris, France

Our luck with the weather ran out today. We departed Caen, in the rain, at 07:00 for a  149 mile ride to Paris and the Ibis Paris Gare de Lyon Reuilly. Jean Loup, the day manager, knows us from previous visits, so let us park the bikes in the garage to shuffle luggage before taking them to the airport (CDG) to be turned in for processing. I have to admit that riding fort 2 1/2 hours in rain, heavy at times, is not much fun. Especially on a freeway with traffic.

Jim and I got to the freight forwarder at 11:00. He didn't expect us until tomorrow so we dropped off our paperwork and were told to come back at 14:00. Fair enough, so we found a restaurant a mile or two away and had a long lunch. Got back at 14:00 and at 14:30 a guy lead us to the warehouse where they'd put the bikes on a pallet etc. and clear them through French Customs. It took until 16:00 to finish the process and the thirty minutes waiting for taxi to take us to our hotel in downtown Paris. We were back at the hotel at 16:50. Everything was done in a professional manner but slowly.

Monday Sara will fly to Reno and I'll fly to Vancouver, with Jim and Rosie. The bikes will be on our plane. So, three days in Paris to visit friends and sight see. After all the days on the road a day or two of doing not much of anything looks pretty good.