Stranded in Paris

We're stranded in Paris. Our four nights to end our trip have become seven nights at the least. We're going to try again to get out tomorrow and see how it goes. With flights reopening we're hoping we'll be able to get something. But I can honestly say that I hope I will never again experience the kind of airport madness we encountered on Tuesday.

The stress of a hurricane in the states made people absolutely crazy at the airports. Panic mode. Panicked, angry people made the French airport staff ruder than normal. We did our best to be polite and positive and kind. To try to get on a flight to the states and take the rest as it comes.

We couldn't get out. Every US bound flight had been oversold by at least twenty seats with an additional stand by wait list of fifty (on which we were numbers 47 and 48). So we decided to spend two days waiting it out in Paris.

While we waited we were given some serious perspective. We met a Delta employee whose wife and two youngest kids made it on a flight out of Barcelona on Saturday. He and his two older kids - about eleven and fourteen - had been wearing the same clothes for four days trying to get any flight headed stateside. They'd made it to Paris but that was it. At least we have all our clothes (dirty though they may be) and no kids!

We're making the best of it and having a great time while trying to be as budget conscious as possible. Paris is a lovely place to be stuck but really expensive. We are back at the same hotel, in the same room with a view of the Eiffel Tower. We window shopped on the Champs-Elysees and saw the new Bond movie SKYFALL yesterday. We braved the rain and crowds at Versailles this morning.

We're having a good time during our bonus Paris time and making plans and contingency plans to get home. We're hoping to get home in time to watch some college football on Saturday.

But we'll see - after all, you can't predict a hurricane!