Emergency Paris Trip

---

So, in our race to try and find Emily some way to get to Paris, I stumbled upon a ride-share notice board, full of other people also wanting to get to Paris, but unable to find a ride. We decided to offer a nice Australian couple the 2 extra spaces in our car, making it a little more affordable for Emily, and allowing another 2 people the ability to go where they wanted for Christmas.

The 5 of us set of at 9pm on Monday night, Steven driving (on the WRONG side, which I would constantly remind him of when he was turning… just in case) and me navigating with Steve’s friend’s GPS (a godsend). We just made it out of the city and were on the highway… when it started to snow. A lot. This was not in the forecast. Well we made it through that, but just barely missed the ferry time that we wanted to be on, meaning we had to wait another hour. Oh well!

Across in France Steve was now driving on the RIGHT side of the road (bonus!)… but sadly, the steering didn’t change as we crossed the boarder, meaning I had to help with such things as changing lanes, and again, turning. The road to Paris was quite easy to follow, but again nature decided to challenge us, as fog permeated almost our entire drive. But we did make it! AndwWith plenty of time for both flights to take off. So we kicked our passengers out of the car and turned around to go back. Time check: 6:30am. I know, we needed to sleep. But we wanted to continue just for a little bit cause we both were still awake. So we drove for a little while, until we found a suitable rest stop, and then pulled off the road and slept.

Now on the road into Paris I noticed a lovely sign along side the road… marking the town of Vimy and the Vimy Ridge Memorial Site for the Canadian Troops. We decided we should do at least some sightseeing, since we were in France, so we decided to go check it out. See, Allie and I had looked into going to Vimy when we first were in France, many moons ago, and found out that it was very difficult to get to, unless you had a car. Well... WE HAD A CAR! Haha and this probably (HOPEFULLY!) would never happen again. So off we went. The fog was still present as we drove up to the site, but it made it even more beautiful. There were no people working there, it being so close to Christmas, but we met a lovely local French woman who told us a bit about the site and the land (part of the land around the site is actually Canadian soil! I was back in Canada! For the first time in a while!).

So after that nice little break, and a little pit-stop for some food and snacks, we were back on the road. Well we made it across another ferry crossing, and back onto English soil… only to be greeted there by rain. Will it never end??? It eventually did. With us safely back in Steve’s flat, eating a ton of well deserved Thai food. YUM! (time check: 7:00pm tuesday night. a mere 22 hours later)

But we had no time to relax ourselves as we had a flight (hopefully!) to catch the next morning to Germany, to spend Christmas with family there. Next stop: Hannover!

---