Paris: Our last day

Sigh ... our last day in Paris.

We packed our bags and headed for a cafe to fill up with coffee and something warm before we headed to Charles de Gaulle.

Just here for the view, folks.

It was no great shakes, but we did get a last view of Notre Dame as we had our croque monsieur and onion soup. And then we finally had to grab a train.

Aeroport Charles de Gaulle was something out of the '60s, or "2010: A Space Odyssey," or any number of cheesy settings.

Our very last picture in Paris.

Our way home was quite the adventure ...

We found out as we got to the gate that we'd be making an unscheduled stop in Goose Island, Labrador -- eastern Canada -- for fuel. Turns out, the plane was carrying too much cargo, and it was too windy in D.C. (our layover was at Dulles) to land with the amount of fuel the plane would normally carry. (I blame the couple who brought six full pieces of luggage with them. Overheard: "It was our first time in France and we didn't know what the weather was going to be like!" Ever heard of Google?!)

So our flight turned into an 11-hour affair. Perspective: It took us five and a half hours to get from JFK to Heathrow.

On the bright side, movies are free these days -- Rich watched five -- and I managed to get us an exit row, which was almost as good as first class, honestly. But by the time we got to Dulles -- where they made us sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes because one staffer wasn't at the gate to let us in -- the entire plane had missed their connections to either Newark or San Francisco. So they put us up in some resort half an hour away.

All I wanted then was my kittehs.

We managed to pull into the House of Bich around 11 a.m. on Jan. 2, where we were greeted joyfully by three kittehs. We then headed to our local bar to watch Penn State get their butts kicked in whatever bowl the Nittany Lions were playing in.

And we were happy to be home.