All went well with our flight out of San Diego. We were on a very modern 787, which had some nice inflight capabilities. We were on Norwegian air, which is also a pleasant airline to deal with, for the most part, but don’t try to reach customer service on the weekend. I had purchased our tickets via a third party, and there were some glitches, but we were able to iron them out.
When we left LAX, we gate checked our wheelchairs as normal, but when we landed in Paris, the baggage handlers opted to deliver our chairs to baggage claim. This caused a scramble for airport wheelchairs that took a long time. In the meantime, Andrew and I were stuck at the top of the jetway along with another passenger. Ultimately we were on our way. I was amazed at how easy customs was. They were pretty much only interested in whether or not we were bringing in large quantities of cash. It will be interesting to compare this to the process going back through US customs upon our return.
After the airport, we were able to experience Paris driving at its finest in the back of a large taxi. I’ve decided that lane lines and other traffic controls are largely just suggestions. We did make it safely to Gare de Lyon to catch our train from Basel. The rail ride out was very pleasant. The trains move quite quickly (I think we were probably going around 80 mph), but you can’t really feel it because they are so smooth. We also were able to see much of the beautiful French countryside as this time of year, sunset is relatively late.
