Well, here we go.  We started our formal planning for this next big chapter in our lives on October 1^st and five months later, we are sitting in Paris, France with the world in front of us.  On October 1^st, we started what my former boss affectionately called the “sticky exercise.”  Just creating a laundry list of everything we could think of that needed to be done to pull off the preparations for getting rid of nearly everything we own and becoming full-time global nomads.  Our home/house is now wherever we are.  The process to get here is one of the hardest things either of us has ever done.  For five months, it was the non-stop feeling of “there isn’t enough time to get it all done.”  We needed to change our address, get new driver’s licenses, renew our passports, get the necessary vaccinations, work out the details for getting our prescriptions and contacts for the entire time outside the US, buy smaller carry-on luggage, determine what was coming with us in our small carry-ons and backpacks, complete medical appointments, get our international driver’s licenses, research our cell phone plans, get a VPN set up, store my 1994 pickup truck in my mom’s garage, along with literally 200 other tasks on our project plan. As we got into January and February, it was mainly about getting the house, RV, and Sandy’s car sold and our belongings given away or for the sentimental items, into storage.  We left Sarasota yesterday and it actually wasn’t until the night of February 28^th when we were standing in my mom’s driveway and I felt like – oh, this is ok to be standing here talking right now and not letting the next urgent thing occupy my mind.

One of the highlights as we approached departure date was the going away get-together we had at Wings n Things.  That’s our weekly hangout where I always get wings and Sandy always gets a burger.  We’ve been going there for years and they take really good care of us so it was a no-brainer to plan to have our gathering of family/friends there before we left.  And of course, they did a great job with our group and we’ll be missing, Johnny, Tanya, Steph, and Leah every Friday night going forward. Thank you for being there that night, Ashlee!

Another highlight was the pickleball group surprising me with a going away party on my last day at the courts.  I showed up to a banner, cupcakes, and a group of people with whom I have spent a couple of hours a day with and we’ve become just a great community of people.  Very much like a family.  I hope we are able to stay connected through this adventure and I certainly look forward to getting back there when we are in Sarasota.

So we left Sarasota yesterday morning in a rental car and headed to Miami.  We found a great flight deal out of Miami, so it was not a big deal to get a one-way rental car.  We left at 8:15 and we were at the airport by around 1 after a couple of stops.  While waiting for our 5:10pm departure, Sandy grabbed a pizza and I had a turkey and cheese sandwich.  They were fine for airport food. We flew Norse Atlantic over to London’s Gatwick airport.  We also flew Norse in July.  They are a budget airline so we planned accordingly from an eating standpoint.  They do fly new Boeing 787s, which I quite like.  The one thing I don’t like is that the window shades are virtual I guess you would say.  They darken and brighten based on the push of a button.  But the crew has full control so they decide when they are dark and when they are bright.  I like to look out occasionally even overnight but no chance of that.  First world problems.  We landed on time in London and we were through customs by 7am local time.

Our flight from London to Paris wasn’t until 1:25pm.  We went for breakfast and we both had the Full English breakfasts – that is one of our favorites – and we also had fruit smoothies. 

We recently switched over to the Capital One card because the travel benefits are too good to pass up.  One of those benefits that we didn’t place much value on was access to airport lounges.  We made use of it during the long layover and now we think we’ll enjoy the benefit.  It turns out we could have basically had the same breakfast there at no cost.  That’s ok – we learn.  It was pretty busy, but we spent a couple of hours working on some things.  I got my esim card going on my cell phone so we’ll have access to data on my phone while we are out and about for our time in Europe.

The layover was fine and we flew Vueling (a Spanish budget airline) over to Paris, arriving a little late because of a departure delay out of London at around 4:30pm.  It took a few minutes to determine the best way to get from the airport to our hotel.  We very much prefer figuring out public transportation as opposed to using a taxi/Uber.  And it was funny because on this trip into Paris, we got help from a really nice guy who happened to be a taxi driver and he said we should take a taxi because it is much easier, but then we wouldn’t have had the chance to meet him. We took an airport shuttle to a regional train to the metro and then had a three-minute walk to the hotel.  We are staying at the Hotel Le Quartier Bercy Square.

The hotel room is very small but it’s perfect to get our journey started.  It didn’t take long to get settled and we were starved so Sandy found a spot that was about a 25-minute walk from the hotel.  We didn’t mind the walk after the long couple of days of travel.  Well, that was until the rain went from a nice Paris drizzle to a downpour.  So we cut our walk short and went to the closest restaurant, which we ended up loving – enough to go back again before we left.  We had dinner at Le Globe and it was perfect.  Escargot and champagne to start and then we each had beef bourguignon.  It was so good, especially on a cold (mid-40s) and rainy night. 

The rain calmed down for our walk back to the hotel.  We stopped at Auchan supermarket across the street from the hotel to get some bananas for the room and then we were in and ready to get some good sleep.