DAY 5 – Monday, June 17

  Are we there yet??

            Waking up on our final morning in Paris to the sounds of a heavy rainstorm including loud, rolling booms of thunder, I couldn’t help but think of my favorite French word that I would finally get to use today. 
            “Ou est mon parapluie?”

            “Say what?” responds husband.  

            “Where is my umbrella?  I just looove saying that word – parapluie!  Doesn’t it make you smile?”

              “What would make me smile is if this rain stops long enough so that we could walk the 50 paces from the hotel front door to that train station conveniently located across the plaza without getting soaking wet.”
            “But, I have a parapluie!” 

            “And, I have three large suitcases to manage, so holding your tiny umbrella is not going to do much for me.”  

            “Oh, yeah.  Forgot about that part.”  

            In selecting our hotel, we had purposely chosen one within walking distance to our departure train station, Gare de Lyon.  Turns out this place was so close it was literally across a cobblestone plaza which on most days was wonderful; but on days like this one, well, we quickly discovered that in the absence of a covered walkway (go figure) we would be soaking wet in just under 60 seconds.  Hmmm.  Guess we’ll have to mention that little detail on the hotel check-out survey. Just saying.

            So, after gathering our belongings, husband with his three large wheeling suitcases (yes, two were mine) and I with all the rest – plus my parapluie! – we proceeded to do the dash and run, which was quite a feat on that wet cobblestone, and I’m sure carved a tiny bit of rubber off some of the wheels, but oh well.  I went first and got inside fast enough to be able to snap an endearing picture, at least I thought it was, of husband as he continued to attempt to tame the three suitcases (meaning a total of twelve wheels) while dashing through the pounding, relentless rain.