Paris, we are in you.

It's been  an epic, hectic day of travel that is, as of this writing, still ongoing. I left Macon at 11 a.m. EDT yesterday (June 30), flew overnight from Atlanta to Frankfurt, had a short layover in Frankfurt, then on to Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport--which is not in Paris at all, as everyone knows. There are 85 students in the group this year plus 10 faculty members, so we were split among a total of 3 flights for the trip over here. Some of us had to wait at Frankfurt for a later connection to Paris; some got to come to Paris right away but then had to wait for the rest. A lucky few flew directly from ATL to CDG.  We finally got everyone and all the bags collected in to 2 buses and now we are en route to Cité Universitaire. Barely moving, but en route. Ah, la circulation Parisienne.

It's been a long day but everything has gone well. The Lufthansa flights were very good (again) and my colleague Dr. Mauldin said the Delta flight was excellent. No one lost any bags or missed their connection. I have already gotten to speak French to a few unsuspecting citizens of the republic and even got a café waiter in the airport to laugh at my joke about wanting my coffee to be "jet lag size." It must be said that I have terrible décalage horaire. One day, perhaps, I will master the art of sleeping on planes. As it is I'm sure I slept less than an hour and have thus been awake for the better part of 28 hours. The end is in sight. Check in at Cité, small walking tour of the immediate area, cafeteria dinner, and then I will set a record for most blissfully comfortable sleep in a dorm bed.

Plus, les Bleus won their soccer match last night. And I got to watch Banksy: Exit Through The Gift Shop on the plane. And I have already had a stroke-inducingly strong cup of French coffee. Now if I can just avoid falling asleep on this bus ride. No sleep till the 14th arrondissement! (As the Beastie Boys never said.)