michelle in mali: Paris: 2, Michelle: 0

Abby & I planned a day-long layover in Paris so that we could see a few sights! Our flight from Mali to Paris was overnight so we tried to sleep (we did not, we were pretty riled up). We landed super early in Paris and began this absolutely insane trek through the airport with all of our crazy luggage to an adjoining hotel. Somehow we had a crazy combo of no elevators, not being able to use escalators, and awkward luggage. One of Abby's pieces didn't even have a handle...it had been shrink-wrapped! She pretty much had to kick it through the airport. It was too early to check in to our hotel, so we put our luggage in this little locker room and....well...we actually changed clothes in there too. Good thing nobody came in.

The first thing we wanted to do was go to Notre Dame. I cannot emphasize enough how cold it was. For two years, we'd lived in an extremely hot place. We didn't really have any appropriate "winter" clothes, so we pretty much just had to layer everything we had on. Kind of like Joey when he put on all of Chandler's clothes.

Paris was beautiful. We had a hard time finding the Louvre, but once we did we loved it. We saw everything we wanted to see (very quickly) and even had time for a nap (we were exhausted and our bodies hurt, especially our feet). Then we went back out for an awesome dinner and a little walking around. Great day in Paris. Maybe I don't loathe it anymore (if you don't know why Paris was a recipient of my loathing, it was basically a really really awful awful delay, seen here). I mean it's beautiful, historic, delicious, cold...what's not to love? :)

The next morning we went to the airport 3 hours before our plane was to leave. We went to check in, which was only do-able at a kiosk, and the kiosk told us that we could not be checked in and spit out a coupon for customer service. We went to the counter and were told that our type of tickets (non-profit) needed accompanying documentation. We spent the next 5 hours or so trying to get this documentation (it had to be the original, the ORIGINAL!), trying to get a hold of Mali, and trying to let our people in America know that we were delayed. We had no phones...we left our Mali ones in Mali and hadn't had American ones in 2 years...and were being told that in order to get to America we'd need to purchase new tickets. At one point I had to gently tell myself that I may be spending another night or two in a Paris airport. Finally, FINALLY the Paris Air France office was able to get a hold of the Mali Air France office who vouched for us and pretty much told Paris to quit being ridiculous. At that point we'd already missed our first flight and our next flight was in like 20 minutes. All of a sudden we were golden! Since it was AF's fault, they sent us to the front of every line and escorted us all the way to the gate! We sat down in our seats out of breath and anxious to get home.