After six months away from my home in France, I’m on the way back to Uzes!
I’ve had a wonderful time in the U.S. with family and friends; and now it is time to continue my life-changing adventure in the south of France.
My dear friend, Geoffrey, is picking me up at the TGV station In Avignon on Tuesday.
When I called to let him know my plans I joked: “Are you ready to play?”
“Why, of course!” he replied in his usual jovial tone.
Good thing he didn’t ask me about my French proficiency.
Try as I might, I continue to find that studying French is not my favorite pastime. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important for me to speak the language of my new home. It’s just that is such a labor to learn it. Perhaps when I’m back among all French-speakers, I will have picked up more than I know. We’ll all find out soon!
Budget Travel Hints
My oldest son is a genius at traveling light and traveling cheap. He should write a book. For my return home trip he shared one of his economy flight-scheduling tips.
He uses the flight search engine Skyscanner. It enables you to put in a country as the origination, instead of designating your closest airport, then enter your destination city. For example, origination= USA, destination = Paris. When the scan is finished, you can see the city in the US that has the lowest fare to Paris. (It’s usually JFK, BWI, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, or Boston.) Then search for the lowest fare from that place to you nearest major airport.
When I was searching for my flight, it happened that BWI (Baltimore/Washington) had a fare to Paris that was practically 1/3 the cost of flying from my closest airport, Atlanta to Paris. When I added the cost of a flight to BWI from Atlanta, the total was half the cost of a trip straight from Atlanta — including paying for luggage and extra legroom at my seat.
Mind you, on the day of travel, I fly from Atlanta to BWI, to Iceland, to Paris. It’s going to take awhile, but I’m saving $500-$600!
From Paris, I’ll take the TGV high-speed train to Avignon.
This is all going down on Monday. On Tuesday evening, I’ll be back home in my sweet tower apartment in Uzes!
Stay tuned!
