Final Preparations and a day in Paris

July, 27, Paris_______________________________________

Walter has been tied up and placed in a closet as a result of buying the stinkiest cheese in all of France. I am Heather and it looks like I'll be stepping in as Blog-updater. Walt's attempt to remove the stinky-cheese smell from our hotel had him carting it around the city, polluting the expensively-perfumed air and attracting small animals along our path to Le Louvre Museum. Unfortunate, our people-watching curiosity and lolly-gagging brought us to the Louvre with only an hour to spare between it and a pre-arranged meeting. A decision was made and Le Louvre will have to wait until next time for our cheese offerings.



For dinner, we met with Jenny Busch, the Tasmanian Coordinator of Adult Cystic Fibrosis. Jenny had flown in from a meeting in Copenhagen to see us off tomorrow. Over pizza and red wine, we told her of our luggage mishaps. As it looks for the moment, British Airways has, in theory, located the missing bags of sponsored gear and expensive camera equipment and in a vague email, we are told the luggage is ''at the airport''...which airport, we don't know. It is possible these necessary items are making their way back to the address of origin - Australia. We wait optimistically for its arrival, but haven't got much time left to be hopeful as we prepare to leave at 10 a.m. from the Eiffel Tower. Sadly, most of the missing camping gear and camera equipment has been replaced during sporadic bursts at the shopping centre across from our hotel - at least convenience is on our side!



An email from the president of the Rotary Club in Provins, our destination for tomorrow, lets us know he is saving us beds and dinner upon our arrival, should we make it in time; something to look forward to, as the crazy driving techniques we've witnessed are certainly not! Our plan to be rid of Paris in four difficult route-finding hours may be a little optimistic, but we're ready!