Greetings, Europe! Thanks for the Stunning Sunrise!

Have you ever put down a book after a few pages because the story felt just too similar to something you had read recently?

Bear with me. This French chapter featuring a former French and a half-French kid in France may feel like a déjà vu because well, we usually go to France in the summer. (Yes Mark, there’s a reason why we don’t explore other European countries like Finland or Switzerland, sorry, I can’t afford it.)

But this time, there will be a plot twist.

I mean, I can promise at least one plot twist on our side. As you know, anything can happen at any time, the world is full of surprises, sometimes terrible ones, like seeing the far right on the brink of power in France.

We’re aiming for a fun plot twist.

At least, I hope it will be fun. It’s going to be… ahem, challenging.

In the meantime, our trip to France started slightly differently this year—we left earlier than usual because of the Olympics and we flew Ottawa-Paris with Air France instead of Montreal-Paris or Montreal-Nantes with Air Transat.

“Air France? It sounds… fancy,” Mark said.

“You’ll get a free pillow and blanket. Earphones too. And they have tons of movies!”

“Are we flying on a Boeing plane?”

“No, Airbus.”

“That’s the best part, then. Because my friend told me that Boeing planes tend to crash.”

I love the newish direct Ottawa-Paris Air France flight. It saves us the drive to and from Montreal, plus Air France is nicer—more legroom, decent food, and better overall value for the same price. I hope the route won’t be cancelled but I’m not holding my breath because so many things I like got cancelled or disappeared in Canada these past few years, from events to food products.

“This is how it’s going to work. You won’t sleep because the flight is at 5 p.m. and we’re landing at 5:50 a.m. French time, which is 11:50 p.m. in Canada. So go ahead, binge on movies. Just don’t be in a bad mood because you didn’t sleep.”

“I promise I won’t! Just… what do you mean by ‘binge’?”

“Like… indulge excessively. Didn’t you have a class on alcohol and substance abuse at school? Never heard of binge drinking?”

“Meh… I wasn’t too interested.”

Feng drove us to the airport at 2:30 p.m. I dropped off my backpack and the waiting game started. The flight was 10 minutes behind schedule but the pilot announced we would reach France in record time because of the wind—”buckle up, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”

We watched the sun rising over Europe and eventually landed in Paris.

This is where the second part of the journey started—a TGV train from CDG Airport to Le Mans, then a TER train from Le Mans to Nantes.

Yeah, well, it was cheaper.

Mark passed out on the train. I couldn’t sleep, I had to make sure we would get off in Le Mans, or else we were going to end up in Rennes.

We arrived in Nantes at 12:13 p.m., just as planned.

Not bad for a transatlantic journey!