Couchsurfing and Cockpits

 

Oh my goodness. First, I apologize for not taking video of this trip, sometimes I’m just not in the mindset of blogging/vlogging. Which, you know, I think is OK. I like to be in the moment, to be observing things, rather than recording them. But I did take photos.

So because of that whole moving fiasco back in January, I had no home to arrive to in Paris. Even my temporary 5 day plan had been vaporized because of my cat and I went straight to couchsurfing. I’ve never couchsurfed before. But I found a host on couchsurfing.org and settled in. He trusted me so much that he let me stay at his apartment before even meeting me. He was away the weekend I arrived and left a key in a hiding spot. So I only met him several days later. Turns out we’re both into healthy eating, so that’s fun. He introduced me to a vegetarian restaurant I hadn’t been to yet, and now this weekend I shall do the same. But he also invited me to go with him “to work” this week. You see, my host was a pilot. 🙂 So I flew along and spent a day in and around Castres with him, the other pilot, and the air hostess.

 

 

I even got to sit in the cockpit, in a special little pull-out chair that left my feet dangling (before the little foot rests were brought out). I have to admit, I felt kind of special being waved up the aisle by the captain. 😛

 

 

 

 

We landed kind of late on Tuesday night, so while the other pilot and the air hostess went to bed, we took the van and went searching for food. Being a small town, not much was open at 10pm, but we found a brasserie and they actually had a vegetarian dish. It wasn’t bad, either. And you know, although it can be a pain to have so little to choose from on a menu as a vegan/vegetarian, sometimes it’s awesome just opening a menu, seeing the one thing you can order, and knowing right away what you’re going to eat. No decision to be made. It can be nice. Sometimes.

 

 

The next day we drove to Albi and a nearby town called Cordes sur Ciel. Cordes sur Ciel was just adorable. Not super vegan/vegetarian friendly (but it’s France…) but we had a small lunch on a terrasse and enjoyed it. Got a lot of exercise, too, walking up and down the hilly streets!

 

Then we drove to Albi, where we visited the largest brick building in the world, the Albi cathedral. Sorry, I didn’t take a photo of it. I rarely take photos of the things you’d expect me to! lol Here’s one of the river, instead:

And some flowers:

And green things growing on a very tall wall:

And here’s an over-exposed picture of me:

On our way back it began to rain. BUT an enormous rainbow appeared, which I tried to photograph from the car window. Yes, we could have stopped and I could have gotten out in the rain to photograph it, but we didn’t. I love rainbows. We could see all of it. AND it turned into a double rainbow.

 

I kept getting texted by a friend at this moment and I had to tell him “hang on, there’s a rainbow that needs my attention.”

The next morning we were up bright and early for a 6:30 flight. Which, in this little town, means we got to the airport around 6:00 and moseyed on through check-in and security. This is one serious benefit to living in a little town. Wow. The airport was seriously almost one room. I bet you don’t have to show up 2 hours early for a flight here, ever. It was like going to the Lancaster, PA Amtrak station. With a metal detector.

So we headed back to Paris. As we flew towards Orly, we could see the blanket of fog though. This is where my weird little movie-based fears kicked in a bit. I’m sure you can figure out what they were without me saying anything. So we circled for a bit before landing. Didn’t exactly wait for the fog to lift, so I was quite nervous as we descended into the whiteness.

I watched the altitude drop and had visions of slamming into something as we got closer to the earth. I don’t know how they knew where the runway was. Slowly, as the number fell… 500… 400… there were lights. Ah, runway lights! And we touched down.

Anyway, it was a lovely little trip, practically perfect in every way (I freaking saw a rainbow!!!). I got myself back into Paris (because there was another flight back to Castres to be made, and I didn’t need to be on it) and moved on to my next living situation. Which should be the place I’m subletting, but she hasn’t given me the wifi information yet, so there’s really no point in being there, so I am fortunate enough to have a back-up plan for the weekend. Which is where I am now, with my little doggy-face joining me for a few days. 🙂 So. Now that you’ve been updated…. I’m going to get dinner!