We woke up early and popped over to the local boulangerie for our morning croissants and apricot pastries. Yum! We would miss these at home in British Columbia. After our breakfast indulgence we finished the last bit of packing and hauled the heavy bike cases and duffels downstairs, glad to be going down and not up the four flights.

We waited outside for the airport shuttle across the narrow rue Maitre Albert, waving goodbye to Madame Chatignoux in her upstairs window. The shuttle mini-bus was a bit late, but it showed up just as Eva's anxiety level was rising. The drive to the airport took about an hour because the driver had to pick up two more people in another part of the city, but we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in for our flight. Then it was off to the Maple Leaf lounge for espresso and a look at the Canadian papers.

The flight from Paris to Montreal felt quite luxurious in one of Air Canada's new planes, with an individual “pod” for each business class passenger. Once again we were served a very competent hot meal on proper china with good wine in real glasses. Eva made use of her large flat screen and excellent sound system to watch the movie “Julie and Julia". She particularly enjoyed the scenes of Julia Child (Meryl Streep) in Paris.

It was too bad that this plane didn't take us all the way to Vancouver; we had to wait four hours in Montreal for a connecting flight. By this time (after midnight in France) the charms of the airport lounge had faded, and the plane to Vancouver was an older, noisier one, with a few wider seats at the front for business class. We weren't hungry (our stomachs were on French time) so couldn't enjoy the meal and just tried to rest. The plane landed about 10:00pm Vancouver time, and we took a taxi to our daughter's apartment, where we soon fell into bed. After four enjoyable days visiting and getting over jet lag in Vancouver, we took our final short flight home, and arrived in the Kootenays just in time for winter.