Therèse had arranged for a taxi to come for us about 7:00 am, and she and Olivier were up with us at 6:15. They even provided us with coffee and breakfast, which we weren't expecting at that hour--lovely people. Olivier helped load our gear into the taxi-van, and the drive to the airport took about an hour. When we checked in with Lufthansa we were pleased to not be charged extra for our second bags. (Air Canada had charged us $70 each when we left Vancouver, so perhaps that was a round-trip rate.) Our flight to Frankfurt left on time and the Alps were lit up by sunshine as we flew north and east from Lyon. A two hour stopover in Frankfurt gave us time to pick up some sandwiches before going through security again for our Air Canada flight.

We had booked our flights online with Air Canada more than three months ahead of time, but even booking that early, we could not get a reasonably priced non-stop flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt going east, or from Frankfurt to Vancouver going west. We had to stop somewhere in Canada, and chose Calgary, instead of Toronto or Montreal, since that route is most efficient for actual time in the air. This turned out to be a mistake!

On the way to Europe, we were excited and still fresh, so did not notice the extra stop too much. Coming back, after the short flight from Lyon to Frankfurt and then 10 hours on the plane to Calgary, we were tired and not happy about getting on another plane for the one-hour flight to Vancouver. In addition, the Calgary airport turned out to be a nightmare of inefficiency and rude employees. We had to go through customs which took ages. There were signs up apologizing for delays, so this was probably a chronic condition. Then we had to collect our bags, which did not show up. Just as we (and many other passengers from our flight) were lining up at the lost luggage counter, we were told that the bags were probably there after all. One whole baggage cart had been 'misplaced' for a half hour or so while we were waiting. When we finally picked up our bags, we were told to take them to another area and check them in again. The conveyer belt at this check-in area was not working, so we had another wait until the rude attendant told to take our bags off the belt and then go to our departure gate. By this time we were seriously worried about missing our connection to Vancouver, especially when we saw the long lineup to go through security manned by another rude attendant who informed us that if we missed this flight, there would be another one later in the evening. We finally made it to the gate just as the plane was boarding, and sank into our seats, exhausted. By this time it was about 3 am in France. We landed in Vancouver without incident, and our daughter met us at the airport. We were extremely glad to be on the ground again, with all our baggage, and decided we would never again book a route like that. Next time we would phone Air Canada and ask them for a nonstop flight at a reasonable price, or fly with another airline.