I Lied – Here’s More

Just some random notes on the trip home:

1. The men’s washrooms at the Aix TGV station have little realistic flies painted on the insides of the urinals.  The attendant told me she thinks they are meant to provide an aiming point that minimized splash.  Not as much fun as the little soccer nets and balls you see here now and then, but more effective I suspect.  Interesting how automatic aiming for it was, even before the realization that it was fake dawned.
2. They also had hand-dryers with UV lights in addition to hot air.  If ever I get skin cancer on my hands I shall know to sue SNCF.
3. We were serious when we said we’d look at returning to the same apartment in Aix to get in that last week there.
4. We’re not so serious about getting in the 5 days we had planned for Paris.  The afternoon and evening we spent there while in transit reminded us both of how much of the city we have seen.  And while the hotel itself was fine for a cheap stay, we really didn’t like the neighbourhood.  Too busy, too much traffic, little street life.  So we not only don’t really miss the time we lost there, Geri the Birthday Girl is not sure they needs to get those days back.
5. Instead we’re thinking of combining our tour of the Coronation Street set in Manchester with a week in Aix, giving the Eurostar a go.  Stay tuned.
6. I had forgotten, if I ever knew, how 70’s space-age-ie de Gaulle is, why it was used as the setting for so many cheesie S-F films.
7. The SAS lounge at de Gaulle was not anything like the Maple Leaf lounges we’ve seen.  But the coffee was good and the croissant fresh and nice, so who cares?
8. Once we got to Brussels, our first plane change, we had to flag down a cart and get a ride to our gate as our incoming flight was late.  Fun.  We got to see some of the access tunnels under the building etc.
9. Pod seats on an Airbus 330 (one of my fave planes, just for the quiet) to Montreal, where we had a 4 hour long wait between flights in the lounge, and then again on to Toronto.
10. I did a mini Steve Coogan film festival.  Liked Philomina, loved Alan Partridge.  Lots of champagne and a nap.
11. Home about 20:00.  Long day.  Up the next early to pack for the funeral and we were on the road by 0730.
12. Photos of the sprint home and a tiny bit of Paris are HERE.