Via Lemovicensis: Travel Day to Paris

Easter morning began with me taking down the black mourning flag that had flown at Pistachio House since the day of Francine’s death. It was replaced by the flag of Burgundy (really Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), which is the first region in France through which I will walk.

This has been our custom through our Caminos. As I walk, my lovely house sitters will swap out the flags for each new region I come to. At least, that’s the plan!

I said goodbye to the hens and to Pistachio House, and my friend Meg picked me up to drive me to SeaTac at 6:30 AM. 

I don’t normally like to check bags, but there wasn’t really a choice. Hiking poles and pocket knives are things you can’t take in carry on! I’ve got those, and some of my bulky items such as my sleeping bag, in a blue IKEA bag. I love these bags for this sort of thing, because they are solid but light enough to stuff at the bottom of my backpack for the walk.

I was through security in about three minutes. Being me, I was early to be early and had a long wait before my flight. I only had about four hours of sleep after the excitement of the great vigil of Easter last night, so I was already fighting to stay awake.

More coffee was clearly in order. I basically hung out in the food court until just before my flight started boarding.

I had a tight connection in Chicago, and the gates were roughly a kilometer apart. Fortunately, fast walking is a thing I do well. I made it with plenty of time.

There were lots of families on the flight to Paris, including one with four children ranging in age from toddling to probably ten or so. The parents were doing their best to keep them corralled at the gate. 

Years ago these rambunctious little kids would have annoyed me to no end, but all I could do was smile. They’re making memories for a lifetime, no matter how frazzled the parents are in the moment. 

The flight itself was only about half full, so there was plenty of room to stretch out. Quite the change from being crammed like sardines in the flight from Seattle to Chicago.

Flying steerage has never felt more comfortable. 

After a dinner of shepherd’s pie, I fell asleep somewhere over Canada and woke somewhere over the Atlantic south of Iceland. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I watched one of my favourite films, Casablanca. It finished as we flew into the dawn over England. (Though in retrospect, it may just have been the plane’s automatic window tinting turning off.)

I joked with some folks at the Easter Vigil that my first blog post would just read “arrived in Paris really tired”. Perhaps it’s not the entire post, but it’s certainly the punchline.

Date: 05 to 06 April 2026

Place: Paris 

Today started: Tacoma 

Today’s Photos!