What a stress mess, but with a happy ending. We sat most of the afternoon in the United Club as was mentioned above. We boarded our plane to Paris on time and everything looked good. We were greeted on board by a 'welcome' glass of champagne.
Soon thereafter I decided to remove my contact lenses before the flight began. Alas! Wouldn't you know that I'd drop one right on the floor of the Business Class restroom. Yuck! I panicked. I threw open the door and shouted for the flight attendant. He brought a flashlight and we shined it over the small, but still clean (?) floor, but no lens. Fortunately I found it perched on the edge of the sink. Tragedy averted.
Back in our seats, Lloyd was watching the weather--as usual. He spotted a darkening sky, then some lightning in the distance. Just about the time we should have taken off, the pilot announced that a bag was on-board but the owner had not boarded the flight. Security dictates that the flight be delayed until the offending bag is located and removed. Even though this process took a relatively short time, it was enough of a delay that we couldn't leave before the big storm hit. The pilot turned off the engines when Newark officials closed the airport; we sat on the runway for three hours, waiting for the "fast moving" storm passed. When we finally took off, the pilot promised that he'd take some shortcuts (really?) and with the strong winds we'd make up time. This was important to us because Lloyd had arranged for a driver to meet us at the airport to ensure a quick trip to the train station in town and had bought train tickets for a noon ride to Beaune. All night long, during a very bouncy flight, we kept checking the arrival time. In spite of the "shortcuts", we were still running three hours late. As we approached the coast of France, the pilot announced we'd be further delayed because of rain and fog at the Paris airport. Lloyd about jumped out of the plane. His best laid-plans were about to go out the window. But good things happen to good people--right!?! Our flight landed three hour late and Lloyd was convinced that our driver would have left the airport without us.
But we really lucked out. We raced off the airplane with our carry-on bags (no checked baggage for us!!) and ran smack into a huge line for immigration control. Oh, no! But it turned out that line was for all European passport holders, not us. There was no one in the non-EU line. Voila! We were first through that line, then out the door, and there was our driver, holding a sign with Lloyd's name. He assured us he'd get us to our train in time in spite of the rain. And sure enough he did. We even had a few minutes to sit and catch our breath in the train station. Wait a relief after that night of tension. So off to Beaune....continuing the adventure.
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