Finally.

Oh my stars. The past 36 hours have been pretty darn tiring. After awaiting seats on Saturday and not getting enough for the three of us, Barbara and Anita sent D'Andrea on to Paris to transfer train schedules, call our hotel in the Pyrenees, etc. We went back to Barbara's, sulking about still being in Atlanta while our friend was in Paris. Since we made huge sacrifices to the cycling gods on Sunday, we were graced with not only two seats on the plane, but Business Class. We had unlimited champagne, foot rests, booties, eye covers, gourmet food, hot nuts, hot towels, and Barbara even scored a sloppy kiss on the cheek from a drunk bodybuilder. So we were psyched! We landed around 5:30 am Paris time, which is 11:30 pm Atlanta time. We then met D'Andrea at the train station at Charles de Gaulle, and waited about an hour for our train to Bordeaux. We were on the high speed train for about 4.5 hours. If you've never taken one, I highly recommend it. The views are great but the service not so good. After all that time, we never got anything to drink and we were so parched. Barbara got scolded for putting her poor, swollen feet on the bench next to me. Of course, he fussed at her in French & she didn't understand a word, but when he tapped her feet, she got the message.
When we arrived in Bordeaux, we got our rental car and attempted out of the city toward our new home at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains. It took us three hours, and D'Andrea became the Jens Voigt of driving. She mastered that road furniture like a champ and took great care of us. We stopped at a tiny roadside market to get water and snacks and the owner spoke ZERO English. Even with my flashcards and studying, I still did a lot of pointing. I had a banana, and I'm thrilled to say that my first French Banana was terrific.
We arrived at our "home" and we were immediately impressed with it. We have lovely and spacious accommodations and our hosts are so sweet. We unloaded our things, then went in search of food. We found a small restaurant on the city square where the waitress tried to be so helpful, but again, knew no English. We did lots of pointing again. D'Andrea was able to tell us most of what the menu said and if she thought we'd eat it. By the end of dinner, the three of us were so tired. We have a couple of team tactics for tomorrow's stage but we're unsure which we will use. We're going to bed now and hopefully, after a good night's rest and some cafe créme, we will be 100% ready to go get that yellow jersey.