Arrived and rested

The super shuttle picked Angie and me up at 6:20am and uneventfully drove us to LAX. It was overcast and Los Angeles was damp from a nice overnight rain, as if we had given the city a bath so that it would be nice and clean when departed. I'm sure we can trust Angelenos to keep it that way while we are gone. Security and bag checking was a simple affair and we then had plenty of time left to have a sit down breakfast. Fence toast for Angela, of course, and a breakfast burrito for me.
The first flight was to Chicago, after boarding Angela sussed that our flight wasn't totally fully and that we should grab the empty row in front of us, we did and it was a bit a fight to hold on to our empty seat while a group of stragglers boarded but it proved to be very much worth it. We had a row of three seats which allowed us to lay across one another and really spread out. The flight to Chicago was even faster than advertised so we arrived in Chicago in just over three hours feeling pretty spry and excited.
The chicago airport is good as far as Midwestern airports go. It's large and has plenty to look at on a lay over. We ate a snack and then walked laps for the duration of our time there. Angie has never technically been to Chicago so I was trying to find views through the window to give her a glimpse of what she's missed. I think I found sears tower, do they still call it that or is it like the Verizon tower now? I know those corporate types are big on buying up naming rights and I can't imagine sears still has that type of weight to throw around.
Our flight to Paris left on time, and was sadly full. Our row was perhaps overfull as we had a rotund rita sitting in our third chair. I was a little relieved that this woman spilling over her chair was French, and not a typical overfed American tourist, at least I didn't have to grapple with my sense of national embarrassment as well as a strangers back fat. Angela rode next to Rita for the first few hours, till the leaning had killednher back, I then switched with her. I was mad at Rita for the first half hour, but then I decided it wasn't her fault, after all my legs don't really fit in the allotted space either, so I forgave the fatty on my row and blamed the airline in my mind, after that she just became a nice comfy pillow to lean against. On the flight I watched parts of mr poppers penguins, which was pretty stupid. I had rented "the change up" through iTunes prior to leaving, which turned out to be extremely funny. I watched it nearl 3/4 of the way through the trip while everyone else slumbered and it made me feel a touch awkward to be convulsing with stifled laughter while everyone else around me slept. The flight was a touch long and uncomfortable, but not unbearable and finally at 8am (11 pm la time) Paris time we arrived.
We got our bags and made our way to an info counter where we learned our train was under construction for a couple of days and not running. We would need to catch a shuttle to a different platform, this was confusing and a bit stressful but not as hard as it could have been. While on the bus and the train a couple of different American sought out our council on how to get were they were going so I suppose we gave off a false sense of confidence.
We switched trains at the chatelet les balled station and soon found ourselves in vincennes.

Ok my dinner is on the table, which through a strange turn was prepared as a brunch by my girlfriend from the 6th grade. More on that later.