April 19, 2025 to April 20, 2025
To Paris
My trip to Paris actually began more than a month ago when I travelled to Washington, DC for the in-person interview that is required for a long-stay visa in France. If everything goes well at VFS Global, all your papers are in order and are sent along with your passport to the French Embassy who will then issue you a visa and return your passport within 7-10 days.
These trips to DC have not always been smooth - in 2022 I left my passport at home and had to fly back to Raleigh to retrieve it in time for my interview appointment. This year, I was saved from disaster by my French teacher. I had booked the interview in DC for late January to coincide with a trip to Philadelphia with my sisters to see our cousin and take in a basketball game. While explaining the visa process to my French teacher, I noted that I likely be in Tanzania when my visa was approved and my passport returned. “Don’t you need your passport to go to Tanzania?” Duh!!! Thank goodness I was able to rebook the VFS Global appointment for shortly after my return from Africa.
Five days after returning from Tanzania I walked to the local Amtrak station and boarded the train to DC. It was a pleasant enough trip, though I must say it fell far short of my experiences on European trains, no matter how fraught those journeys can be. The biggest difference was the (in)efficiency in boarding/exiting the train - Americans tend to move slowly and struggle with mounds of luggage. And I’ve never been on a European train where there was an “smoking break,” an extended stop to allow passengers to detrain in order to feed their nicotine addiction. But this is North Carolina - a state with deep roots in tobacco.
We arrived at Union Station over two hours late and I found a city was abuzz with traffic and people. Congress was in session. In fact, a friend of mine was in town to lobby for funding for rare diseases. I met him for an early dinner at a little Chinese restaurant and then I headed back to the hotel for my Monday morning appointment at VFS Global. Everything went smoothly at the visa office went smoothly and I had time to take in some sights along the Washington Mall before my afternoon flight back to Raleigh. My passport arrived a week later, affixed with a visa good for a one year stay in France.
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My flight to Paris was booked for April 5, a bit later in the year than is my norm due to a date with Mozart on April 4 - my sister and her husband had bought tickets to The Marriage of Figaro to honor my last birthday. As the date of departure neared, it was clear that I’d not sufficiently recovered from the complications of my bicycle accident in Tanzania and I pushed back my flight until April 19 - World Bicycle Day. The biggest issue was the lingering pain in my shoulders, so I assuaged my concerned sisters by promising I would not be a hero and would ask for help in schlepping around my luggage. I recruited my niece and a neighbor to assist at check-in and found several willing and helpful souls along the way. After connecting through JFK, I arrived at CDG early Easter morning and zipped through a deserted customs hall. A speedy taxi ride took me into Paris and by 8:30 am I was back in my Paris home. It was like slipping into your favorite pair of comfy shoes.
My first day in Paris was one of leisure, strolling through the neighborhood and exchanging familiar smiles and greetings. I indulged in pain au raisin for breakfast, had lunch in the sun at my local café, and savored aged comté cheese and slices of baguette for dinner. A wonderful start to this year’s adventures.
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