Back from Bristol, parading around Paris and...

...I am suddenly sleepless in the city of lights.

It's been a great trip so far and tomorrow promises to be equally terrific. John's work meetings went well, the visit with Janet in Bristol was just wonderful, and the kids have continued to be troopers at traveling (and have reaped the rewards with a great time in Paris).

All of that said, I have decided something this morning at 3 a.m.

I am not so good at traveling.

There is a part of me that would be perfectly content to stay at (my North American) home every day, happy in my routines and rituals and rhythms. There is a part of me (a REALLY big part of me) that pretty much can't stand flying any more, both for the hassles and lines and headaches, but also because of a fear of flying developed rather late-in-life (sometime between the time spent covering the crash of Fligth 93 in Shanksville on 9/11 and the birth of Jack, I'd say). There is a part of me that gets so stressed at the sound of three loud sets of feet stamping around a squeaky old hotel room floor, worrying about the people below. There is a part of my brain that gets in worry mode and wants to stay there -- fretting about fire escapes and pickpockets and germs on planes and kids falling down just before the subway comes. There is a part of me that doesn't like the lines, the crowds, the noise, the construction, the costs, the works.

And yet...

I love seeing old friends. Spending the weekend with Janet -- now a grandmother of two and well-prepared to host children -- was such a pleasure. We had 14 years to catch up on, and over delicious food and laughter, we shared so many good stories.

I love seeing new (and beautiful or weird or mind-blowing) sights. It's hard to say what the most memorable part of this Bristol-Paris trip will be, but one of the contenders so far is a visit to Paris's last remaining taxidermy shop (a recommendation of a new friend in Beaune), where you could not only see -- but purchase -- everything from pinned insects to a full-sized stuffed giraffe (we did not purchase the giraffe. Just in case you were curious. There was the whole question of luggage and getting it home, and oh, about 25,600 euros we didn't have for a trip gift). But to walk among wolves, butterflies, lynxes and more... just amazing. It is clearly one of the coolest places in Paris.

I love watching my kids make discoveries about bigger world around them, and see the things they (or we) have read about. Our friends gave Kate and Liv a picture/story book about Edgar Degas's statue  The Dancer which we have read MANY times these last months -- and they saw the real thing today at the Musee D'Orsay. Incredible. And speaking of incredible...Jack and I took a trip at sunset to the Eiffel Tour tonight and you could hardly contain the boy's excitement at every single aspect of it (he didn't even complain about the long line or chilly wind).

I love traveling with John. He is definitely better at flying by the seat of his pants (and flying in general!), at adjusting quickly and happily as needed to the changes that travel brings. He is both calm and confident (driving on the wrong side of the road after 14 years -- no problem!), ambitious in his undertakings (he wanted to see a castle on the way home from our great visit to the S.S. Great Britain in Bristol because, well, we could), and delights in new discoveries.

We both have noticed that the way we travel -- and especially the way we are experiencing Paris this time around -- has changed some over the years, though. This visit to Paris is quite different from our memorable one in 1993 (not so much on the late night dinners, the romantic walks along the Seine, the freedom to dash anywhere and everywhere around this glorious town). But slowing down sometimes is good, too. The kids help us see things in a different light, or even experience things we wouldn't have seen period (see trip to taxidermy store).

So I am certainly glad we have come...and I will also be very glad to get (to our lovely France) home tomorrow afternoon. And I promise to post lots of great pictures and more stories later in the week -- I will probably be back to my usual positive point-of-view by then... full of superlatives and exclamation points. First step... falling back to sleep...