We make it to Paris, after a wonderfully smooth and comfortable flight. 

It's comforting to know that air travel can still be reasonably pleasant, and not just sardines packed into a can. The plane was quite new, clean and well-lit, with seats and rows just that extra little bit larger to make a difference.

However, it was still an adjustment to the internal clock. We landed at 7:30 am local time. This felt like 1:30 am in Québec. The kids managed to sleep an hour and a half or so, at least. The parents not so much. It was relatively straightforward getting from the airport to the RER train and into Saint-Denis, followed by a 15 minute walk to our Airbnb apartment, but at this point we had two very tired kids and parents carrying not just two mega backpacks but the kids' as well, in our hands.

We were happy to get to the place and collapse, and super fortunate that we could check in so early, around 10 am. I've heard of people booking accommodation for the previous night for an early-arrival flight, so that they have a place to check in to perhaps mid-morning. We were lucky though in this case.

At that point it was a question of seeing how long we would need to sleep, and then how much time would be left in the day.

As you'll hear in this update, it was all very spontaneous and tuned to our instincts and limits, but a good practice for the weeks to come!