Most of you already know that there are many differences between me and Mick!

Obvious, I know.

Preparing for a holiday highlights just one of those differences. Mick packs his bag in a few minutes, or so it seems to me. He had his bags packed for this extended stay two days ago, only a day after we returned from our one month ‘farewell tour’. And, he still has some space in his biggest bag.

We each are taking two bags – a medium sized suitcase and a carry-on suitcase – which is the most we have ever travelled with. But it is for a year!

On the other hand, I only just finished my packing, the afternoon before we left our son and daughter-in-law’s home.

I am fussy with my packing. I take time to sort my belongings into categories. This trip, I have sorted my belongings into ‘seasons’. I am also heavily into smaller bags into which I place bundles of similar clothes so I only need to select bags and not destroy my whole suitcase when I am looking for something. Mick rudely suggested that if all these smaller ‘packing’ bags were removed I would lighten my bag considerably.

When we arrive in Lyon on Tuesday it is going to be very cold, with an expected minimum of 1ºC and a maximum of 6ºC. So I have left my extra warm clothes on the top and have vacuum packed my summer clothes and mid-season clothes as I will not be needing them for months.

I am taking too much, I know, but I won’t be bringing everything back with me. Once winter is over, I will dispose of some of my clothes into a clothing recycling bin. Mick also reminds me that there are shops over there!

We have our return flights booked for the 20 August 2019, but we have no intention of returning on that day. We don’t know when we are going to return, which is a weird feeling.

We believe we have everything prepared for our holiday. The only thing still nagging us is our visas.

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While our passports have this stamped on them, the letter that came with our passports when they were returned from the French Consulate continues to confuse us. As mentioned last post, we will visit the office in Lyon and hope we find someone who can understand very poor French or who can speak excellent English.

We travelled to a Brisbane Airport hotel today, catching a train from Nambour to Northgate (north of Brisbane, and then catching an Uber – super easy), in readiness for an 8.50am departure on Korean Air tomorrow Monday 10 December.  We are very close to the Airport as this photo shows.

We are flying via Seoul to Amsterdam and then are booked on a flight to Lyon a few hours later.

Getting excited. Hopefully the protests in France settle down. 🤞