We took the bus to Boston's Logan airport. There was the usual ritual of security, passport control, and endless waiting. We found a restaurant for an early dinner, and boarded the surprisingly empty plane around 6:30 for our 7-hour flight to CDG. After a second "dinner"aboard, we both found unused rows of adjacent seats, and I stretched out with a blanket for almost 5 hours of good sleep, before a quick breakfast and landing. This unprecedented gift allowed me to be able to drive the entire 400 miles from Paris to the Dordogne on our first day after landing.

We stopped for a comfortingly French omelette lunch in a workman's bar/restaurant in Vierzon, got cash at an ATM, and continued south in hopes of staying in "our" old hotel in Souillac. Not a chance. Souillac was packed stem to stern, so we headed back north to a somewhat livelier industrial town, Brive, where we drove in endless circles, mostly lost, trying to find a hotel recommended in a guidebook. Mistake. It had closed. We settled for a "business" hotel (Ibis), unexpectedly well-located on the river, and walked over the bridge to a disappointing Americanized "La Boucherie" restaurant. Sleep! Not an auspicious beginning...