Kathleen Rear

Let me tell you about the time I almost killed my husband in the Paris metro.

As I was packing to go on my first European vacation I suffered a common but serious illness. I completely freaked out!
I did not want to look like the silly American tourist, in short I didn’t want to go to Europe as myself. I wanted to be in an Audrey Hepburn movie. Uh-huh, yeah you see where this is heading right?

So, I went ahead and packed three 50 lb suitcases. Plus carry-ons.
My first indicator that this might go all pear shaped was the fact we could not fit all the suitcases into the car after we purchased them.

The other huge mistake I made was to take along full sized bottles of shampoo, body wash, conditioner, and mouthwash.
I don’t know why! I’m a rational person most of the time. I realize there are grocery, and drug stores in Europe. Like I explained earlier I freaked out! I over-thought the whole thing and let my insecurities get the better of me.

The last and possibly most regrettable mistake was to take the RER and The Metro from the airport to our apartment in the 6th Arr.

This is where it gets bad for my husband.
In Paris they don’t do escalators in the Metro like they do in the U.S. and the U.K.
I won’t scar you with the details of our journey through the Metro, but I will say that by the time we arrived at our apartment my husband had sweat completely through his shirt and was very red in the face. To his credit, he did not kick me in the hiney. He’s totally getting into heaven on this alone.

The lessons you learn hardest are the ones you learn the best.
I came home determined to learn how to pack light and be able to do it well.

I payed attention to people who travel a lot. I read what they had to say and tried to apply it to my life style.
In the coming posts I want to share what I learned about how to pack light, plus, share the sources of my education.
I’ll leave you with the photo of our luggage as we were leaving Paris to go to London. Where we took a taxi from the train station to our apartment. That is a lesson we learned very very well.