We arrived in Paris early Friday morning. Air Canada has been in the news lately as they are trying to enforce their carry-on luggage policy (1 personal item such as a purse, and 1 carry-on piece that meets the airline’s size restrictions). Anyone who has traveled by plane in the last 10 years knows that generally speaking, the carry-on luggage situation is completely out of control. The sheer volume of crap that passengers carry on is at best laughable, at worst unbelievable. Of course, the airlines could be blamed for this thanks to their new policies that have passengers paying for checked luggage, with no added fees for carry-on. But that’s just my opinion.

When D and I boarded our flight to Paris from Montreal, D carrying his soft-sided messenger bag and me with my shoulder tote bag, the flight attendant actually stopped us and said, “Wow! People who travel light! Ce sont des vrais professionels! Vous etes des artistes!” D and I laughed, a bit embarrassed, as passengers walked past us lugging numerous and large pieces of carry-on, well within ear shot of the flight attendant’s words. As much as I am personally irritated by carry-on issues, for flight attendants it clearly is a work problem/hazard, and they certainly have my sympathies. Rant over.

We have rented a beautiful apartment in the heart of Nimes in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of the south of France. We arrived late yesterday afternoon, so didn’t have time to do much more than unpack, and re-acquaint ourselves with this beautiful, ancient, historical city.

We attended mass this morning at the 11th century cathedral, Notre Dame et St. Castor de Nimes; it was a full house today as several children were being baptized. Our apartment has a beautiful terrace from which we can see the cathedral, as in the first photo above.