Bonjour Paris!

The flight out of Newark left about an hour late. They actually held the plane to wait for other flights that had been delayed by the storms we were having in the Northeast. By the time we pushed back from the gate we had gone from a mostly empty to plane to a nearly full one.

The flight was not bad at all. No turbulence and I was able to sleep for about 4 hours. Lucia did a little bit better than me in the sleep department. She slept most of the time.

We pulled in at Charles De Gaulle in the late morning. Some of the other passengers wanted to know what gate we were arriving to so they could figure out where they needed to go to make their next connection. Well, like many European airports CDG has an area where the planes park and offload the passengers onto buses. There is no direct connection with the terminal. That's what our plane did to a few people's chagrin.

Customs and immigration was incredibly easy to get through. The police staffing immigration barely glanced at our passports and there was only one young man sitting in the doorway through customs and he was happily joking around with two lovely young women. We cruised right through with our mountain of bags. It was kind of surprising given all of the news about heightened security these days.

We took a cab into the Paris to our hotel. The cab ride was about an hour. The driver seemed somewhat unfamiliar with the address when we got in the cab, but he had no problem figuring out where to go. The fare was expensive - about 50 Euro (at a .667 exchange rate that's about $75). I am glad I can get reimbursed for it.

We checked in to the hotel, got settled, and decided to walk around and to stay awake as long as possible. We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe about a block away from the hotel. The staff was very pleasant and the food was good. We didn't have anything exotic, just sandwiches and a few beers.

After lunch we walked toward the city center and went to the Eiffel Tower! Lu wasn't exactly keen about going to the top, but I insisted - especially since we were there and had no other plans for the day. We had to wait on long lines to take an elevator to the top. The view from the elevators was probably one of the best, but the observation platform at the top was great too. We were lucky to have beaten out some storms coming in and managed to get a few pictures before it started to rain.

On our way back to hotel we stopped at another sidewalk cafe for dinner. We both selected "formule" dishes from the menu. Formule translates to a fixed price with some selection for all the courses in the meal. In our case Lu got roasted chicken, salad, and french fries (no, I am not joking about the french fries) and I ordered beef sirloin with Bernaise sauce, salad, and fries. The last course was dessert. I had a chocolate mousse and we ordered raisson cake for Lu which was similar to a rice pudding.

We did well on staying awake for the day. By the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly 10PM! Lu turned on the TV and found CSI in french! The dubbing was pretty good and it was kind of fun watching an American TV show in a foreign language.

How to Move Your Freshwater Aquarium Fish

About two and a half years ago I moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. I have had a freshwater fish tank since 1997 and still have one of the original fish. I didn't really want to give the fish away and wouldn't think of flushing them so I needed to find a way to keep them alive for about 12 hours in the car plus the time it took to set up their tank at the new location.

After some investigating this is the plan I followed –

Supplies:
One 3 - 5 gallon bucket (or more if you have more fish) with a lid.
One aquarium air pump.
An air supply line and air stone for each bucket.
A gang valve to provide air lines for more than one bucket – if needed.
One DC to AC converter that you can plug into the car cigarette lighter to provide AC electrical outlets for the air pump(s).

I bought my DC to AC converter from a camping supply site online, but these devices have become popular for powering all kinds of AC electronics in cars such as computers and PDA's. Here's a DC to AC converter from Belkin available through Amazon.com. These are available with more than one outlet if needed.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5C400-Anywhere-Portable-Converter/dp/B00000J1TP

Drill a hole in the lid of the bucket that is just large enough to pass the air tubing through. Connect an air stone to the tubing inside the bucket. Drill another small hole in the lid to allow excess air to escape.

For the last 24- 48 hours preceding the move don't feed the fish. This will help keep the water clean while on the road. Further, keep their tank cool and dark. I had my tank temperature down to the low 70's. This will slow down the metabolic rates of the fish and may actually induce a hibernation-like state.

On the day of the move make transferring the fish one of the last thing that you do. Take a tank vacuum and use it to fill the bucket with water from the tank. Catch the fish and put them in the bucket. Seal the lid, attach the air tubing to the air pump, and plug the pump into the DC to AC converter in the car. You're ready to roll!

It should be a no-brainer but don't forget the fish are in the car! In the summer keep the air cooled to the low 70's - in the winter keep the car warmed to the low 70's. Avoid putting the fish bucket near vents - you don't want very hot or very cold air blowing on the container. If you have to stop for any length of time try to maintain the environment in the car as close as possible to the low 70's.

My fish have survived about 24 hours in their moving bucket with no problems whatsoever. Once you have this set-up you now have any easy way of transferring the fish to new tanks or to take them out of their current tank for major changes.

Other alternatives I have read about for larger tanks and fish or longer moves - follow the directions above, but use a cooler instead of a bucket to carry the fish. The cooler provides more room and will do a better job of maintaining the water temperature for healthy fish.

I have used this process for moving my fish on 12+ hour moves several times now and am happy to report I have had no losses.

Happy travels!