Andy picked us up right on time and we made it to the airport the recommended 3 hours prior to an international flight. Check in and security went quickly so we had a long wait to board. I passed the time charging up my iPad (I'd charged up my phone, which I purposely left behind, but neglected the iPad...) and playing on it with 3-year-old Esther.

The flight itself was uneventful; I had dinner, watched 2 movies, and had breakfast, but didn't really sleep. Never have been able to manage that sitting up.

We had to circle Heathrow airport for some time so we were late landing, then had to wait for them to bring stairs out to the plane. For some reason we were parked miles and miles from where we needed to be, and the shuttle ride back to the airport seemed to take forever. At this point we had less than 30 minutes to make our flight so the adrenalin was really flowing. It was a fair schlep, plus we had to go through security again - but at least we spoke up and so were allowed through the fast track line. It seemed to take forever, and then our gate was way down the concourse, so I ran on ahead in hopes of keeping them from leaving without Mom. We made it to the gate - and it turned out that due to problems at the gate they were just starting to board. Enough stress for me. I don't do well on no sleep.

The flight to Nice was uneventful, our luggage was virtually the first to appear, we bypassed customs (none of the stations were manned), and there was someone from Grand Travel there to take us (and two other couples) to our hotel. Martine (our tour guide) was there to greet us, and gave us a mini tour of the area, pointing out good places to eat tonight.