Yep we are way back from France, and seeing Laurence’s parents along with various other family members. First of all let me just say we got first class International both ways…which rocks, and was great for Laurence since she was just shy of 6 months pregnent at the time. Much nicer than being crammed in a middle seat in the back of coach. Getting there ended up being a little expensive though, we couldn’t get on the last two flights to Nice and got stuck at London Heathrow. With Laurence experiencing “Baby Ache” and the fact we had to be back at the airport at 6am, we ended up staying at the Heathrow Hilton. Let me just say the exchange rate SUCKS! The room cost over $400 US for the night, and we got a good deal with an upgrade to the executive floor from some booth just outside of customs. If we had walked in off the street, we would have paid more for a lesser room. It was a nice room, but one that cost more than the Fairmont in San Francisco. UGH.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, saw some of Laurence’s friends and much of her family. We ventured into Nice and over the border into Italy. We ate way too much good food, and got really, really tan. I really need to work on my French much, much more.

We stopped for a few days in London on the way back home so I could have a bunch of meetings with the office there. It was good for me to meet all of them since I’ve been on the phone with a number of people there. I’m also starting to build a large project they have been designing there, so we were able to hammer out many of the details.

London was cool, but let me just say that the British spend Quid like we do greenbacks. However Quid are worth twice as much. That ended up being a bit of a culture shock. Why couldn’t they just swing with the rest of their European Community and embrace the Euro. Oh well.