This is for you Doug

It was well over 10 years ago when my beloved cousins Doug and Ellen visited me in Geneva. At one point, Doug who didn't expect to come back to Europe expressed his regret he'd never see the Eiffel Tower.

"No problem," I said. "We'll go Saturday." He was unaware that the TGV takes about 3.5 hours city to city.

We arrived in the city of light, ate in the Latin Quarter, went out to see the Eiffel tower and then went back to Gare du Lyon to catch the train back to Geneva.

Grève. 

Our train was cancelled because of a strike, giving my cousins a true French experience. And in true French form the next train was running.

I changed our reservations and dropped my tickets into my backpack, but when I wanted to give Doug and Ellen theirs, they had dropped to the bottom of my backpack. I knelt down on the floor and started digging through the backpack much like a dog searching for his buried bone.

Doug knelt in front of me and started digging exactly the same way.

Although it wasn't that funny, we started giggling then laughing and we couldn't stop. And couldn't stop and couldn't stop, and couldn't stop. One of us would get control for a second and the other would dig.

Poor Ellen was helpless as she watched.

We did get control.

We did get back to Geneva.

The next day my muscles were sore from the laughter.

It's a good reason to have sore muscles.

Today I was at the Gare du Lyon. I found the spot where we did and took this photo for Doug.