What To Pack

Our Air France flight allows only one checked bag of 23kg or less. We can pay for extra bags, of course. Each extra bag is $55. Bags weighing over 23kg are OK for an extra $110 for each overweight bag. I did the math and decided that it is much cheaper to pack a lot of medium-heavy bags. Our only scale is on the top floor of our house. It is not portable, so I will be banging the suitcases up and down the stairs to make sure they are not overweight. Maybe I should invest in a normal small scale at Target.

I am used to bringing two very large and heavy bags each way. Luckily I brought mostly summer clothes with me. But, there will be new purchases, supplies and gifts to bring. I need my regular luggage allowance.

For awhile, earlier this summer, I'd made a resolution to limit my packing to one 23kg bag. I was optimistic that I could pull this off. I don't need shoes, I have them in Paris. I don't need books, I have a Kindle. I don't need to shop this summer... whoa! I have to draw the line somewhere and this is it.

The fall clothes are just coming out now. It's hard to tell what I will want to wear in November, but I have to try to picture it. The better I am at visualizing myself in the fall, the more shopping I do. The result is that the one bag is now a fantasy that can never be fulfilled.