When I planned a long-delayed vacation to Europe last year little did I think that I would be in a place where so many things would be happening ... at the same time. It’s supposed to be a relaxing 10-day visit to Paris and now it looks as though things are happening everywhere. Everywhere except Paris that is.

First, the Pope died and they’re going to have a huge funeral in Rome on Friday. Any chance of a flight? Ha! Any chance of a room? Double ha! Would it be worth renting a car, driving the 850 or so miles (one way) to spend a few days sleeping in the car for the chance to wade through a crowd of two million to try and get a shot of a funeral that would be better covered by a bunch of pool cameras? Triple ha! How would I go about explaining to the man at the Avis counter in Rome that not only was I very, very sorry that my rental car had been towed away and blown up by Italian security forces (How was I supposed to know that the sign meant “funeral procession route”?) but that I very much needed another car so that I could drive back to Paris in time to make my flight back to the United States?

Okay so let’s skip the whole Papal thing and check out Charles and Camilla’s wedding in Britain. It’s going to be on Saturday and my flight home leaves on Sunday morning. That’s a little tight. It’s going to be at the Guildhall in Windsor (just west of London) and, surprise, surprise, security is going to be very tight. The cheapest train (through the Channel tunnel) will cost 350 Euros (about $450) and then there’d be a car to rent in London and there’d be an ice cube’s chance in hell of getting anything interesting so ... Forget it.

Wait! Breaking news! The Prince on Monaco has died! His funeral would surely be a star-studded (yet solemn) event and it’ll be held … five days after I leave for the U.S.

So much for turning this vacation into a busman’s holiday. It looks like it’ll just have to be a vacation.

Still, this morning’s Le Parisien tells me that there’s going to be a big demonstration this afternoon of public school students protesting funding cuts. It looks like it’s going to be a decent-sized march from the Place De La Republique across the River Seine and down the Boulevard Saint-Michel and could make for some interesting photos.

I guess I’ll go shoot that and leave the other stuff to the pool cameras.