We are two hours away from boarding the ship for our twelve days of decadence so I thought I would get out this special edition of the blog. It has been an interesting journey to get here from Chalons en Champagne. We had a lovely four days in Chalons and we were blessed with perfect weather. The only rain came during a nap and we ate very close to home that night even though the rain had lessened. We got into a lovely routine in that every evening we would go to the same bistro and order two flutes of ice-cold Champagne before we would wander around reading menus to decide whom we would grace with our presence that evening.
We noticed something very new to us for France. We only ate in Bistros and Brassieres as opposed to proper restaurants and we found that the portions of food served have become enormous. Normally the portions are on the small side and we have always had no difficulty finishing most of what we were served. Not so on this trip! There wasn’t a single meal that we could even come close to finishing. The salads were enough for two or three people and they all seemed to come with a pound of lardons, which is French for bacon bits (the real thing, not fake bacon). One night I had a confit of duck leg and the little leg came with ten, count them ten, two-inch roasted potatoes, no other vegetables, just a huge mound of potatoes. On only one occasion did we get any fresh vegetables with any meal other than salads. This is a great market town and on our first morning there we were blown away with the variety and quantity of vegetables in the market, but on this trip we were served canned green beans, canned peas and on one occasion Cindy was served a heaping helping of inedible canned broccoli, mushrooms and green beans. This was the only disappointing part of the trip and perhaps if we had eaten lunches, like the rest of France does, we might have had fresh vegetables. Thank goodness for those salads, huge or not.
We checked our email upon returning from dinner on the last night only to discover that Air France had cancelled our flight to Athens that had been scheduled for the next afternoon. It was too late to call them and there wasn’t anything we could do about it since the Air Traffic Controllers in Greece were taking part in the two-day strike that was scheduled to start at 8 am the next morning. We were supposed to have dinner with our friend Catherine on Thursday but our new booking for Athens wasn’t scheduled until Friday. I hastily booked a room at the airport Hyatt in Paris because it looked like we’d be in Paris at least one night … and the next morning we departed Chalons for the airport hoping that perhaps the ATC folks would only have a twelve hour strike as had been reported on BBC that morning.
From CC: he forgot to say that we’d set the alarm for 7 am thinking maybe the strike wouldn’t happen. Wm checked email and the news at 6:55, realized we weren’t flying anywhere that day, and back to sleep we went.
We left Chalons toward noon for the lovely 2-hour drive to the airport, went directly to the Hyatt and deposited our luggage and settled into the lovely, large and ever so modern room. Then I took the rental car back to the airport and made my way to Air France customer service in Terminal 2E. I had a very nice person helping me but she insisted that there would be no flights to Athens until Friday morning. I was wearing my Air Crew badge and suggested that my dispatcher had told me that the ATC strike was ending in three hours and asked if she could confirm that with her supervisor. (From CC: He admitted that his nose grew during that time – but it’s not a lie if it turns out to be correct, right?) She called and sure enough they had just gotten confirmation from Greece that they could begin flights tomorrow. The first and only flight they had on Thursday was departing at 12:35 and I got us two seats on the plane. I had her print out the confirmation and then I asked her for boarding passes so that we would be assured of no hassles the next day.
We celebrated our good fortune with drinks in the Hyatt Club lounge and then, as is our custom, we walked over to a French chain restaurant called Hippopotamus. On our first visit to this chain, some twenty years ago, we were celebrating the marriage of our friends in Paris and there were six of us having a grand old time in the restaurant at 1am. As I remember we were politely asked to tone things down or leave. We didn’t hold a grudge and have been going back to the one at the airport for many, many years for our penultimate meal in France. We even had fresh vegetables as part of our dinner – delicious green beans!
The next day we were able to get out and the flight was on schedule so we arrived in time for dinner with Catherine. We met at a lovely seafood restaurant and had a marvelous meal with lots of conversation, laughter, and wine. We realized that we hadn’t seen each other for more that twelve years but we picked up where we left off and it was a truly delightful evening. The next morning we enjoyed walking around the area where we are staying. This is a resort area and we are on the point of a lovely peninsula with spectacular views over the water towards Athens.
I would be remiss if I didn’t rant a wee bit about the Greek strike. The workers in Greece are upset because the government needs to cut back on everything and that doesn’t sit well. Now remember, since joining the Euro Zone, the Greeks have borrowed billions of dollars to support their rather luxurious way of life. Most Greeks pay little or nothing in taxes; loopholes abound and there is no enforcement of tax laws. The government is out of control in terms of spending: According to Time Magazine, to get around pay restraints in the calendar year, the Greek government simply paid employees for months that didn’t exist. The Greek public railroad had annual revenue last year of $100 million, yet they paid $400 million in annual wages, not including operating expenses. As it stands now, the average Greek’s average share of the nation’s debt is $250,000. So, it would stand to reason (not) that they would want to shut down the country for 48 hours, losing millions and million of Euros in tourist revenues since eight cruise ships had to divert to other destinations, no ferries were running between Italy, Turkey, Cyprus or other Greek islands, and of course no flights in or out of Greece. Nothing was accomplished and a lot was lost! Go Greeks.
We are two hours from departure to head to the docks of Athens for our cruise. We had a lovely dinner here in the hotel last night. They have a Turkish Week special with a buffet of appetizer and desserts at a price we could afford. This is an expensive hotel, one Ouzo costs the same as a full bottle, one espresso was seven dollars but we enjoyed our dinner, found s decent bottle of wine and we were able to get to bed before midnight. So, we are backed and ready and we wish you all a lovely remainder of October.
Best wishes, Cindy and Wm
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