It was a full flight from Calgary. The Dreamliner is reasonably comfortable, although I felt unusually squirmy. Westjet’s food was predictably lousy. They don’t even try, really.

My seat mates were a mother and daughter returning to Ukraine after a year in Calgary. The Mom didn’t speak a word of English, but I chatted a bit with the 20-ish daughter. She hadn’t seen her dad in a year. Another reminder that there are people in the world with legitimate worries, and my silly hamstring isn’t one of them. The good news from the daughter is that their home in Ukraine is in a relatively safe place, near the border with Poland. 

We arrived in Paris on schedule and I had lots of time to change planes at CDG. I had to go through security again, before passport control. That adds lots of time, but I still had 90 minutes of spare time before departing. Unlike the last time I flew to Paris, I remembered to remove my e-reader from the bag, so didn’t get sent to the remedial line for a secondary check. Phew. 

Within a few minutes of being in the terminal, I heard someone say ‘oh-la-la!’, and also an older man exhale with a loud ‘oof’ as he sat down for lunch. No doubt about what country I’m in. 

I was feeling quite exhausted as I got on the flight to Nice and slept most of the way. I arrived to an appropriately nice day in Nice. I found the Nice Côte d’Azur airport to be surprisingly dark and dated. The arrival of just one plane resulted in a crowded terminal. Mel’s timing was absolutely perfect; she spent the whole day driving down from the Alps. She waited only a few minutes while I fetched my bag and we figured out where to meet up. 

Phone-wise, I switched to Freedom Mobile at home this year, partly because of getting 10 GB roaming in 100 countries around the world. Also because it cut my monthly bill in half. It was great to have a phone that just worked when I arrived. No international SIM, no eSIM, no futzing with roaming features (because I always leave roaming on now). It just works. I can call Canada at no cost. And call free within whatever country I’m visiting. 

Our hotel is one of many modern airport hotels, only a few hundred metres walk from the terminal, if you can figure out how to get there. We reminded the receptionist at the hotel that we’d be leaving a bike bag, and she (nicely) said ‘désolé, c’est n’est pas possible’, and asked to see proof of who had authorized such a thing. And who was it? Her!  So there was a quick backtrack. The whole exchange was very pleasant. But a good reminder to get things in writing. 

Mel returned her rental car while I enjoyed stretching out. I didn’t nap. It was now late afternoon and my goal was to stay awake until bedtime. 

We walked to the nearby Novatel and enjoyed a glass of local dry  vin rosé with our dinner. We were hoping for salads Nicoise, but they weren’t serving it out of season. It really does stand out with top notch veg. Instead, I had a poke bowl with local gravlaxed trout, and Mel had a garlicky/anchovy-rich Caesar salad. No fear of anchovies here. Our server had lived in Vancouver for a couple of years, returning home to France during COVID. She comes to visit Canada annually because her sister is married to a Canadian. We didn’t get much of a chance to practice our French because her English was perfect.  

Lights out by 9 after a day that went pretty smoothly. 

Heart

4

Comment

1

Link

Scott AndersonThis path will always be special to me after we rode it at 4 AM on our way to an early flight one summer 20 years ago (the same tour when we went to Corsica the first time). 4 AM, and the place was topping already. The volleyball games were already active on the beach.
Reply to this comment
1 month ago

Log in to comment or reply

Lots of text and no pics today. I’ll do better tomorrow!