Going home… 🙁
Our wake-up call rudely did that at the ghastly hour of 4:45am! Getting to the airport was quite easy. With our luggage piled onto a cart we used to unload the car yesterday, we walked five minutes down a guided sidewalk and there we were, inside Terminal 3 departures. This is something to keep in mind for another trip out of Terminal 3 – stay at the Novotel!
I still don’t know why we need to be at an airport three hours before departure. It took about 20 minutes to check in and clear through the border and security – again, NO questions! By 6:15am, we were inside and ready for our 9am flight. And, unlike Toronto, there was no lounge in which to enjoy some quiet time with snacks and an Internet connection! We grabbed a quick coffee and pastry, then hunkered down in a somewhat comfortable seat by our gate.
Boarding a plane from CDG hasn’t changed since we did this 16 years ago. Instead of passing through the gate, walking through a short corridor, and entering the plane, you pass through the gate, get onto a bus that drives you out to the aircraft, then walk up a set of removable stairs to enter the aircraft. There were two people who went out before us in wheelchairs. I have no idea how they got them up those stairs!
Unlike the flight over, that I have almost no memory of because of the wine and sleeping pills, I am very much awake and not really looking forward to 8.5 hours in a plane. And, the weather isn’t cooperating, so I can’t see anything but sunshine and clouds out my window! So instead, let me reflect on our past two weeks and jot down some memorable moments, if not cultural differences, while I snack on my croissant and sip my Prosecco (the Prosecco being one of the advantages of paying for Option Plus on Air Transat) – and, yes, it is only 10am! Until I return to work on Tuesday morning, I am still on vacation.
In no particular order, I’ll talk about driving and the interesting roads in France first, mostly because we did so much driving ourselves. Despite the fact that the French like to drive quickly and aggressively, there are rules of the road that they all appear to respect. Outside of major cities (Paris), where the speed limit on the autoroutes is a measly 110 kph, you’re restricted to this limit everywhere else only when it’s raining! On nice days, you can legally cruise along at 130 kph, which means it’s not unlikely you’ll be passed – frequently – if you adhere to this unreasonable limit. But, without exception, slower moving vehicles – yes, the ones driving between 110 and 130 – ALWAYS stay in the right lane. The left lane is for passing only, which EVERYONE respects. (I do recall a time in Canada where we also respected this driving habit. Whatever happened?) Off the autoroute, it would appear that the average speed limit, outside of the villages, is 90 kph, regardless of how wide – or how narrow – the road (or path through a vineyard) is, or how well (or not) you can see ahead of you, even through school zones!!! And good luck if you’re ahead of a local and not doing the limit, because they ALL like to tailgate! We did a lot of driving from village to village, and many of the “roads” we were on really did look like someone’s narrow driveway. There were times when oncoming passing cars both had to put their passenger tires into the grass off the road. We also drove through villages, around blind corners (as in corners of stone walls that bordered the road), where only one car could pass. Some of these corners had mirrors mounted high up to help with visibility, but not all of them. To say that there were a few nervous moments would be an understatement! We’re thinking of having T-shirts made that say “I drove through France and survived”.
While still on the subject of driving, there’s an accepted habit of lane splitting by motorcyclists, which means that these brave (aka stupid) folks can legally proceed up the white lines between lanes and between vehicles. Where this may not be a bad idea when traffic is at a standstill, it is practiced by many at varying average speeds during any amount of traffic. As a motorcyclist, all I can say is “les fous”!
But, on a more positive note, the French have learned how to share their roads with vehicles of all types, including bicycles of which there are many, and pedestrians. We could definitely learn some tolerance and cooperation from them in this regard.
Between Steve’s arm problem (pinched neck nerve) and the knee he twisted closer to the end of our holiday, we stopped into a pharmacy a few times. These do not compare to a Shoppers Drug Mart! The pharmacies are really, really, really small – I mean intimidatingly (sp?) small. There are a limited number of products on display from which you can help yourself, but most products are stored elsewhere and you have to speak with a pharmacist to get what you want. We’re not talking about serious drugs here, we’re talking about a tensor bandage! This system seems to work for them well enough, so who are we to complain? They do have little sections for homeopathy and pets, though, which we certainly don’t have. Something else we don’t have, but could probably benefit from, is condom dispensers outside the pharmacies!
We rented a little house, which means we ate some meals in, which means we had to buy groceries. That was fun in that we had to pay way more attention to labels to understand what we were buying, as not too much looked familiar outside of the meat, produce, and dairy sections. Even then, most of the milk was sold in UHT cartons, and those that weren’t were not packaged as we’re used to seeing. Most meat was recognizable, then you had the brains, the cow tongues, the tripe, etc. We managed to get what we wanted, and didn’t hold up too many others at the check-out counter when Steve had to run back to the produce section to weigh our veggies and affix the price stickers to them, as there were no scales at the cash. Finally, we had no bags, of course. When I asked if there were bags, I was told yes, bien sur. But what she really meant was that we could buy reusable bags. It’s not just grocery stores that don’t offer bags, most other purchases we made while in France had to go into bags (or knapsacks, or baskets) we brought with us. What is the big deal about in Toronto?
On the subject of food, let’s talk about cheese. I have never seen so many different varieties of cheese, all from France, and all so yummy – mmmmmmmmmm. And they are so inexpensive, compared to back home. We make cheese – where have we gone wrong?!
And then there was the timing of access to pretty much everything. Some places were closed on Mondays, some on selected afternoons, some on selected mornings, and almost all (except restaurants) between noon and 2:00pm everyday for lunch. Restaurants were definitely open from about 11:00 – 2:00, for the standard 2-hour lunch, then closed between the end of lunch and the beginning of the dinner hours, around 6:00 – 11:00pm – unless you were in a city, in which case you could eat something at any time during the day. Confused yet? Because we had a tendency to sleep a little later, and eat breakfast a little later (mostly delicacies from Katherine’s patisserie around the corner from the house), we got around the lunch problem by packing our own and eating in some spot with a view. There were a couple of occasions, though, where we had to wait 15-20 minutes for a pharmacy or a shop to reopen at 2pm. Fortunately, every attraction we chose to go to was open on that day and at the time we were there (because we didn’t call ahead).
Another observation I made was that no one, while eating a meal with someone else, was distracted by a cell phone. That’s not to say I didn’t see lots of them in use, I just noticed that phones stayed in pockets or purses in social situations. It seems that socializing, without the distractions of mobile devices, is still more important to the French. How refreshing!
Our flight took us northwest over the midlands in Britain, then over Northern Ireland, then just south of Greenland, over the northern tip of Newfoundland – probably across Gros Morne National Park, then through Quebec and into Toronto from the north. (I love those tracking maps on planes!) Unfortunately, it was overcast for almost the entire flight, with only glimpses of Ireland, Newfoundland, some blue ocean in-between, and some parts of Quebec. It cleared up nicely outside of Toronto and we were able to see our approach and landing, which was half an hour early! We were back home about the time we were expecting to be leaving the airport. This is probably due to us travelling on Air Transat instead of Air Canada. I could not believe that our luggage was at the carrousel when we arrived for baggage collection. Who knew there were reasonable alternatives! I didn’t have to beg too much to bring my new favourite food, rilette, through customs. Next time, I’ll buy it in a can, instead of a vacuum sealed jar. Regardless, the customs officials made every attempt to find a way for me to get that jar home. I just had to promise to not feed it to the squirrels – no kidding!
With the very sad exception of our failing puppy, we had the most relaxing and enjoyable holiday. I don’t think I could ever grow tired of sitting on a terrace, sharing a glass of wine and a good meal, and gazing out over the endless vineyards! We’re already making plans to do it again, hopefully next year, hopefully for a little longer. We’d be prepared to take a 2-bedroom home next time to accommodate some sharing. Any takers?????
