Our adventure in France has finally begun!

Hotel Audran, Paris – 48°53′6″ N 2°20′10″ E

For several years Catherine & I had talked about doing some road traveling & canal cruising in France but the pandemic had forced us into a long delay.

With Covid-19 finally in the rear view mirror we started making plans last fall. Early in December we shared our thoughts with our longtime friends Bruce & Barb from Winnipeg & asked them if they would like to join us for a wee cruise. They had spent time with us on Santosha on the Rideau Canal so they were “on board” right away to join us in France & we started the process of transitioning from an idea to a solid plan.

After considering a lot of cruising options we finally settled on a 1-week self driving charter boat cruise on a portion of the Canal du Midi – beginning in Argens (near Carcassonne) & ending in Lattes (near Montpellier). Our adventure would begin with a meetup with Bruce & Barb in Paris.

On September 3 we departed from London airport on an Air Canada flight to Toronto & then connected with a direct flight to Paris. We were a bit concerned about making our connection but we had a 3 hour layover in Toronto so what could go wrong?.

Our flight from London departed on time & we found our next departure gate in Toronto with plenty of time to spare. With less than an hour to go before boarding time Air Canada announced that there would be a short delay while some unscheduled maintenance was done to the plane. A forty-five minute delay extended another 90 minutes and then was extended for another 90 minutes. Then, after finally boarding the plane we were delayed another 90 minutes while Air Canada sorted out a luggage problem! This was not a good start to our adventure but at least we didn’t miss our plane!

We finally arrived in Paris on Monday afternoon local time – almost 6 hours later than our original plan. We had no energy left so we went to our hotel in the Mont Martre area of Paris & tried to sleep off our jet lag. Tomorrow we meet up with Bruce & Barb & do some exploring in Mont Martre.