Unexcused Absences

For our autumn flight to France we decided to try something new; a late evening flight out of Washington, timed to arrive in Paris about mid-day. Our normal routine is to leave DC late afternoon and arrive at dawn. This year’s flight was in many ways better, although it led to us having two dinners (darn), one in the city and one on the plane. One other downside was because of the late hour, it was easy to fall asleep and thus miss the big movie library in the Air France inflight entertainment system. Still, arriving mid-day was quite civilized, and we seem to have suffered less jet lag than normal this trip.

Old-school lock mechanism in Migennes

On arriving at the Migennes LeBoat base, though, we got a bit of a surprise. They asked where we planned to cruise this fall, and we said we intended to head south on the Nivernais Canal to get to our winter parking spot in Baye. We were gently disabused of that notion when they said that a section of the Nivernais was closed, and that it may not open again in time for us to get to Baye by early October. Yikes! We’ve been on a two-year waiting list to have some fiberglass work done at the boatyard in Baye this winter, so this was most unwelcome news.

A flurry of discussion ensued, and with a second look at the canal guide we decided that we could not only make it to Baye by early October, but also meet our two other deliverables for this trip; first, be able to park the boat near a train station to allow us to get to a very special long weekend we have plans for in a few weeks (details to come), and second, have sufficient access to trains to both pick up and drop off our friend who will visit from Colorado later in September. *Whew*. We would simply have to retrace last autumn’s voyage, which is good because there were definitely places we went that we wanted to see again.

So with that bit of excitement out of the way, we proceeded to set up Après Ski for our fall cruise, enjoy some authentic Turkish/French kebabs for dinner, and fall fast asleep by about 9pm Sunday evening. One of the hardest things about getting ready was finding an acceptable table wine (red) for the fall trip. We hit the local ATAC supermarché and picked up three bottles under 5 euros and enjoyed an impromptu taste test on deck. Unfortunately none were memorable, so the search continues.

On-deck wine tasting

For those paying close attention, you will notice a much shallower depth of field in these photos as compared to my previous efforts. Plus, the pics are generally richer and crisper. I have given in to the pull of crass consumerism and have purchased a Canon EOS T3i digital SLR with an f/1.8 prime lens. The reasons for this indulgence will remain secret for now, but around week 4 I hope to have a very special event to post about, with lots of pictures.

I’ll start up with my weekly recaps soon, to keep everyone apprised of our new journey. In the meantime, it’s wonderful to be back in France.