Dropped off at Mascot by our girl “Friday” alias Nina we left with one laughing and one crying eye. Its not easy leaving all our loved ones including the "newest edition" behind.
Although a glass of champagne helped ease the parting pain, the conversation of the gentlemen in front of us on our Malaysian Airlines plane did not. The tragedy of flight 370 was discussed in detail followed by a few other plane disasters.
“We should be safe” said one. “Well, they say though things happen in threes” the other unnecessarily commented.
No need to say that this required a second glass of champagne!
I loved that after landing in KL, the head air hostess asked to keep the passengers of flight 370 and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
16 hours later we arrived safely in Paris, hopped on a train or two to Dijon and then to St. Jean de Losne, our "european summer residence”, I always wanted to say that!
St Jean de Losne, our winter mooring
We found the “Freshwater” moored and de-winterised and smelling quite fresh, the weather mild and partly sunny - warm enough for us to have our “Safe Arrival” celebration al fresco on deck with the "usual staples” ,as Jane calls it, of gin, tonic and terrine.
For the next 10 days or so we are forced to live a life of leisure while we are waiting for replacement of the propeller that was damaged last year. “Male driver”! Need I say more..? Subsequently we also decided to replace the drive shaft which was showing signs of wear. Before leaving Oz, we received the bad news that the ordered shaft got lost in transit. Only in France can a 10 cm x 3m steel rod disappear in thin air!!!
So today, we started the hard life by attending the local “Salon Gourmand” (Food & Wine Fair). Gourmand really means “Glutton” which describes us perfectly. We worked ourselves through local hams, smoked meats, pickles, cheeses, chocolates, macaroons and various vintages.
The weather is unusually warm for the time of the year. Everything is blossoming and today we had 25 degrees.
So after a well deserved Sunday siesta, we enjoyed the purchased macaroons with a cup of coffee in beautiful sunshine on the flybridge.