Vezelay

May 29, 2012

Chicken or beef?.

I like flying to Europe, into the night. Some people find long flights boring. Not me. I enjoy the food, the wine, and the reading and relaxation that follow.

Of course the service used to be much better. The wine would flow freely in the old days, and be followed by the post-prandial brandy. Now you have to ask for it. "Well, I'll have to go and see," she says, and just when you've given up hope, she returns with a little bottle hidden in the palm of her hand lest someone else see and want one too. I don't dare to ask for a second.

Once, on this very same flight, AC 870 Montreal to Paris, I was upgraded to business class. Champagne for starters, and then white wine with the fish, red with the meat, and not your usual plonk either, but a nice Aussie Shiraz, port, a Scotch or two, and the plane landed. I didn't even have time to snooze in the comfortable recliner.

I jettisoned the iPad in Winnipeg. It was just too heavy, so I'm tapping this out with one finger on my iPhone.

This morning, I took the RER from the airport, picked up a mobile phone at a Boutique Orange, and then caught a train from Gare de Bercy to Sermizelle-Vezelay. From there I was hoping to get a taxi for the 10 Ks into the cathedral town, but no such luck. I had to walk.

Imagine a 10 km hike around Elk and Beaver Lake ending in a climb up Mt. Doug. That's what it was like. And it was hot! And now my passport is soaked with sweat and I'm drying it out.

But I'm here now, and I have somewhere to stay, and I'm enjoying a leisurely beer.