All in France
I write this from my hotel in BA after a couple of days rich with incident as our Victorian predecessors might have said. I’m writing this in haste as I’m leaving shortly for the airport and my flight home but I did want to post an update before I left…
We have spent the last three days on South Georgia henceforth referred to as SGI. I am writing this a few days later as internet access is very hit and miss. The island is about 165k long and 35k wide. For the most part the island is mountainous, snow covered all year round and the habitable portions are somewhat flat areas between the sea and the foot of the interior mountains…
We are now at sea plowing our way toward the island of South Georgia, as we have been since Thursday evening, with our arrival some time late tonight. More on that in a moment, but I have had a couple of questions from readers of the blog…
We sailed from Danco Island in the morning and arrived at Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula in the early afternoon. Paradise Harbour/Bay is one of only two usable Harbours for passenger boats in Antarctica. The bay is surrounded by sharply-edged and heavily glaciated mountainous peaks and massive domes of snow covering the whole landscape…
Dinner party was a great success. Food was very good, and as the cook I am allowed to say that, the wines were excellent and the guests were charming and witty, in English and in French. As the evening advanced and the level in the wine bottles lowered, we were given some hilarious lessons in idiomatic French, many of which cannot be used in polite company. Birthday cake was excellent and we sang Happy Birthday in both official languages. Party ended late in the evening ....
Weather has finally broken. Distinctly chillier, wind picking up and skies overcast for the first time since we arrived. Rain forecast for tomorrow but we have had a very good run so can't complain about our change of fortune.
Yesterday we were up early for a run out to Clingancourt, the very large Paris flea market in the northern suburbs. Since we had a dinner party planned for the evening and needed to get back in time to shop, prepare the apt for guests and organize the meal, we decided to arrive at the market an hour later than the official opening time of 8 am. Jane, V and I took the subway out and arrived shortly after 9 to find that most of the vendors did not feel the same urgency....
