Monday 19 November

My final morning dawned very cold and frosty, as I made my way up to the parking lot to wait for my 0800h taxi to the Auxonne Gare.

But at least the sunrise gave promise that it might turn into a sunny day, as I watched the motorcycle instructors observe their students manoeuvring their way around the orange cones in the parking lot.

The taxi arrived on time and we were soon on our way to Auxonne Gare. I was actually leaving much earlier than planned, since when Rita rang to book the taxi before she left last Friday, she was told that it would be impossible to get a taxi in Auxonne at 1000h, as planned, because all the drivers would already be over in Dijon attending to their regular bookings of elderly people going to doctors appointments etc. But one of the drivers said he could take me to Auxonne Gare at 0800h on his way to Dijon. So we made the bookings and I accepted that I would just have to wait an extra 2 hours in Dijon for my connecting train.

I was soon boarding the 0826h TER train to Dijon, where I waited for a bit over two hours (at least it was nice and warm inside) for the TGV to Lyon Part Dieu. Once on the TGV, I got an email from John Stevenson with the login details for the webcam at Auxonne. So I entered them and experimented on my phone with the control of the webcam at the port. I soon had a picture of Kanumbra on Pontoon A. I shall be using this facility to check on the situation over the northern winter, especially when high winds are forecast.

At Lyon, I had a one hour wait before I got on another TGV to head back north again to CDG. I had thought that being moored near Dijon would make things simpler getting to Paris CDG for the flight home, but there appears to be only one direct train from Dijon to CDG each day, and that is at 0705h each morning. While technically this would be early enough to get to CDG in time for check-in for the 1100h flight, thus avoiding the need for an overnight hotel stay, there is very little leeway for unexpected delays and a missed flight. All the other trains go through Lyon, as I am doing. Strangely, while the direct train takes only 2 hours, and the one through Lyon takes 4.5 hours, the direct train is much cheaper (95euro) than the Lyon diversion (250euro). The better train is much cheaper!! Somehow they seem to price the fares in direct proportion to how long the trip takes i.e. slower trains cost more. Weird! I might consider flying into France to another airport next year to avoid the longer-than-expected train trip and the overnight stay required on departure,

Having arrived at CDG T2, I then took the VAL shuttle to T3, but when I got there I couldn’t find any directions to the Holiday Inn Express, even through there were directions to lots of other hotels (including the Citizen M, where I had stayed for the previous 2 years). After some searching and discussion with taxi drivers, I realised that the Holiday Inn Express was one of just two hotels that were located near the Parking Station Px shuttle station. So I jumped back on the shuttle and headed to Px, where a 5 minute walk had me in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express.  I realised as soon as I got there that this was a hotel used a lot by Americans, with a long line of military personnel booking in on their way home to the States.

I got a reasonable room, with a view of the control tower, even though the TV did not work (don’t often watch French TV anyway). While the hotel has restaurant facilities for breakfast, they don’t operate it for dinner for some reason, despite the many people asking for directions to the restaurant that night. But the Bar had only recently instituted a pizza cooking service, and that was very popular. So it was salmon pizza and beer for me for dinner tonight. I was surprised to see that, despite all the Americans at the hotel (which must have been expected at a Holiday Inn), they didn’t serve Coke or 7-Up. Quite a missed opportunity to keep some Americans happy!

Tuesday 20 November

I woke during the night to see that snow had started falling by 0200h. It stopped a little while later, but had started again by the time I woke for the day at 0700h. I went downstairs for the free breakfast, and it was quite good. Even the coffee tasted good, which was a surprise for an American hotel in France. I left the hotel at 0800h to take the VAL shuttle to T1, which led directly into Departures, where I found the Singapore Air check-in desk at Hall 1.

I discovered there was a new check-in procedure for those who had done an online check-in, when a very friendly attendant led me aside to use the DIY machine to print my boarding passes and baggage tags. He then escorted me to the Business Class check-in line where I answered some security questions (I read the first two questions on the card and answered yes, yes, and then the guy holding the card said yes, yes, yes and let me through - this was such a contrast to all the loudspeaker announcements about a baggage scare in the terminal and all the quartets of soldiers wandering the terminal with guns at the ready).

So I then went directly to a check-in desk, where I was instructed to self-scan my boarding pass for this flight, then self-scan my baggage tag as I weighed it. Then, done! I left the counter and sat down to organise my papers, when a lady from the check-in counter chased me to give me my baggage receipt, which they had forgotten to give to me at the counter.

I then headed for the departure gate after going through Passport Control. I decided to do a little experiment here by presenting my passport with my right hand while holding my Carte de Séjour out of sight in my left hand, ready to show it when asked. However, the guy on duty just opened the passport at a random page and stamped it without asking any questions. I was through in 5 seconds, and there was no need for the CdS. As I walked through, I glanced over my shoulder at the Customs official, and saw that he had already returned to reading his Facebook page!!

When we got to the onboard baggage security check, there was a very cranky lady on duty, who was giving many passengers a very hard time. When it was my turn, I used my very best “bonjour” and got waved through with a smile! However, as I looked back at those being double-checked, I noticed that they were all people of colour. Sad.

The snow became heavier before takeoff, but as the first snow of the season it was melting very quickly and posed no problems. We took off at 1100h into a very white sky, but before long we broke through the clouds into bright sunshine and before leaving France we were into clear skies. I got a very clear view of the Grand Alsace Canal and the River Rhine, at the point where the canal to Colmar leaves the Grand Alsace. I recognised this place immediately, as I had just been looking at it in maps a couple of days ago as I researched our possible cruise areas for next year.

We also got some wonderful views of the Bavarian Alps...

…before passing over the site of the Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia.

I then got some sleep (the movie options were not great), and when I awoke I checked the in-flight mapping and saw that we were currently just passing south of Allahabad, India, where my dad was born. I have never been to or seen Allahabad, and this was the closest I had ever been, so I took a photo, with Allahabad being the cloud of lights at the top of the photo.

Wednesday 21 November

The rest of the first leg was uneventful, and I met up with Rita, as planned, at Changi Airport in Singapore, where I found her resting in the sleeping area near the Butterfly Garden. We sat next to each other on the leg to Melbourne, and again I got a good sleep on the flight.

We arrived on time in Melbourne and were met by Ian, who had been minding our car while we were away. As the photo below shows, Ian had been a great Help, and Rita was just Pointing.

We stayed at Ian and Flis's house in Melbourne overnight, after having a good chat, reminiscing about the time they spent with us on the barge this year.

Thursday 22 November

We had brekky and another chat at the Johnston’s, then remembered that Rita had a dentist’s appointment in nearby Fairfield that morning. So we popped over there, then started the drive home to Taggerty, stopping at Healesville to do a little shopping for essentials along the way. We were home by 1500h, and were greeted by a very bumpy entrance road and some very high grass, since we were late in getting home this year (but thanks to Doug for mowing the area around the house, which enabled us to get to the door without worrying about snakes!)

We were expecting to be greeted by summer, but were met by two days of cool rainy weather. This was very confusing in our adaption to being back in Taggerty, since it was like the weather we had been having in Auxonne, and made it hard to remember just where we were (especially when waking from sleep at random times of the day and night).

But with a couple of gigs with the steelband in the coming weeks, and a lot of practice before then, we will soon be adjusting time zones and climates as we prepare for yet another Southern Summer, and thinking about what we might do next Northern Summer.