Chapter 2- Going to France and Madagascar

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We boarded our flight to Paris via Montreal on Air Canada out of Fort Lauderdale. It was the easiest flight as it broke up the flight into 2 easy legs. It was also the best priced flight out of Fort Lauderdale. It was strange to land in Montreal and then to spend only 2 hours there before making our connection to Paris. We looked at Montreal through the windows of the lounge but never put our noses out into the cold. We arrived on time in Paris and my cousin Irina Schirinski and her companion Joel were at the airport to pick us up. We were held up for about an hour as a piece of luggage was found at the main door. The special bomb squad was called and they blew the bag up right there and then. We heard a large bang and shortly thereafter we were allowed to exit the airport. It was nice of Irina and Joel to come to pick us up. We had enjoyed their visit to our house in Florida a month earlier.

I had reserved an apartmenton the 6th floor near the Bastille on AirBNB. When we arrived, the owner informed us that the elevator in the building did not work and that we would have to walk up 6 floors. We were really tired and this was not what we wanted. I informed the owner that we would not accept this situation and she agreed to refund our money. Then I worked for several hours with Airbnb to secure an alternate accomodation. This did not work and I finally booked into a rather modest hotel in the same area. It was a bad experience which neither of us enjoyed. I certainly would not recommend Airbnb again to anyone. They did refund my money but their after the event service was terrible. They could not even book us into an alternate apartment and the hotel I booked cost us twice as much as we had expected.

We spent the next days in Paris doing little as the weather was cold, damp and rainy. The only activity I had organized was a visit to the catacombes of Paris. I had paid for a ticket which was supposed to allow us to enter immediatly by jumping the waiting line. The trouble was that some 300 other people had fallen for the same pitch. It took us almost 2 hours to get into the place. After entering the main gate, one goes down 130 steps on a winding staircase to arrive at the bottom. Once there one has to walk almost a mile along a dimly litcorridor to arrive at a section where thousands of skulls and bones are stored. Apparently, the French decided that cemetaries were polluting the ground water and they transferred the bones of most cemetaries to this place. The whole thing is really not worth wait and money and effort. As Monique really hates stairs anyway, she was not a happy camper.

We did pay a short visit to the Pere Lachaise cemetary. This is one of Monique favorite places as one finds the burial sies of many famous people such as Chopin and Edith Piaf. It is an interesting walk although I am not a real fan of visiting this kind of place.

On our last evening, we had a lovely dinner with my cousin Irina Schirinski-Schikmatoff, the Ukraknian Princess, her daughter and Joel in a wonderful restaurant way out in the country. Although there were on going transport strikes in Paris we were able to get out to her place in Longjumeau and even visit her charming house in Longjumeau. The restaurant was called A la Bonne Franquette and was located in Janvry about 20 kms outside of Paris. It was a small restaurant with about 40 places but it was full as it is every evening. Dinner was excellent and it was lots of fun. The owner, who was as gay as a blade took a fancy to Monique and served her especially well while making little remarks all evening.

Dinner with Irina, her daughter and Joel. 

Irina with one of her cats.

Joel doing the bubblies.

Irinas family crest.

Entering Irinas house

Given the transport strikes going on in Paris, traffic was absolutely terrible so we decided to get out to the airport before rush hour to make our 10 pm Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Abeba and then on to Antananarivo, Madagascar. We thus arrived at the airport at around 5 and had a long wait. About 3 hours prior to departure, they started the check in and the line stretched 200 people long with the majority of the passengers Africans returning to their homes. As is usual for Africans travelling, the number and size of bags was amazing. Check-in took well over an hour of cuing. I had booked all our flights on Ethiopian and the agent in Addis had booked us in the first row of seats which gave us lots of legroom which makes flying so much more pleasant.Ethiopian is the oldest African airline and has a good reputation. They fly the most modern Boeing planes. There is a story which tells that 25 years ago, someone attempted a hijack on Ethiopian. As the airline always flies with air marshals, one of the marshals come up behind the hijacker and slit his throat. There have never been attempts since then...

Our seven flight to Addis went smoothly. We had a 2 hour layover in Addis and arrived on time at 1 PM in Antananarivo. There our friend Henri Rabarijohn who used to be one of my managers in my African project had arranged for someone to guide us through immigration. We were through and out the door in 30 minutes! Henri was awaiting us outside and we drove 10 minutes to his very nice house. His wife Corinne had decided to give us the very spacious guest apartment above their 3 car garage.

After a light lunch we rested the rest of the day. We are so lucky to have friends like Hernri and Corinne. It makes travelling so much easiier and pleasant and one feels at home so much quicker in a strange country. More on Madagascar in the next chapter.