WEATHER: A perfect sunny, fall day. Highs upper 60s
Our good friends Tony and Jenny took us to the Halifax airport where we caught a one-hour flight to France. Yes! Just one hour. There are two islands off the coast of Newfoundland that are a prefecture of France. Not French-Canadian, or a territory, but ja real French state. Flying low, we flew over the Nova Scotia coast, and then could see Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
These islands have been on George's bucket list, so we decided to come here since we were so close.
Traveling is always an adventure, and today will remain as one of our laughable, memorable moments. The island is quite small. The airport is tiny, and our flight had only about 20 passengers. In the terminal, everyone cleared out quickly. We looked at a posted city map trying to figure out if we could walk to our hotel, or whether we would need to call a taxi. We had made hotel reservations through hotels.com. I looked for the hotel on the map and could not find it. There are only 2 hotels and a few B&Bs. The street name didn't appear either. Finally, George found a customs guy and asked him. Thankfully he could speak a bit of English. He looked and looked at the address, and said there was no such hotel or street on the island. Then, a lightbulb went off and he said that our hotel is in St. Pierre, Reunion, an island off the coast of South Africa!!! He directed us to a free telephone in the terminal to reserve another hotel. The conversations were a mix of English and broken French, on my part. The first one I called had no vacancies. The second didn't open until 5:00 pm. Finally, the third one had a vacancy, and recommended we travel by taxi. Again, we used the free phone to call one. He arrived in minutes and took us to the hotel. It is quite nice, and our room is spacious and modern.
Now, we have to sort out the hotels.com charge in Africa!
We strolled around the town, spotting a patisserie for breakfast tomorrow and checking out dinner options.
Everything is very French. Euros are used. The car license plates are French. The government buildings are all the same as France. Nothing is in English.
The harbor is cute.
On our way home, we passed a park where old people were playing bocci ball.
For dinner, we went to one of the restaurants that feature French cuisine. It was wonderful. We shared a ramekin of grilled, garlicky snails, and an order of monkfish served in a bell pepper sauce. It was a local restaurant, and it was interesting watching families enjoy a Friday evening out, a la France.
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