VIVE LA FRANCE

Got back home this afternoon and will post something reasonably intelligent once I get out of this jet lag induced stupour.

Meanwhile, since I have been accused of being a bit hard on my former neighbors, the French, in the past, let me say that having spent 45 minutes in Paris this morning, I have a new appreciation of these wonderful people.

Wondering whether we would make the connection in such a short time, with a change of terminal involved too, we were contemplating the results of missing the flight, which would have been a seat on an Air France plane to Newark six hours later.

So imagine our joy when we were met off the Mumbai flight by a chirpy French lady as dawn was breaking over the Eiffel Tower and discovered her sole purpose as an airline employee was to drive us directly over to terminal 2E and escort us through security and onto our ongoing flight. Nice work mes amis, we made the connection.

I also need to say a word about French cuisine. While airline food stinks the world over, our friends who gave the world noveau cusine really could show the peanut toting US carriers a thing or two about how to serve their passengers. The food on these flights was outstanding - though of course we were flying business class, courtesy of frequent flyer miles and not in the cattle truck we generally occupy - but I must confess being offered a choice of wines for breakfast was a first. Do they really do that in France?

Good job my French friends. I always loved your country!