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Private Barge Cruise - South of France

Private Barge Cruise - South of France
via Lufthansa First Class
June 2015

This morning we are off to explore ancient Carcassonne, although the modern part today.

First stop was the historic Marché Central.

And more proof that spouses tend to look alike over time. 

Outside and across the canal to explore more.

And then the excitement of the day as a gust of wind picked up and blew Mrs. SFO's favourite Loro Piana hat over into the canal. Her shreik was all it took to know that unless I rescued it she would be miserable the rest of the trip. Amazingly the wind and current took it towards a boat which happened to have a ladder on the stern. To the pleas of "Get it before it sinks", I saved the day.

Meanwhile, back to our regular scheduled programming. 

The one remaining excavated section of the an old roman road, the Via Domitia. Wow, that would be a little uncomfortable.

Cathédrale Saint-Just et Saint-Pasteur.

And back to the marché where the local anti-establishment crowd is protesting well...just about everything.  

Meanwhile back inside the marché...

And a popular resto, where the owner shouts orders to the butcher across the aisle, who then tosses the meat back over the crowd. Lots of fun although something that would no doubt be banned by any number of over-reaching federal agencies back home.

Next up and a couple minute walk way, our only outside meal of the week.

Great local wine.

But the food was a big meh... looked much better than it tasted.

Meanwhile back home, a relaxing afternoon cruising the Canal du Midi.

 

And the first of many locks today and the rest of the week. Most of these locks were built in the 17th and 18th century. 

Unfortunately, this boat was booked this week... so we're stuck on the Alouette. 

Getting ready for dinner.

Tonight's menu. Yay, steak frites.

As usual, another sensational meal.

More wine and a great end to the evening.

Day 4 on the Canal du Midi was another beautiful sunny day with perfect +22/72 temps.  

Another boat that has seen better days. 

As we dock and get ready for this morning's tour.

Another sad one. 

But an owner with a sense of humour.

Spending quality time together, 2015 style. 

This morning, we're off to the fascinating medieval town of Minerve, set on a plateau atop the gorge of the River Cesse, which has pretty much dried up, or at least in summer.

Potty time.

Uh, maybe not.

Now here's a café with a view.

After a glass of wine, we're on the road back home.

And the wonderful Ang with the now familiar welcome back beverage. 

Another wonderful lunch from Chef Joe.

As we head up the canal and more locks.

Interesting shops along the way.

Whoa Nellie! 

Many of the locks have their own lock dogs that greet the barges.

Yikes, this is getting very weird.

Happy hour and dinner after an afternoon of cruising the canal.

The foie gras was simply the best I have ever tasted. 

The sensational John Dory.

Our fifth and final full day on the Alouette started chilly and overcast as we continued up the canal.

And tied up for our final excursion, a visit to historic La Cité de Carcassonne. It was only three of us today as Mrs. SFO decided to take a break and relax on board.

La Cité de Carcassonne is an amazing medieval citadel that dates back nearly 2,000 years. It's 3km of double surrounding walls made it impenetrable. The walls, design and defense systems made it one of the few villages never to be been overrun or conquered by enemy forces. As a result, it remains largely intact centuries later. After the Eiffel Tower, it is apparently the most visited site in France.

The inner castle which was apparently the third wall of defense.

Impressive old Hotel de la Cité, now an M Gallery Accor hotel.

Cathédrale Saint-Michel de Carcassonne, dating from the 13th century.

Inexplicably featuring a quintet of Russian singers every half hour, with CDs to purchase if you like, spaseeba.

There are literally hundreds of restaurants in the inner city. I guess you need them all if you are indeed 2nd only to Le Tour Eiffel in tourists.

No doubt he woke up this morning looked in the mirror and thought "damn I look good today".  

The Cité train? Sure why not.

Goes around the walls with a narrative. Zzzzz, could have passed on that one.

Back to The Alouette and lunch!

As we cruised up the canal back to Carcassonne. More lock dogs, this one knew the Alouette was coming and patiently waited for Capt Joe.

While the girls went into Carcassonne for manis, I biked down the canal path towards Carcassonne.

Finally.  What took you so long? 

Ryanair.  LOL.  I don't think so.

Pulling in for our final afternoon and evening.

Hors d'oeuvres.

Tonight's menu. Mackerel? Really? Guess we forgot to put that one on "do not serve" list. 

And Ang's cute table setting as we dined on the deck tonight on a perfect +20/68 evening.

Yup, as bad as it sounded.

We were talking about crepes earlier in the day, et voila...

After dinner, the entire crew come out for a farewell champagne toast.

What an amazing over the top experience. Exceptional service, accommodations, wine and (other than the mackerel) amazing food.  
The crew was simply fabulous and I would heartily recommend the Alouette Canal du Midi cruise.

 

After a final breakfast and farewell to the crew, we started the long trek home. Our friends to Barcelona for a day and Mrs. SFO and I to Toulouse and what on paper look like a simple but long 18 hour journey back to Denver where we would arrive at 11PM tonight. I had originally planned to overnight in Frankfurt and return home tomorrow, but I found after noon TLS-MUC-ORD-DEN Miles & More availability. Despite the 45 minute MUC connection, worst case is we get home when we originally thought we would. Plus, what could possibly go wrong? It's efficient MUC and we're talking about Germans.  

An hour and 20 minutes from Carcassonne is Toulouse Blagnac airport, a very nice modern facility. Also the home and final assembly facility of Airbus.

With priority security fast track lane, although not where the contract LH agent said it was. Ha. Oddly enough, we were the only one in the lane and we bypassed at least 100 pax and got the front of the queue.

Inside the secure area, a pleasant but long concourse.

And the Salon La Croix du Sud near Gate 34. Whoa, no subtle colors here. 

 

Everything was fine until about T-60 when I received an email from LH...

Uh-oh. We have a tight 45 minute connection and our flight is delayed 80 minutes. Looks like we're not getting home tonight. But hey, on the bright side, someone else is paying for the hotel tonight. And we'll be getting 1,200 euros compensation from LH.  
Yep, indeed it is delayed.  
 

For the next hour, I searched EF and came up with a list of available F space flight, all great options from FRA tomorrow morning.

• FRA-ORD-DEN on the 748i
• FRA-IAH-DEN on the 388
• FRA-SEA-DEN on the 744

What could be better? I quick MUC-FRA flight, airport hotel and back to the FCT in the morning.   

At around T-40, we headed off to our Gate 26.

Lots of pretty new planes over at Airbus assembly.

Toulouse-Munich
Lufthansa 2219
E95
1:10P-2:55P (sked)
2:35P-4:18P (actual)
June 20, 2015
Business Class
Seats 1A and 1D

Since we were the only Business Class pax today, once I changed seats to bulkhead seats, the two row cabin became a one row cabin, and the "curtain" was moved up a row. The bulkhead is only row to have in dopey Euro "Business Class" which is two economy seats, one for you, the other blocked.
 

Friendly FA offered PDBs and cashews. Mrs. SFO and I made a mutual decision today. After the decadent week, nothing but water on the way home.

More Airbus.

And this interesting one... The Beluga Airbus. For ferrying parts?

In the air...

Drinks and lunch, which was actually pretty good, tasty corned beef.

We taxied to our gate at about 4:20P. Our MUC-ORD flight had been delayed but alas didn't wait for us and had departed at 4:07P. 

As the door opened, a FCL supervisor was waiting for us and escorted us to the lounge. She informed us that we had a room at the Hilton and she had rebooked us on tomorrow's MUC-LAX flight and connection to DEN. Once in the lounge, I gave her "my list". She verified that all of my three options were available and it was up to me as to which one we wished. "Have something to eat and then let me know which option you would prefer". All in all, pretty amazing IRROPS handling. The complete opposite of the disaster that is BA.

Off to eat...

We both had Vietnamese soup.

And the Wiener Schnitzel, a FCL classic. Fabulous!

Despite my recommendation to fly to FRA and overnight for better metal and the FCT, Mrs. SFO wanted "one less flight". Argh, woman. So here we are in Munich for the night, with the prospect of tomorrow's miserable "premium" boarding, a crappy plane and getting home 5 hours later than we would have otherwise. The supervisor checked us in and issued both MUC-LAX and LAX-DEN boarding passes.

See you tomorrow and we left for the Hilton. How bad can it be? 

Nice lobby but challenged front desk staff.

And a depressing room.

After a nap, we decided to have a light bite ("maybe just a burger") and headed downstairs to use our LH meal voucher. The Hilton restaurant menu was not very appealing and quite frankly, the restaurant just plain smelled bad. So we headed back to the terminal. Almost ate at McDonald's but that would be a no tonight. Wound up at the Erdinger Sports Bar on the lower level just outside arrivals.

We split a burger, which was surprisingly good.

 

 

Thanks to my wonderful ywt occasionally travel-clueless better half, we are back at MUC about 2.5 hours before departure.  
And head for the First Class check in area and security. Not as bad as I anticipated.

And then off to the First Class Lounge for breakfast.

We both had the delicious and filling veggie omelet.

At around T-50, we bid our adieus and headed out for long perp walk down to the H gates. Priority passport check means nothing when you get in a slow lane behind a non-US citizen with 4 passports and some visa issue. Lovely. And after all that, the long walk back to H17-H18 and a mass of humanity in a way too small space.

Munich-Los Angeles
Lufthansa 452
A340-600
12:00P-3:15P
June 21, 2015
First Class
Departed 8/8
Seats 1DG

With only 8 pax, you'd think that the GA might perhaps call First Class pax. Heaven forbid, what a stupid idea that would be. Just let them scrum and board with Business and every Star Alliance cardholder and their families. How lovely.  

Already in a foul mood, we board and take our seats 1DG, otherwise known as the lavatory row.  
We have always had much more preferable 2DG on our A346 flights, but since someone decided that she didn't want to go to FRA last night, we have crap seats.

But with a great view of the lavs. 

Lufthansa IFE is challenged at best but the touch sensitive IFE controls on the A346 are horrible. They don't work half the time and then it takes most of the flight to get the touch right.

15 minutes in the air and I figured it was time to get my back pack from the overhead. Got up to retrieve and was yelled at by the FA in the jump seat since the "seat belt sign is still on". Seriously?? Plus, one of the bulbs behind the seat beat sign was not functioning so it looked like it could have been off, compared to the no smoking sign. Which I told said FA, to which she jumped out of her seat to take a look and told me "No, that sign is still on". OK, guess it's going to be one of those flights.  

After the seat belt sign was officially off, the crew decided to get up and slowly begin service.

Today's menu. Seriously?? What kind of celebrity chef thinks these are attractive options on a flight to the US? Boiled ham? Veal Cheek? Chicken Leg?  

Oh, that kind. I'm thinking no sparkle of delight in this diner's eyes today.

And obviously I'm not a connoisseur of fine dining since I've never heard of Harald Wolfarht. Paul Bocuse? Oui. Harald Wolfhardt? Not so much. German cars? Absolutely. But I'm thinking there is a reason that not many people say "let's do German tonight" when they are thinking about where to go for dinner. Then again, how many German restaurants are there around the world... outside of Germany? Think about that.

We passed on alcohol and caviar today but went for the starter trio each of which was pretty good. Although service was bizarre. Our FA was jumping all around the cabin but seemingly partial to the male pax in 1A and 2A. Even though there were three women on the GK side, service was always the male only AD side first. Meaning that I got my food at least 5 minutes before Mrs. SFO.

As was the salad.

The Carrot Ginger soup was OK.

For the main, we went with the lesser of the evils and the Ravioli with Seafood in Coconut Sauce flavored with Thai Curry.

For dessert, I opted for grapes from the cheese and dessert cart. Our FA gave me 6 grapes, which was actually more than enough since Germans have still not figured out how to grow grapes without hard seeds.

After lunch, did some work and watched a movie. With a weak selection of movies, I resorted to watching Taken 2 for the 20th time. 
For a mid flight snack, I had a refreshing fruit plate.

On our return flights, the second meal is often much better than the first. Two months ago, the 2nd meal was Mexican and it was outstanding. Today? Not so much. Indeed this was one of the worst meals on any plane let alone a First Class cabin. Where to start on this one. "Harald Wolhfahrt has treated you to a creative menu. Now enjoy our American-inspired specialities".   Clearly no one in LH catering has ever had good or even mediocre American Barbecue.

I told our FA just a little of each. For most of these, that was way too much. Pretty sad when the cole slaw is the best option.

And then, the pièce de resistance, Spareribs with Oven Baked Potatoes, Creme fraiche with Chive and Corn on the Cob. OMG. The. Worst. Ever. Oh yeah, nice plating with the foil wrapped baked potato.  

Sad to say the potato was the only edible part of this meal. The ribs were disgusting. You had to hack away to get any meat. And the corn?? No salt, no butter, no seasoning. Someone just boiled corn (think dishwater) and cut it up for plating.

Since I was served first, Mrs. SFO could see the ribs and quickly went for the Snapper. Unfortunately, it wasn't any better. "Jeez, I need a saw to cut into this." One bite and she was finished.

Dessert, just the fruit please. Hmmm, that looks familiar.

We arrived on time at LAX. Although there were 1,000s of pax in Bradley customs area, lots of Global Entry kiosks and we were thru in no time. Now starving and with PreCheck on our UA app BPs, we headed to T4 and Kogi LAX, the amazing Korean taco truck near AA's Gates 45-49.

After we finished, we headed out for Terminal 7 and United. With an on time departure, we arrived home in Denver 20 minutes early, or just before 9PM.

Other than that last lap, our return from MUC, it was a wonderful vacation. And a truly great south of France barge experience. Thank you for following along.