Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Off to the Alps!

Tomorrow I leave for our annual paragliding trip in Europe.  After visiting Switzerland 4 years in a row, we decided to try something different this year - France!

The Jungfrau is a great place to fly and visit, and we have a wonderful setup with the apartment we rent from Diane this year, but the weather there has been very unpredictable for the last 3 years.  On top of that, peak flying season there is late spring/early summer and that is hard to do with my work schedule.

This year we decided on St. Andre in the Maritime Alps of Southern France.  Jeff and Steve visited there for a long weekend last October when they were in France for work and had a blast, so we are giving it a go!  Not to mention that both the British and Eurpoean PG championships where held there last year!

St. Andre is only 1.5 hours from Nice by car, and Jeff found a great apartment (gite, in French) for us to rent from a British couple.  He's also a pilot (HG & PG) and has lots of local experience so we plan on pumping him for advice.  They certainly cater to pilots, as you can tell my their website at Fly St. Andre.

I'm flying out late tomorrow to Madrid on my ole standby, USAir, and then I have a 9 hour layover before getting into Nice around 4pm on Friday.  Why a layover?  Well, USAir couldn't get me a decent, upgrade-able ticket into Nice, but could get me to Madrid for $600 bucks AND a free first class upgrade.   My Madrid to Nice leg is on Iberia for only 160 euro.   I'm going to need to collect bags, clear customs, and then take a bus to another terminal and recheck bags.  Everything I have read online suggests that things move slower in Spain and this process could take 3 hours.  The first available connection is 2 hours after I land and I don't want to risk it.

Next post will be from France!

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