Lucky

I used to make soufflés all the time, but fell out of the practice
during the pandemic (because poofy egg & cheese casseroles are for company).

I'm a bit behind my normal time for posting this blog. My sister and brother-in-law dropped by for lunch today before going to see Hamilton. So I spent the morning making a cheese soufflé, potato onion pancakes, sautéed bacon, mushrooms and orange peppers, and an apple "pie" with puff pastry.

My agreeable morning spent preparing a tasty meal for pleasant company is one indication of how generally fortunate I am. 

But I also believe you can buy luck.

Readers may recall that we were scammed on our cab ride from Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris a few weeks back. An unscrupulous young man who marked us as credulous tourists, directed us to a "gate" not used by legitimate cabbies. The driver who met us at the gate charged us 140 euros for a trip that should have cost 60. 

When we discovered we'd been scammed, there was nothing we could do about it. We offered up the lost euros to the tourist gods. 

The gods were paying attention.

There were three strike days called during our stay in Paris, on the 7th, the 11th and the day we left. Massive service disruptions to the subways were promised. We gave ourselves lots of time and checked out of our hotel five hours before our flight. I planned to call an Uber to get us to the airport.

But the disrupted subway meant everyone was finding other ways to get to work. The Uber app was non-responsive. The young woman at the hotel desk made a desultory effort to call, and then assured me there were no cabs to be had, either.

But there was a taxi stand at Port Saint Cloud, she said, maybe we would find one there.

Perhaps you can feel our panic. It didn't matter that we'd given ourselves a lot of time, because there may have been no way to get to the airport.

So we trundled our bags off to the taxi stand at Port Saint Cloud, two short blocks from our hotel.

On the way we noticed there wasn't a lot of traffic, which seemed more ominous than promising.

Approaching the stand, we could see two very not-in-service-looking cabs and then ... just nothing.

But, a little further around the corner ... Look! There's a cab! He has his light on! 

We shouted and waved as we hurried toward him. I was worried he would drive away before we got there. I was worried he would refuse to take our fare.

But he was happy to help us out, and told us up front that he was required by law to charge us the flat fee of 57 euros. I was glad he didn't scam us, but would have been just fine with it if he had.

He got us to the airport in less than an hour. Tipping's not a thing, apparently, in Paris, but Bruce gave him 70 euros and told him to keep the change. 

That sacrifice to the tourist gods on our first day paid out one more time before we left Paris. After a long wait before lining up to board the plane, and then a long wait in line, our boarding passes were refused by the automated gates. 

Fussed and annoyed (and a little worried that we would be bumped) we waited our turn for the flight attendant to figure out why we'd been turned back at the gate.

She scanned our boarding passes. The machine beeped and shone a red light. 

"Oh," she said. "You've been upgraded to Business Class."

So praise be to the tourist gods. And god bless those soulless taxi scammers.

Thanks for reading!

Karen