Worst Flight Ever - Morocco

We recently traveled to Morocco where we spent several days in Marrakech and a few in Agadir. It was my first steps on the African continent so that was rather interesting for me. The country is well worth a visit and we really enjoyed our stay. But the true point of this blog is to speak about Atlas Blue Airlines which we will never fly again.

Atlas Blue is one of those normally good low-cost airlines and they offer direct flights from Lyon, France to Marrakech. Well, to start, going over to Marrakech wasn’t so bad. We had a flight at 10 pm which was projected to land in Marrakech at 11pm. (It is a 3 hour flight, and Marrakech is 2 hours behind France.) So the first leg of the trip we took off a little over 2 hours late arriving at around 1 am in the morning. Luckily we had a person from the bed and breakfast there to pick us up. I am sure he wasn’t too happy but we were happy to be there and to get some sleep.

Waiting in hell….

On the return we had a flight at 4 pm so we arrived at 2pm which is normal for an international flight. After checking our baggage and heading through security it was about 3 pm so we had plenty of time to relax. There wasn’t much to look at, only a Duty Free shop and a small cafeteria. Around 4pm we notice that our flight had been pushed back to 6pm on the Departure screen. No big deal we can handle a small delay. Then, when 6pm came, there was still no plane and the flight had been pushed back to 10pm on the departure screen. Now it was getting a bit frustrating. No announcement had been made so we had no information on why we were being delayed. Around 8pm the flight completely disappeared from the screen and once again, no announcement was made. The passengers were starting to get pissed off so a group of them demanded that the airport personnel give us food and tell us what was going on. We were able to get food consisting of a piece of bread and bologna but no information on the flight. In fact many at this time, passengers were heading over to duty free and buying alcohol to drink since the cafeteria was near dry of food and drink. Finally, at just after midnight, a plane was prepared to take us home. Once we boarded the captain announced, in fact he was the first person to give us any information, that he had been called 2 hours prior to come to work to fly us home. He followed that statement by telling us that we would be making a detour to Madrid, Spain to drop off 50 passengers. So 2 hours later we arrived in Madrid and dropped off the passengers. An hour after the passengers were dropped off we were still sitting on the tarmac. The captain came on again and said, “I believe you all have the right to know the truth. We are supposed to pick up 50 more passengers here, but they will not board the plane.” Personally, I can understand this since they were supposed to be going to Marrakech but were going to be going first to Lyon 2 hours in the wrong direction and then to Marrakech. By 5 am after sitting on the tarmac for over 2 hours, the passengers finally boarded. We arrived in Lyon at 7:30am. Only 15 hours late!!!! Oh and I forgot to mention, there is no beverage or food on this flight. NEVER, NEVER FLY ATLAS BLUE!!

We Are Having a Baby

Ok, so I am a little late to write this on the blog but WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!! As of today, Valerie is exactly 5 months pregnant. She is getting bigger everyday. It is crazy to think that a living being is growing within her body. Every night, he kicks her around. I tell her that he is already defending me. We are still not sure about the name but we are thinking to call him Mathieu. This name will work both in English and in French.

Anyway, I have to chalk another one up to socialist medicine. We have been looking into all the benefits of having a baby in France and they seem to be numerous. We are going to pay nothing for having the baby and on top of that if we are lucky we may even get a stipend for having the baby. Although this depends on your income level and we may exceed the maximum but there is still hope. On top of this Valerie will have 4 months off to take care of the baby and I will get a measly 2 weeks but that is better than nothing.

The only problem we seem to be encountering is finding a day care. Apparently, there is only one in our neighborhood and it is on a first come first serve basis. Hopefully we will get lucky come January when we will need the day care. If we can’t get in we will hire a Nanny. This option costs more but we will get a good size reduction on our taxes at least.

Well, I guess life is going to change for good moving forward.