I’m posting this piece from Nantes, France. I’m enjoying a little time exploring the city while I wait for my return flight to the USA tomorrow. But first, let’s back track a little, so that the whole thing makes sense.

 

 

 

    

                                           

The Delta flight over to Paris took 10 1/2 hours from Salt Lake City, followed by a connecting jump from Paris to Nantes. The passage through the French Customs at Charles deGaulle Airport was as painless as it can get with the agent simply shuffling my passport from one hand to the other and nodding while handing it back.

 

 

 

I soon met my fellow Helly Hansen contest winners, Tim Lund from England and Kjetil Simonsen from Norway, along with Helly sponsored Norwegian extreme skier and all-around outdoor adventurer , Stian Hagen and his fiancé, Andrea Binning, who is also an extreme skier  from Australia. More correctly, Stian and Andrea now live in Chamonix, France and were our terrific hosts for the visit to France and our sailing experience on the Trimaran Sodeb’O.

Andrea

 

 

 

 

5 minutes into our first meal together, it was obvious that we were going to have a great time during our stay in France as introductory stories and well-told jokes were soon flying around the table. Actually, I could not have asked for a better group of companions for this kind of “out there” experience.

Stian and Tim

  

 

 

 

 Well, unless you told me I could do the same trip with the Swedish Bikini Team and an unlimited budget…

That night, the jet lag really smacked me down pretty hard in the form of not being able to go to sleep until well after midnight. I would pay for that later the next day when coupled with a dumb choice for a midday meal.

Kjetil

 

                                                          

… more in the next posting from France when we go sailing on the Sodeb’O trimaran skippered by Thomas Coville and his ultra-talented crew.