By Erik Skye

19 Jul 2011

Mots du jour: heureuse (happy), lentement (slowly), repetez (repeat)

Dalia and I made our way back from Pra-Loup to Marseille in a heavy downpour this morning. It’s been a cool summer here in France. I brought a sweater along for this trip “just in case”, but wearing it seems to be the rule, not the exception.

Dalia’s other home town (for eight years) is called Aix-En-Province, which is 30 km north of Marseille. It’s a college town, which is what brought her here in the first place - to attend a language school. It has beautifully-preserved buildings along narrow cobblestone streets with specialty shops and open cafés. Large main streets have similar features and include continuous lines of huge trees on each side creating an imposing environment. There was just the right amount of people for a healthy vibe and everyone was relaxed. This is the kind of French city to look for.

I took a speed train to Lyon to see Bernard Bonfy. When I arrived, he drove me through beautiful farmlands to his house in nearby Mions. There, I met his pretty wife Marie-Helene, who is a retired speech therapist. Bernard is a retired Air France airlines captain with 11 years in the Boing 727 (he got that rating at age 23 by the way), 10 years in the Boing 737 (as captain and instructor), and 5 years as a co-pilot of the Boing 747. He also has lots of time in dozens of other general aviation and glider aircraft. In November, Bernard will see his 40th anniversary as a flight instructor. He was the youngest flight instructor for commercial training; receiving that distinction at age 20. Bernard racked-up 25,000 hours flight time, with 10,000 hours of that serving as an instructor. These are all incredible achievements.

Marie-Helene served us a dinner of quiche, garden salad, bread, wine, cheese, and fresh fruit. It was delicious! She tends her own small orchard in the backyard, which produces cherries, plumbs, walnuts, and figs. Her homemade fruit juice was lovely.

Bernard and Marie-Helene have two children – a 32 year old daughter who works for Air France as a stewardess and a 28 year old son who runs his own small business creating and marketing advertisements on the web.

It’s peaceful here at the Bonfy’s. I think I’ll sleep well tonight and go for a run to explore the surrounding area in the morning.

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