Tour de France - cancelled!

Travel and Leisure

Ok, not THE Tour de France. However, it is currently postponed - but I think it will ultimately be cancelled. What I'm referring to, is our own tour that we had planned for France this September. Back when we had booked at the start of February, the coronavirus had not spread very far, and we didn't even give it a second thought. What was motivating us, was the excellent price we were getting for non-stop service with Air Canada from YVR to CDG.

I was getting pretty excited - I ordered the Rick Steves guidebooks, and started mapping out an itinerary that would take us on a circle route, leaving Paris after 5 days, heading East through the Champagne region, then on to the Alsace wine route, continuing to Burgundy, and then back to Paris to fly home. We had picked great boutique hotels in Paris, and carefully selected AirBnB suites for the rest of our journey. I was even starting to plan our days, so that we wouldn't run into issues where we went to Versailles on the same day that the Louvre was closed, for example.

Sept. 2020 itinerary through Eastern France

Then the news from Italy started to come in. Oh oh. It was still pretty early days - probably not even called a pandemic yet. But the rate of COVID-19 spread was going crazy, and pretty soon, we were heading into our own lockdown. I stayed glued to the news - like watching a slow-motion train wreck - not wanting to hear more bad news, but yet could not stay away from finding out where the virus was hitting next. With France and the rest of the EU limiting travel to only European nationals, it was starting to look like European summer vacations would be in jeopardy; Macron made a statement that France could stay closed until at least the end of Summer. But maybe September would work out still?

The first big hint of things to come for us, was when Air Canada cancelled our mid-September non-stop flights to Paris (mid-April). We were placed on one-stop flights via Montreal and through Toronto on the return; not a huge deal-breaker, but the non-stop flights were definitely bonus factors for booking into Paris. That's when I started seriously looking into AC's flight cancellation policy. At first, they were talking about giving credits that could be used only until March 31, 2021. 2021? We may not even have a widely-available vaccine by then, I thought. Where would we be able to go in early 2021 that would not have crowds and social distancing measures prohibiting tourism? But with a recent change to the cancellation policy, and a confirmation message from AC, they are now going to allow flight credits to be used up to 24-months after the flight cancellation date.

Looking like we won't be seeing the inside of a plane anytime soon

Now I'm really starting to think about our options. What if we got infected, recovered, and then presumably would have the antibodies to prevent further viral spread? Surely there will be immunity passports or something by then, and that might enable us to see France, with limited crowds due to social distancing measures still being in place? But even if that were the case, would major attractions like the Louvre and Versailles even be open to tourists? What would be the point of going to Paris, if you can only walk through the streets and see sights from the outside? And just as our small towns are asking visitors to stay away during the pandemic, would that be the case for the towns and villages that we would want to take in on our French countryside tours?

And then the other day, the WHO came out with a statement essentially saying that post-infection antibodies are not a proven thing yet, so don't count on herd-immunity to stop the spread of COVID-19. So that was the death blow - not just for our French vacation, but for life in general, to return to some sense of normalcy in the next several months. Maybe there will be travel in Europe at the end of the summer, but it certainly won't look anything like what we had planned for. While technically we haven't cancelled our flights yet - we want to extend the 24-month window into the end of Spring 2022 - we've ruled it out in our minds.

We will see Europe again in the future, just not for a long while. In the meantime, in the words of our Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, "Be kind, be calm and stay safe".

Quarantine cookies

Ever have a craving for a good, chocolate chip cookie? There's something about a fresh-baked, still warm from the oven, chocolate chip cookie that makes it the ultimate treat.

I remember an episode of "Friends", where Phoebe had to try and get a copy of her grandmother's secret chocolate chip cookie recipe, which turned out to be the exact recipe from the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. This is exactly what I thought about Ma Chin's super family secret recipe, and so after calling her one day to get it, I found that it too, was the same Nestle recipe! But for some reason, these cookies, while very tasty, always ended up being thinner, crunchy cookies, which she dislikes.

Image courtesy of Hilton Hotel

Long ago, on my first ever, out-of-the-country business trip, I had to go to Santa Clara for a training class with IBM. Our company travel agency booked me into the Doubletree, which I had never heard of, as they did not have any properties in Canada back then. I didn't know it at the time, but the Doubletree chain (now owned by Hilton), was famous for their warm, chocolate chip cookies that they handed out to guests when they checked in. Needless to say, when I tried their cookie, I was immediately sold on them! When I checked out, I bought a small tin of them to give to my brother's high-school chum who lived in San Francisco at the time. Copycat recipes have been available online for a while now, but due to the pandemic, Doubletree actually revealed their secret recipe! So, with nothing but time on my hands, I thought I should give this recipe a try.

As you can see, they turned out pretty well, and tasted very good - I'd rate them about 8.5 vs. the original Doubletree version. I didn't have any walnuts on hand, and I remember the hotel ones having a slightly more oat-y texture. But the flavour was excellent, and of course, they are best served warm! Aside from adding the walnuts next time, I would chill the dough for a couple of hours before baking them - it keeps them from spreading out too much and becoming too thin. Regardless, they make excellent treats during the coronavirus quarantine!