DID THE ISRAELI DELEGATION EAT HERE IN AUGUST 2020? MY TAHER RESTO NEAR DJEM AL FINA MARRAKECH

I go past this restaurant every day usually more than once and always greet the gentleman at the front.  I had eaten at this place on a previous occasion. On days when you are not very hungry, a small meal with no too many accoutrements would be sufficient and they charge only 70 dirhams, around 7 dollars 

I was feeling the cold today, even though during the day it was 18 C, but this cold has a bone chilling effect. i did my usual amount of walking which keeps the body warm and the cafe au lait at the usual moroccan cafe and watching the people passing you by in Djem al Fina .. and  a pure squeezed pomegranate juice .. An afghani man was standing and we bemoaned the loss of freedom of education for afghani girls and women . I told him that is the fruit of Israel mentioned a couple of thousands of years ago in our books .  In another part of the medina, two arabs started speaking in spanish to me saying am I a mexican ? then I realized that these people are from Spanish Sahara now an integral part of Morocco.

A simple meal was appealing rather than go to upscale restaurants and I chose My Taher 

Salad Marocaine and Tajine Kefta with Mint tea at the end .

 I was enjoying the book by Alvaro Mutis about Maqroll and Abdul Bashur, when the attending person began to chat, in broken french, that makes it easier for me to understand . Who is Taher, I asked him, are you Taher? No, Taher is a Patron but he is now disabled and his son has taken over the duties of manager. But he has been working there for 21 years and he said I dont know whether to believe him or not, that he remembers me eating there a year ago, which I had .

A lot of the younger people in Morocco now speak English and they dont seem to like to speak French. A young mulato looking guying, tall and handsome, came in and began to talk to me as if he was like a translator between me and the attendant. The attendant, a father of three sons, (I am finished no more he said emphatically) was a close friend of the family and has been with them for a long time 

Then they asked me 

Where are you from ?

What is todays answer ?

Pomegranate Juice I thought to myself 

I am from Israel 

the attendant smiles , he says, an entire delegation of Israelis were here , eating couscous 

he wrote down the dates even and when i checked later it was true a group of israeli officials were in town for something or other.

there was police outside and people were curious about these visitors.   The Morocco Israeli diplomatic relationship dates only to late 2020 and soon they began direct flights to Marrakech from Tel Aviv and many businessmen and diplomats had made visits to Morocco . Yair Lapid the then PM visited in august 2021.

So I said to myself 

The Israelis ate here 

So it is good enough for me ..

RIAD 58 BLU IN MARRAKECH. MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME. WHAT A FANTASTIC WELCOME FROM PAOLO AND ISHMAEL

 I am very lucky with Innkeepers around the world many of whom become friends and i make a point of furthering those friendships with additional visits .. Rajesh Rajan from Travancore Court Hotel is one such example .. The people at the Executive Lounge at KL Double tree Hilton(thanks Shalinda)..Ko Maung Maung at Beyond Yangon in Siem Reap in Cambodia.. Staff at Marriott Marquis in Doha, Qatar (thank you, Mamim)..Avinash at Hotel Palacio in Paramaribo  and in Marrakesh it is Paolo from Bergamo who has lived here for a couple of decades ..

This is the room he assigned to me and I am certain I will enjoy my time here .. Grazie Shukran Merci 

Thank you Ishmael 

Thank you Paolo 

http://www.riad58blu.com/

THE FEELING OF BEING CHAINED WITHOUT CHAINS , BEING IN A JAIL WITHOUT BARS, BODY AND MIND THREATENED WITH FEAR

 I never hide the fact that I am a Jew and fiercely loyal to Israel and also my people, the Jewish people. I am very aware of the history of the Jewish people and all throughout our history we had to deal with enemies and predators and people who wished us harm .. Haman at the time of Queen Esther in Iran, Stalin and his dictatorship (not so strange to see that Iran and Russia has become close friends), for some peculiar reasons the Black people of the USA have become anti -jewish in their sentiments, especially without knowing the fact that it was the American Jews who assisted the Blacks in their emancipation. We have suffered three major holocausts and or expulsions. One that happened in the Second world war is without equal when it comes to cruelty in the history of the world . The expulsion of 1492 as well as the expulsion of 900 000 Jews from Arab countries soon after the establishment of state of Israel.

Israel and Iran had a friendship stretching back at least a couple of thousand years, but that has deteriorated since the Mullahs took power in 1979. Israel has good relationship with Azerbaijan and Kurdistan (in Iraq)..

In one such country, the rulers have seen fit to put the people in jail without bars, chain them together without chains. As Pablo Neruda would say 

“It is now forbidden not to smile in the face of problems, not to fight for what you want, not to give up everything out of fear, not to make your dreams come true.”

They managed to conquer bodies at times covering it all up, then they began conquering the minds in which they have some success. 

I am sorry for the open hearted clever minds succumbing to this threat and slip easily into their control 

I am not your enemy, I am your friend .

I am sorry.

ELI Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel acceptance speech : “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

USA HAS A SERIOUS NUTRITION PROBLEM, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR RACE WHITE OR BLACK OR LATINO

 Original Investigation

January 9, 2023

Healthy Eating Patterns and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality

Zhilei Shan, MD, PhD^1,2,3; Fenglei Wang, PhD³; Yanping Li, MD, PhD³; et alMegu Y. Baden, MD, PhD^3,4; Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju, PhD^3,5; Dong D. Wang, MD, ScD^3,5; Qi Sun, MD, ScD^3,4,6; Kathryn M. Rexrode, MD, MPH^7,8; Eric B. Rimm, ScD^3,5,6; Lu Qi, MD, PhD^3,9; Fred K. Tabung, PhD^3,5,10; Edward L. Giovannucci, PhD^3,6; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH^3,5,6; JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH^5,6,7; Qibin Qi, PhD^3,11; Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD^3,5,6

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Intern Med. Published online January 9, 2023.

In this cohort study of 75 230 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2020) and 44 085 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2020), greater adherence to several healthy eating patterns was associated with a lower risk of death. These associations were consistent in different racial and ethnic groups, including Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White individuals.

I can confidently state that a majority of the chronic illnesses among adults in the English Speaking rich world (USA Canada UK Australia NZ ) can be avoided or ameliorated if they only ate FOOD rather than highly processed materials disguised as food .

The effect of social situations on Health can never be forgotten, the reasons there are health disparities are all of social and societal origins rather than Racial or Cultural origin.

In the USA it is generally believed that the people of African Origin has a higher rate of mortality from Hypertension and Cardiovascular disease. Their cousins in the island of Cuba does not have the same burden, why? The situation for black people within the cuban society has improved tremendously since the Cuban Revolution of 1959.

Poverty may explain why Mexican Americans or Dominicans appear regularly on the "Hispanic" morbidity statistics rather than racial since the term "Hispanic" has no scientific basis and an invented term and it cannot be used as a racial nomenclature.

What was interesting in this study was that the diet or nutrition followed by those whose lives were prolonged were not any one trade mark but a variety of healthy eating broadly categorized 

HELLO PEOPLE. PLEASE EAT FOOD NOT CHEMICALS OR SUBSTITUTES 

(or move to Mexico where the food is better )

WHERE ARE YOU FROM ORIGINALLY? WHAT IS YOUR NATIONALITY ?

 This is a question I have heard all my life. The divergence of my body (asian) and mind (post renaissance Europe) and soul (indigenous) confuses many who are used to the strict norms of conformity in this world changing at a rapid rate.

Today a carpenter working at the house where I am staying in Miami, asked me ? what are you ?

this occured to me , why not ?

I am 1/3 French

1/3 Cuban 

1/3 Miamian 

based approximately on the time I spend in each of these places 

While I have no special feelings for Miami, I hold my years at Jackson Memorial Hospital as a Fellow in Endocrinology. Plus I like the fact that it is well connected to the Other America to the south which afforded me to visit every country except Nicaragua and Paraguay 

Cuba and I share a very special relationship. I am happy to say Havana is a moveable feast and like wedding vows whether they were meant or not, I accept Cuba with its fault and its memories 

France is a new love even though it came with a hurricane force wind into my life in 2006, June 24 to be exact.

But I would like to remind you 

I am 4/4 Jewish! and that does not change.

PS thanks to many other countries that gave me citizenships and education and lots and lots of love 

Australia 

USA 

Malaysia 

Jamaica 

England 

Sweden 

so.. on your next trip to Sahara 

if you meet a vaguely familiar face wearing 

daraa and tagelmusts essentials for nomads

you may have run into the Jewish Maqroll.

especially he tells you he has a camel for you at wholesale price! or offers you camel milk which has been shown to reduce Insulin resistance ..

SHABBAT SHALOM FROM MIAMI BUT WITH A HEAVY HEART

 

As has been my custom for many years, on Friday Nights, regardless of where I am , Morocco, Malaysia or Miami, I would light candles and recite in Hebrew my words of thanks for the bread and the grains and the wine and the fruits of the earth. It is usually a happy moment.

But not today 

10 000 km away in Neve Yaakov in Jerusalem, a terrorist killed severn worshippers saying very similar prayers to mine at a place of worship on the day of remembrance of the Holocaust.

When would this killing of innocent people stop ?

WHAT WOULD AN ANTHROPOLOGIST UNDERSTAND ABOUT THIS PHOTO ?

 

Look at the photo first without reading the captions.

What do you see ?

what do you feel ?

that would tell more about you than the substance of the photo.

Do you see the tenderness of the mother towards her child?

Do you see the anguish on the face of the boy ?

or 

Do you see two Black people?

Do you see two poor people?

Do you see two fat (or fat black) people?

The answer would tell me what sort of a person you are ..

then read the caption.

The father of this boy, when he was young, died in police custody 7 years ago.

This in the context of the most violent rich country on earth, the United States of America.  40 mass shootings so far in the first three weeks of this year.

His father was black american, they tend to be treated with less respect, even by fellow black policemen.

As the poet would say, Poverty is not fashionable and only the rich would think that poverty builds character.

Racial injustice and oppression. 

Poverty 

all evident in the face and in their body 

Obese mother and Obese child 

Obesity, a study released by American Paediatric Association has stated, is more than about food and exercise..

So, telling him to exercise and eat well (almost an impossibility in most of the USA) would be a crime..

He misses his father 

He is mourning and will mourn, in this society's deficit of emotions, all his life.

He is scarred

for the rest of this life 

This is in a society which is fatter by the year and insensitive to it by the year ..

From New York Times 

In dozens of interviews with families I heard about doctors shaming low-income moms for buying dollar store ramen noodles instead of pricier fresh vegetables. I talked to teenagers who were gaining weight while dealing with depression or anxiety and whose doctors told them to cut carbs. Families described doctors who rushed conversations, grabbed bellies or made jokes about kids’ bodies.

The guidelines acknowledge that experiences of “weight stigma, victimization, teasing and bullying” are major challenges faced by kids in larger bodies that contribute to disordered eating and worse mental health outcomes. Some health care providers, they note, are biased against fat patients in ways that compromise the quality of care and contribute to more severe illness and even death.

I am an Endocrinologist dealing with patients with metabolic dysfunction which include Overweight. I was so frustrated by the societal attitudes and the solutions offered that on advice of the American Indian teachers I went to London to study Anthropology , to understand how people think.. what makes them think that way, what are the constructions within society and what is not obvious to the naked eye of the observer ( public or medical personnel)

It has been a good education.

While Nutrition or Lack of it is a MAJOR problem in English speaking Rich countries, one has to look beyond what appears to be obvious.

I will dedicate this blog to the memory of Dr Paul Farmer, a Physician Anthropologist

who said 

Medical Anthropology teaches you to divert your gaze from the sterility of the Epidemiologists and Clinicians (pardon the pun) and go beyond facts and figures and transcend to the level of the suffering and focus on the society in which the patient lives.

I sent the article to a good friend of mine and this was his comment ( from New York times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/opinion/aap-obesity-guidelines-bmi-wegovy-ozempic.html?smid=url-share

Just read the New York Times essay.…… Wow! I have not read the official publication of the new guidelines, but if the author of this essay accurately depicts the intent of the new guidelines, then that is pretty scary.  Starting kids at age 2 on lifestyle, modification and behavioral therapy? At age 12 or 13 offer kids with excess BMI’s drugs for overweight or surgery for overweight. These ages seem quite young. These guidelines remind me of federal reserve chairman Powell. He is determined to stamp out inflation no matter what. It sounds like the pediatricians that made the guidelines are determined to stamp out obesity also no matter what.

They seem to forget that children have delicate minds and are so easily influenced or even pushed in the wrong direction. It is possible that they are right with this endeavor, but there are many kids who will not fit in or will not benefit. I think that reliance on BMI or age is a mistake, and I think that each particular individual should be treated exactly that way - as an individual.

I AM THE JEWISH MAQROLL. WELCOME TO MY MAGICAL WORLD

 I am all alone in this house, the silence is so welcome. Most but not all, people in America are afraid of silence and they have to keep on chatting, whether it makes sense to them or others.

I decided to visit the Wine Store. Like Omar Khayyam who would visit the Tavern in search of wine, I too was in search of something or other. 

I thought of my good friends M and G as I looked for a Pinot Noir.

With my newly found love for France, I got a bottle of French Pinot Noir.  As I came out of the wine store I had this strange sensation. I do not belong here or to now. An aura of magic surrounded me and I enjoyed the place and time and feeling very happy .

Ever since the original Maqroll came into my life, this inspiration for homelessness bound to a vague profession and imprecise nature of his citizenship has followed me .  I wrote this in 2007.

On receiving a note from the Malabar coast that home of an aging Jew was about to be passed on to him, he imagined himself ensconced there, waited on by thin Malabari Moslems who questioned their faith, with his traveling companion, the Prince of Palms and the little girl who loved him so much that she continually adoringly attached herself to other lovers in faraway lands she dreamt of visiting with him. Making vagrancy a profession young people all over the world could aspire to, he plans to convert the 700 year old synagogue, when it is not in use, of course, into a Museum of Vagrant Peoples where others may find refuge from the restriction imposed upon them by their fear of being alive.

Why are people so eager to embrace uniformity, charmlessness and conformity ?

Days pass by, they roll into years as they are glued by disappointments.

This song was initially sung by Charles Aznavour. The first album that I bought at a record store near where I was staying, was one by Charles Aznavour.

Many years later I did meet the ENT doctor who specialized in SOUNDS who had been Aznavourian's doctor (he was a dedicated Armenian!). The doctor was jewish, Abitbol by name who grew up in Casablanca before the Arabs drove his family and thousands of others into exile in France, Israel and elsewhere 

There is no time for disappointment.   The time for enjoyment is now 

My barber in Marrakech is waiting to cut my hair, I must not disappoint him.

Nowruz is around the corner, why not meet each other in Dubai that town in the desert without any charm except it is close to Iran.

I walked out of the wine store, a lovely afternoon in the tropics and said thank you to no one in particular. I was glad the clerk having seen me before at the store added on a discount so that I can participate in Omar Khayyam's pleasure in the tavern..

Charles Aznavour is no more ..

but I have fallen in love with France ..

ten years ago I met a three year old poet along the wild coast of Brittany and I must thank her ..

I forget my calendars and do not know when I should be where, mainly which airport ...

The chilean jewish film maker Alejandro Jadorowsky will make a new film. He is 90. Buzz Aldrin the astronaut is in the news. He is 93. 

This is not the time to get old too soon .

The above video of Chris Botti and la belle sans regrets (by Sting)

Life has to be lived SANS regrets 

and to those of whom who bemoan the price of tomato sauce at supermarkets, think of the thousands and millions of people living under conditions not of their choosing, unable to express themselves except in private conversations...oppressors of thoughts and behaviour and here we in the west, bemoan the lack of our favourite capuccino at Starbucks, I once asked a colleague of mine, would you like something from Starbucks, she in her defiant mood said , yes, health care for their employees. 

I do not drink Starbucks Coffee

Meet me in Plaza Dorrego in Buenos Aires. we can look through old books, post cards and stamps and end up drinking a coffee at Cafe Dorrego 

I live in this magical place, of my own creation, please do not disturb. If you can join, please come

I can introduce you to Nawfor at Cafe Corsé in Rue Lenine in Tunis

Noordine is my concierge in Marrakech where the mountain amazigh play their amazing drums in the open air at djem al fina surrounded by mint tea drinking locals nodding their heads in unison

While a monkey trainer makes a living out of his animal who poses for tourists for a few dirhams.

Please do not ask me the price of unrequitted loves and where you can buy the fear of being alive in this wonderful world.

Please take a moment and think about IRAN..

You may not love Jafar Panahi or Ashgar Farhadi, you may have not heard of Ahmad Shamloo or Soheil Nafisi..

But take a moment to think of the sufferings and aspirations and dreams and oppression.. things you cherish and things you dont have to put up with living in democratic countries like we do ..

Happy NOWRUZ my dear friends. Sorry I cannot join you .

BUT I can join my dear friends in Kuala Lumpur for CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE RABBIT or join a good friend of mine in Hanoi to celebrate TET , the New year of the Cat

Xong Hi Fatt Choi.. to YMC and FA, Ho/Kit and all my loves in Malaysia ..

If you are trying to decipher my nationality and passport, I have this to say 

I, said Maqroll, am a Jew

WHERE IS MY CUBAPASION ? WHERE IS THE GHOST OF THIS MOVEABLE CITY

 

Cities evoke a nostalgia in me . My own home city of Melbourne always reminded me of the fragrance of the flowers that i use to sense as I walked in those familiar streets of Caulfield. 

I had looked for a shy Gabo on the Blvd San Germain feeling uncertain of himself or Alvaro Mutis with whom I may have shared Ave Archimedes in Brussels ?

Cafe de Flore? Cafe Deux Magots?

I will always remember my good friend ES telling me, remember you are not Simone.

I walked along the streets in Palermo where Borges lived and felt I was like a ghost wandering around looking for the hairdresser from Matanzas who has long since vanished from the street that bears the writers name ..

Eastern cities do not evoke that nostalgia, people are too busy living and the clutter and the noise bring you back to the harsh reality

I rather think of Biki Dude the nightingale of Zanzibar . A taxi driver who was surprised that I knew that name took me to the house where that songbird lived well into her nineties ..

But It was Havana that was and is my delight 

It was Havana that was and is the moveable feast 

The magic and surrealism, the intellect and the songs and the music and mysticism ..

they like arrows pierce my heart, make me bleed for this city which has seen its share of tragedies 

San Cristobal de la Habana 

where is the little girl who kissed me under the decaying arches along the Prado street .. she transported herself on the strength of her dreams to walk along some strange foreign street where a house and a car awaited her   Good Luck NPF 

cunning vendors of dreams with narrow shifty eyes 

poets whose hearts are as big as the blue skies that you see 

Did Blue Skies from Australia once descend to these shores ?

2023 is impatient

I want my Havana back

Go away whatever  virus variant you are , who imprisoned us for two years with your glowing capacity for an early clear death.

I nearly wept on the steps that led to a delightful placed called CUBAPASION 

its Belgian owner who had lived in Cuba for 17 years before the Pandemic and his lovely history professor wife .. did the virus drive him away ?

It was my custom, after my arrival at my house in Havana, to do the pilgrimage as the sun would be setting over the western horizon of the menacing sea that separates this island from that hungry giant to the North, ha ...the Last Train to Yuma 

The pilgrimage was to CubaPasion 

Young University students eager to bring your Piña Colada . and the lobster tail in Linguini ...

I have shared the tables with many friends, local and foreign .. As Gabo would have said: the smell of Piña Colada at CubaPasion always reminded this Maqroll of unrequited loves and passions unbridled that went galloping over whatever mountain range ?

Now the streets are quiet 

Hotel Colina

Have you stayed there, asked Pico Iyer when I met him at Powells after his talk 

now shuttered, the book store opposite gone.. and i longingly looked at the home of the social discoverer of Cuba, Fernando Ortiz where i had given lectures on more than one occasion ..

Havana has fallen silent 

You couldnt walk 100 metres without recognizing some strand of music floating.. was it Enrique Jorrin who introduced the cha cha cha?

I fondly think of my friends Ibrahim Ferrer and the i can look at the house where Cachaito lived in the distance to the right .. 

Who has done this to my city, this vibrant city where movements deliberately provoked sensuality, the steps of people were like honey dripping from a spoon ..delicious.. 

Where was that middle aged black couple who were walking holding hands along the Rampa ? 

I miss all of you , then the noise and the broken tiles of the sidewalks and the potholes along the street L as I descend towards melancholia and the little park at Linea that once showered me with tenderness ..

I beg you, please return the music you stole from my city

the joyous physique of young loves along the malecon 

the cunning bartenders and their diluted mojitos 

and the history student who would bring me Piña Colada at Cuba Pasion under the watchful eye of the Belgian with a Cuban puro half lit in his hands

Bring me back La Dolca Vita along the Malecon with its knowledgeable Maitre d' where i had dined along with fine conversations with my friends from Yuma .. the north 

I think the Maitre d' was called Victor..

Bring them all back to me 

So that I can ask each of them the various fragrances 

of Munich or Marrakech Madrid Milan 

or their toils at Palacio de Jugos in Miami (whose owner was convicted for Drug dealing but now owns ten of them, Cuban ingenuity at its best)

As I carefully retraced my steps, I want you to know ,you, now breathing foreign air and speaking in other tongues, that I remain here, faithful to this eternal, charming, at times decaying belligerent city..

grateful for the moments of magic we shared..

BLUES EYES UNCHANGED AND IT IS MINUS 17 DEGREES IN KHORASAN PROVINCE IN IRAN

 

It was Minus 17 degrees Centigrade in South Khorasan Province and someone or other had invited the family for tea and cakes for the afternoon.

Would you like to come, I was asked ?

I am in Miami and it is 27 C.

The invitation had a special warmth .

Suddenly a song came to my mind and I was reminded of a warmth from Bauru in Brasil.

Life rolls out its usual desserts ..

thank you all, including those who could not bear the burden of this happiness.

COCHIN SYNAGOGUE BEAUTIFULLY RESTORED AND ALIVE WITH THE PRAYERS OF VISITING RABBIS FROM THE USA

 I have been fortunate enough to visit some beautiful synagogues around the world, modern and functional and some ancient non functioning and some ancient and still active.

Few days ago I was at El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba Tunisia considered to be the oldest synagogue outside Israel dating back to the destruction of the first temple.

this morning I received a video from a friend in Cochin where there is no Jewish community (once a flourishing one existed) but alive enough to host visitors, this time a group of 16 ashkenazi rabbis from the USA ..

The beauty of the inside of this synagogue is a pleasure to behold. The architecture is typical Kerala style. This is one of the five that one can visit easily in the region but only one where one can meet fellow jews from all around the world. 

Am Israel Chai..

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO FLY FROM PARIS TO ANY WHERE, THIS TIME TO MIAMI, AIR FRANCE, WHAT ELSE ?

My journey began today at the AF Lounge at Terminal 2 E at Paris CDG Charles de Gaulle Airport. I was a little peckish but did not wish to spoil my appetite for what was in store on AF90 to Miami.

With my complex relationship with France, I would always be grateful for the palate for champagne the country gifted me and I was happy for this first of the three champagnes that I would taste today .

From the website of Joseph Perrier 1825

Awakening Senses

Length, freshness, balance, elegance and light! The nose is delicate, fine and complex. Notes of green apple and vine peach bring a fruity touch. Nice roundness on the palate, long and refreshing finish.

I am lucky to be flying into CDG few times a year and my recent entry to CDG from North America was on American Airlines on which I hold the Executive Platinum Status. No service, No charm and No sophistication. How can you ask a nation that places no importance on elegance to teach you about fine dining especially flying long distances (No more Prosecco on plastic tumblers for me, PLEASE). I decided I will accrue the Platinum status on Flying Blue, the Air France Frequent Flier Programme in 2023. I quickly boarded the flight, shown to my seat by a friendly Flight attendant, that friendliness was to continue throughout the flight, by various personnel. All of them had a smile on their face.

The flight would be 9 hours at 40 minutes and I am almost always psychologically prepared for such a trip (I am used to 14 hour trips on Qatar Airways, the last one COK-DOH-IAD). I was in Seat 3 A with a certain amount of privacy

It was raining a little and the engine roared as it climbed over the clouds which offered no resistance. It was a remarkably smooth flight with the seat belt sign coming on not even once during the entire journey

I took the photo of the sky, to remind myself of my days in France and also I know what it would look like when we approach Miami.

I had spent the past few days in Tunisia and my palate had not taken to Tunisian wines! I was happy to be on this AF flight contemplating my meal and the Champagne of course ..

I chose the Brandade de cabillaud et salmon..

The champagne was delightful even though there was a surprise in store. 

From the Menu: The finesse of the chardonnay is underpinned by a structured finish of Pinots Noirs intense with red berries. The signature cuvée of this family-owned and independent wine producer since 1859

Mise en bouche was Beet mousse with cheese crumbles fitted well with this champagne 

In France, my connection is with Bretagne and I fondly looked down, thinking of that familiar landscape.

One thing you could say about the AF crew is that they make you believe you are in a movie scene watching a story unfold and the announcements,in french,  over the PA system sounding like some melodramatic committments to eternal love. Like Gabo would say, era inevitable .

At this time the chief Purser who had received us at the gate put in an appearance. I knew from his bearing that this french gentleman has some other input ancestrally and turned out that he was from Martinique but lives in Barcelona (his spanish is deeply french accented). Yesterday on my flight from Tunis to CDG it was Anne-Laure from Guyane Francais ..I made a mental note to visit these outlying morsels of french culture .. Wallis et Futuna , St Pierre et Miquelon, St Barts...

I am a great fan of smoked salmon, a habit picked up during university days in London, strangely enough..

A beaming chief purser theatrically hands over a La Premiere Menu and invites me to try a glass of their champagne..

Definitely a superior one.. 

from the web:

On the nose: It is particularly elegant and ethereal on the nose, releasing delicate notes of white flowers mingled with delicious aromas of nectarine and Mirabelle plum.

On the palate: Clean and silky on entry to the palate, fulfilling the promise of the nose, this champagne is the quintessence of Amour de Deutz. It's aromatic score is wonderfully melodious with all its floral, fruity and mineral notes in perfect harmony.

As I told the purser and another crew: it is as if a liquid was slowly sailing through your throat ..

Most people think that champagne is to be drink in the begining and then put away, it can be drunk till the end, in this case , just a little while before the flight lands ..

The main dish of cabillaud et salmon was delicious and I sadly thought how much I am going to miss French food in the food desert that is USA.. (but I do look forward to my fellow french aficionado, Dr W to rescue me from that fate) 

 So, Air France, what else ?

Pleasant crew and food that brings credit to France, a very smooth flight and I have noticed that the french passengers were well behaved in my section of the plane, with nary a sound from anyone.. the cabin was very quiet throughout the flight ..

My next Air France flight would be a return flight Miami to Paris ..around mid april..

On approach to Miami, the sea was unusually calm and some clouds dressed up to welcome this visitor from France AF 90

and happy to have met Joel, the chief Purser .. a delightful person.

Air France, What else ?