Posted on 09/08/2004 6:34:36 PM PDT by blam
Chirac's jet flew an extra 1,200 miles to let him
sleep By Christian Jennings
(Filed: 09/09/2004)
The most direct route from Paris to Moscow by aircraft is to fly due east. Unless you are President Chirac, that is.
The French premier likes his sleep so much that, en route to a Black Sea summit with President Putin and Chancellor Schröder, he had his flight diverted by 1,200 miles so that he could have a long sleep.
Le Canard Enchainé, France's version of Private Eye, tells a tale this week headlined "Chirac's sleep is priceless".
On August 31, Chirac was due to fly from Paris to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, to meet the German and Russian premiers.
The only problem was that the flight to the summit would not be of sufficient duration for him to get a full night's sleep.
The answer was simple: the French air force, which operates the presidential Airbus 319, was ordered to tack another 1,200 miles on to its flight so that Mr Chirac could sleep undisturbed.
The result was a trip to Russia that took the plane due west from Paris towards the Channel Islands, over Brest, south towards Nantes, down from Bordeaux to Toulouse, north back to Paris, and then due east to Moscow.
Le Canard Enchainé revealed that, after its airborne tour of France and a four-hour flight to Russia, the French president arrived in time for breakfast.
The flight is reported to have cost somewhere in five figures.
"How many air conditioners or window fans for their elderly would that energy have operated?"
Zero. Air conditioners and window fans don't run on jet fuel.
Hah, doubtful, unless old Horry left a few bastards among the scots, the spanish or the turks.
Still and all, he has the right idea.
Chirac looks as if he has smoked a few rocks.(Frenchie Has Crack Pipe Dementia)
Sounds like something Kerry would do!
Stalin was our ally in WWII only because Churchill knew that England could not fight Hitler alone. Those of us who were alive at that time knew that as soon as the war was over, Stalin would turn against us. But we won the damn war against Hitler, didn't we? My enemy's enemy is my friend. Blair has risked his own career to join our President Bush in the war on terror. So I can't put him in the same category as Stalin.
While it can be spun as negative, Chirac is in his 70's, and presumably NEEDS a good night's sleep to be able to function well the next day. A disaster would be him dozing off in the middle of a meeting. The cost of the extra air time, compared with what it costs to escort him anyway and the importance of france being represented, is negligible. The fact he is such a prick in public towards anyone who disagrees with him wins him no sympathy, of course.
Talking about extra operating costs, is it true that the carrier bush landed on for the photo-op was actually told to slow down so it would be just beyond helicopter range when the advance-scheduled jet landing took place? IT was genius PR, of course.
I would trust Blair over his Tory opponent (the Tories appear to want to make sure they don't win any time soon), but domestically, he has been weak on murdering, raping muslims and hard on honest folks trying to defend their homes. He is pro-Euro and pro-EU. And once he sells out to Brussels, the UK won't be in much position to help us.
No, Stalin was our semi-ally in World War II because Hitler launched Operation Barbarosa against him and declared war on the US and neither had much choice in the matter.
Chirac's approval rating in France is lower than Bush's in the US.
Maybe he did it for the miles.
Sacre bleu!
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