ONLY THREE MORE SLEEPS

A NEW LEARNING
In three more sleeps we board a Lufthansa airbus bound for Marseilles via a Frankfurt layover of four hours.

Lufthansa was so named after its founding president who was left handed. Gotcha! Unless you are German speaking and didn’t fall for that nonsensical translation. Actually, roughly translated it means "air company" or "air group". The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trading group). The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period (c.13th–17th centuries). The Hanseatic cities had their own law system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid.

Lufthansa is headquartered in Cologne with its main base is Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt and another hub at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport. Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, one of the world's major airline alliances. Currently, the Lufthansa Group operates more than 500 aircraft.
The Lufthansa “stylized crane” was created in 1918 by Otto Firle. The design was intended to accentuate both flying and technical skills. In 1955, the logo was changed to reflect Lufthansa’s new post-war look. The crane, now blue, was placed on a yellow parabola. Lufthansa altered the logo again in 1967, placing the crane in a small circle on a yellow background, as it is today. Since 1988, Lufthansa aircraft have been painted white, with a grey belly denoting clarity, simplicity and positive attributes like safety and reliability” according to the airline.

This is the first leg of our journey into two months in various regions of France, a dream holiday for Christine and me, where we will stumble with the French language, frequent street side cafes, tour artistic locations, sit in the sun, sketch and paint, walk and taste and laugh and fall in love again.