(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

My last post discussed the strategy involved in finding good airfares during the very expensive summer season.   I hadn’t bought our tickets yet but was on “high alert” for short-lived deals.   Much to my surprise, our tickets to an unexpected destination have now been bought!  Here’s the story…

Although we have an almost endless list of potential destinations,  our preferred destination was Lithuania.  Lithuania is a slightly-off-the-radar destination in Eastern Europe that nonetheless appeared to be very rewarding.  However, one drawback of an off-the-beaten-path destination is the lack of competition between airlines.  By the time of my last post, I had already decided that the only reasonable airfares would be to nearby Warsaw (Poland), or Riga (Latvia).

The airfares to Vilnius (Lithuania) were generally well in excess of C$1,500.00 unless we wanted to take a very indirect route.  However, even the airfares to Warsaw were not dipping much below C$1,300.00.     We then expanded our search to places like Berlin (Germany) and Stockholm (Sweden), which would then be combined with a overnight ferry to either Latvia or Lithuania.  These prices were a bit lower but there still was nothing under C$1,000.00.

And then, just when things were appearing bleak, my strategy of subscribing to various travel mailing lists paid huge dividends.  I was notified that WestJet was introducing a new summer service from Canada to Paris.  They were offering special promotional fares for a very limited time.  We had to make a quick decision…and when the prices are that low for a summer flight to Europe, the decision is easy.  We managed to get return tickets from Montreal to Paris for less than $600 each (inclusive of fees and taxes)!  This is ridiculously low for the first half of July.

I know what you’re thinking:  Paris is not anywhere near Lithuania.  But there were a few ways to justify this.  Firstly, if we still wanted to see Lithuania, an internal European flight from Paris to Vilnius or Riga would be relatively affordable.  Secondly, we both previously have expressed interest in seeing parts of France that are close to Paris:  my wife has always wanted to see Normandy, while I have always wanted to see Brittany.  Finally, although I had visited Paris as a 10-year-old, neither one of us had been to Paris as adults (other than changing flights in Paris).

The more we researched northern France, the more attractive it became.  So while our summer itinerary is not yet completely settled, I suspect that this will indeed turn out to be a tour of France’s northern coast.  And, as Paris can get crowded in the summer, we have already booked our hotel there for the last few days of our trip.

While Lithuania looks like it is on the back burner for now, we are still thrilled about this unexpected twist.  In fact, given how much we learned about Lithuania (and Namibia, our original destination), it’s like we are getting three trips for the price of one.   That’s one of the reasons why I’m describing this unexpected turn of events as “La victoire“!  And we’ll still make it to Lithuania and Namibia in the future.

To further commemorate the near-randomness of our summer trip, I’ve included some photos from our 2009 summer trip to Nova Scotia.