When I visited the North Pole, in July, there was slush on the ice cap. Those who’d like to see it should best go soon, and not only due to global warming—there are only two commercial icebreakers that can access the Arctic, and one of them is Russian.
Fortunately, the French option, Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot, is as good as it gets. Along with 140 other travelers from 33 countries, my husband, Bruno, and I boarded the ship at the Port of Longyearbyen, on the remote, barren Norwegian island of Svalbard. Upon arrival, the atmosphere was predictably festive, but the following day, as we settled into the auditorium’s dove-gray velvet chairs, we had some sobering news. “In less than seven years, there will be no more sea ice in the Arctic region,” declared Ana Lefevre, a French naturalist who gave a series of lectures over the course of our 17-day excursion. At least all 493 sumptuous feet of Le Commandant Charcot was powered by electric batteries and liquefied natural gas.
