The Journey Home

On Monday we got to the Frankfurt Airport in plenty of time for our flight.  The Lufthansa flight was on an A380.  It's a huge plane.  We were sitting in the lower level where the economy seats were, in the middle section in the row behind the bulkhead seats.  Per Seat Guru, in the middle section, the two seats on the left don't have entertainment boxes under the seat taking up foot space.  Wrong.  Jim's seat had an entertainment box.  I offered to switch, but he said no.  What was even more annoying than that was in the bulkhead seats directly in front of us there were two infants.  Yes, two babies.  If one wasn't crying, the other one was.  Or they were both crying at once.  There were only very brief periods with no crying.  For 11+ hours.  It seemed like much longer.  Ugh!  We had never flown on Lufthansa before, and the itinerary indicated that there was 'no meal.'  It was quite the opposite.  The food just kept coming.  A snack, then lunch, another snack, then dinner.  And the drinks.  They kept coming by with soft drinks, water, wine beer, etc.  I had a couple of glasses of wine, to numb the pain of hearing the crying babies.  It wasn't enough.

Our flight took off a little late, so of course we arrived in San Francisco late.  Monte was there waiting for us.

Thanks for the ride Monte!!

It was good to get home.  I thought Riley was going to have a heart attack, he was so excited to see us!  Sleeping in our own bed was heaven.  When I woke up the next morning I found an email from Barbara.  Lufthansa was on strike Tuesday.  We got out just in time!

To summarize our trip:

We had a great time, even with the challenges and hiccups.  We enjoyed the time we spent with Nigel & Carol, Norm & Georgia, Sarah & Dave, Darcy & Pam, Phillipe & Anita, Jo and last but not least, Barbara, Danielle, Sascha & Dagmar.  As much as we enjoyed spending time with others, we equally enjoyed the time we spent on our own.  Jim is my favorite travel partner.

I enjoyed all of our destinations, cities and small towns.  Some places I would like to return to in order to explore the area in more depth.  It doesn't matter how long the trip is, it's never enough time to see everything.  I hope there will be more trips in our future. 

Frankfurt

Sunday morning...one last breakfast with Barbara and Danielle.  Then they took us to pick up our rental car.  It's the best one of the trip, a new VW Golf.  We had an uneventful 3 1/2 hour drive to Frankfurt.  The only negative part of the drive was our stop at a rest area.  The bathrooms were disgusting!  We made it to the train station.  Then the fun began.  The signs for the rental car area were almost non-existent.  Apparently there was a car parked blocking the driveway, as it wasn't visible.  It took €3, two trips into the station and a lot of aggravation to get rid of the car.  An hour after spotting the train station we made it to our hotel.  It's a 5 minute walk from the station.

Jo was waiting for us there.  After checking in and dropping our things in the room we took off for a walk around Frankfurt.  Jo and her husband own a company, Frankfurt By Foot, that leads walking tours and other types of tours.  She spent 6 hours showing us around Frankfurt, only stopping for a traditional German dinner.  Jim and I both had schnitzel Frankfurt style with a green sauce.  It was very good.  There is a halocaust memorial, including walls with little plaques bearing the names of the 12,000 Jews from Frankfurt who were sent to concentration camps.  Included in those were Anne Frank, her mother and her sister.  They were from Frankfurt.

  At 9:00 p.m. we made it back to the hotel.  We were exhausted.  But we still had to shuffle things around in our bags.  We are checking the big ones tomorrow.

I'm Not Ready Yet!!!

I can't believe it's our last day in Hannover.  This trip really has gone too quickly, and we haven't spent nearly enough time with the family.  Of course they may feel differently.  😊

Barbara got very little sleep last night and she had to take Sascha to the airport early.  She needed to rest. So after breakfast Jim, Danielle and I walked downtown.  First stop, the train station.  Only 1/3 of the trains are running.  The odds were against us, so we had the cost of our tickets to Frankfurt refunded and we will drive.  I'm sure many other people will have to do the same thing tomorrow, and the roads are sure to be crowded.

We then strolled around the old section of Hannover.  There are some really nice old buildings.  We stumbled across a flea market, then stopped for tea at Danielle's favorite tea house.  We walked backed to Barbara's for a rest. 

We were meeting Dagmar for dinner, but we got to the area early for a walk.  It is quite pretty in Hannover with some wonderful outdoor areas. This is a large lake area that Hitler forced people to dig out from some swampland -

We had a fantastic dinner together at an Italian restaurant that looked out to the lake area.  We all returned to Barbara's after dinner for a fun evening full of laughter.  I'm really going to miss this.

I've Been On Vacation Too Long!

I don't know how to edit my entries and apparently I don't know what day of the week it is either.  The "Hannover" entry was for Friday, not Saturday!!

Hannover

Cousin Sascha will be arriving from Cologne Saturday at a yet unknown time, so we couldn't venture too far.  But first, we had to take care of some business.  The trains are going on strike.  Again.  It won't end until early Monday morning, so our train tickets to Frankfurt on Sunday are worthless.  I had to rent a car and we will drive to Frankfurt instead.  Our outing mainly consisted of going to the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen.  It is internationally famous and is the largest baroque garden in Germany.  It is very reminiscent of the gardens at Versailles.  Even though it is Fall here and most of the color is gone from the gardens, they are still beautiful.

We have all had very late nights, so we went back to Barbara's to rest, prepare dinner, and wait for Sascha to arrive.  Around 9:00 p.m. Barbara and I headed to the train station to pick her up.  I wanted to have as much time with her as possible since it will be the only night I see her. She leaves early in the morning to fly to Rome.  After we returned to Barbara's we talked about many things, including a family reunion in Yosemite next summer.  Let the planning begin!!

Sascha drove us back to Dagmar's.  We stayed up talking to her.  Yep, another late night!  Tomorrow is our last day in Hannover.  The time has passed far too quickly.

Germany - Family Time

On Wednesday morning we caught the 8:00 a.m. train bound for Cologne.  We had to change there for a train to Hannover.  We weren't sure what would happen once we got to Cologne, as the train strike was to start at 2:00 p.m., and we would be on the train to Hannover at that time.  The time passed quickly on the first train.  In Cologne I was hoping to get a quick glimpse of the huge cathedral, located just outside of the station.  Our train arrived at platform 3, and the train to Hannover was to depart on platform 2.  Those platforms share the same space.  Perfect!  Jim offered to stay with our bags so I could run outside. Wow!!  The cathedral is enormous!  I took some photos, but the sun was in the wrong place and they didn't turn out well.  When I retuned to the platform Jim was talking to a man who had asked him for help. On this trip we have been asked for directions a number of times.  Hmmm...maybe we don't look too much like tourists after all!  Our train arrived and we got on.  The sign on the platform said the next train to use the track was cancelled because of the strike.  Departure time came and went.  We weren't moving.  I got a bit nervous, but finally we were on our way.  As it got closer to 2:00 our train stayed for what seemed like a long time at one of the stops.  Was this the end of the line for us? Barbara and I began texting with each other, trying to come up with a plan for her to pick us up.  I asked the person who was selling coffee about the strike, and were we going to make it to Hannover.  She seemed shocked that I would ask, but then assured me all was okay, for Hannover.  We arrived late, but we arrived!  I'm not sure if the train ever made it to Berlin.

Barbara and Danielle met us at the train station.  It was so good to see them.  I last saw Barbara in 2010 when she and Sascha came to Bavaria to see us, and I last saw Danielle in 2009 when she came to visit us.  We went to Barbara's house for a bit, then she took us to her sister, Dagmar's, house to drop off our luggage.  I was a bit nervous.  Would we be able to communicate with her?  Yes!  She speaks English fairly well.  I was unsure since my Uncle Jack told me that his former sister-in-law didn't speak a word of English.   She was very welcoming, showing us our room, where our towels were, etc.  We returned to Barbara's, having dinner and then talking until after midnight.  She took us back to Dagmar's, where we chatted with her for awhile, then got a good nights sleep.

Thursday came, and we didn't know exactly what was happening.  Would Sascha arrive from Cologne?  When?  As it turned out that if she was coming it would be later, so after breakfast we discussed what to do.  I said I was interested in going to Bergen-Belson Concentration Camp.  It's fairly nearby.  We decided to combine that with a stop in Celle.

On the way to Bergen-Belson we saw something very interesting.  There were motorhomes parked along the side of the road from time to time.  Barbara explained that they were prostitutes waiting for business.  There was a woman sitting in the front passenger seat in each one, and there were lights.  I guess to signal whether they were open for business or if they were already occupied.

We arrived at Bergen-Belson and it began to rain.  It seemed fitting.  They had an interesting and informative exhibit, along with testimonial videos from people who had been there and survived (obviously), or had lived near there, during the time the camp was in operation.  They didn't have gas chambers or ovens there, but many people died due to the starvation, disease and mistreatment.  Among those that does were Jews, Russians, Polish, and even people who were deemed to be "work shirkers."  After viewing the exhibit, we went outside to walk on the grounds.  The rain became heavier.  And we could hear loud booms of guns.  Or probably cannons actually.  There must have been a military base close by.  It was a bit frightening because it seemed so close.  

Anne Frank and her sister Margot died at this camp..I have been to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam twice.  It was very moving to have been where she once lived, hiding from the Nazi's and eventually being caught, then being where she had died.  

We decided it was time to leave, and headed for Celle.  What a cute old town.  It would have been nice to spend more time there.

We went back to Barbara's, and had another very late night talking about all kinds of things.  Danielle and I are hatching a plan for a family reunion next year.  I hope it works out!  We got back to Dagmar's after midnight, then chatted with her for awhile.  I really like her.  Tomorrow Sascha arrives!

Last Day In Paris

We leave Paris early tomorrow morning.  Sniff, sniff... I hate to go, because I do love this city.  Even though there are frustrations dealing with big city issues, there is just something about this place that keeps me wanting to come back for more.

This morning we walked over to the Grand Mosque in the 5th Arrondisment.  It was built after WWI and during WWII they hid Jews and helped them escape the Nazi's.  I've never been in a mosque before and I found it very interesting.  Not knowing the customs we were a bit intimidated.  We didn't want to offend anyone.

We then walked a couple of blocks to the old roman arena.  It's very close to the apartment we rented on Rue des Boulangers.  We tried to see it on that trip, but it was winter and it was locked up.

We had to walk past our old street to get to our next stop.  I loved that apartment.  We would be staying there on this trip, except the price went up so high we can no longer afford it.

Our next stop was the Army Museum and Napolean's Tomb (Musée de l'Armee).  The Hôtel des Invalides is a former veterans' hospital and an army museum.  It also houses Napolean's very ornate tomb.

After we finished there we had one more important task.  We had a little shopping to do.  We are taking some macarons to Germany.  I hope the family likes them!!

But first, one last look at the Eiffel Tower.

It was time to call it a day.  We are all walked out.  We will be happy for the long train ride tomorrow.  But first we have to get our things together to go.  I spoke to my aunt Barbara and we arranged how she would pick us up from the train station in Hannover.  She said her sister has more room at her place, so we will be staying there.  Dagmar doesn't speak English.  Yikes.  Then she called me back to tell me that there may be a train strike tomorrow.  If it happens, the trains will stop at whatever the closest station is after 2:00.  Our train is supposed to arrive at 2:28.  She told me not to worry.  If we get stuck at a station she will pick us up there.  Fingers crossed the strike doesn't happen.  

Monday in Paris

This morning I cooked my first meal in over a month.  Oh sure, I've made some sandwiches, toasted some crumpets, and more stuff like that.  But today I used a pan on the burner and everything!  When we arrived at this wonderful little apartment we found a fresh loaf of bread, a baguette, milk, orange juice, butter, tea, coffee and other things for the kitchen.  We used the baguette right away for sandwiches.  We saved the loaf of bread for some French Toast.  It was good!

Today we went to the Cluny Museum.  This museum is full of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages.  The main draw of this museum is the Lady and the Unicorn series of tapestries.  There was also stained glass swords, jewels, and the decapitated heads of statues from Notre Dame, amongst other things.

We spent 2 1/2 hours at the museum.  When we came out we decided to get a bite to eat.  We headed for the street I stayed on during my last trip to Paris, Rue de la Huchette.  We had gyros, for something different.  They were pretty good.  

I hardly slept at all last night, and I was exhausted.  We knew we were going to be doing a lot of walking later in the day, so we decided to go kick back at Luxenbourg Gardens.  It was a beautiful day today, although it was fairly windy.  When the sun went behind the clouds it was cold!  This was my view for most of the time we were there -

I actually tried to doze off, but there were so many people around and it was noisy.  Doesn't anyone go to work?  This is what I had to do to keep warm -

Jim enjoyed relaxing too!

Knowing we wouldn't be eating until very late, and realizing that we have been in Paris a few days and haven't gotten a street crepe, we decided to remedy that situation.  We both got dark chocolate crepes.  I love chocolate as much (or more) than the next person, but it was almost too much for me.  It was good though!

We had an appointment at 5:45 p.m. to meet with our Paris Greeter, Christophe.  He proposed to show us around the 8th Arrondisment.  It's an area that we are only vaguely familiar with, so we are excited about what we will learn.  We met him at Concorde Place.  I was expecting it to be a small Place, but it is HUGE!  The biggest Place in Paris!  He explained what the different buildings and monuments were.  Then we started walking down streets.  Amongst other things we saw St. Honore, the most expensive shopping street in Paris.  No, make that France.  We saw the U.S. Embassy, which is highly guarded.  And we saw where the President of France works.  Christophe thought that Mr. Hollande lives elsewhere in Paris, but some presidents chose to live at the office, which is also a home.  Similar to the White House, but I could have gone up and touched the building.  Well, maybe not touch it. There were police officers in front.  But the house/office was right up to the sidewalk, as opposed to the White House which is fenced off.  Besides police guarding the house (we saw two, but there were probably more), the only other visible precaution was that no cars were allowed to park on that part of the street.

We spent about two hours with Christophe, learning about the history, but also learning about modern places too.  As we got close to the metro station to take the train home, we saw the Eiffel Tower a little bit in the distance.  It was just one minute until 8:00, so we stopped to watch what will probably be our last light show.  Of this trip anyway.  I hope that some day we will return.  After the lights stopped sparkling, we headed back to our neighborhood by Gare de Lyon.  We got dinner, and walked home.  I'm so tired.  I hope I sleep tonight!  Tomorrow is our last day in Paris.  We have to make it count!

Rainy Days And Sundays...

I slept far later than I intended today.  After a couple of late nights, and the sun not rising until after 8:00 a.m., it's totally messing with my normal sleep patterns.  That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it!

One goal of our too short time in Paris is to see things we've missed on previous trips.  The forecast was for rain today, so we thought it would be a good day to see some museums we've missed in the past.  It was noonish before we reached the first one, the Marmatton Museum (Musée Marmatton Monet).  This museum is in a old mansion, and it has the best collection of works by Claude Monet.  It also has a good collection of other Impressionists paintings.  I'm a big fan of Impressionism, and Monet in particular, so I really enjoyed this museum.  In retrospect we could have saved €3 each by not renting the audio guides.  The explanations were all in French and English.  Oh well...

We left the Marmatton around 2:00 p.m.  We needed to eat some lunch, but we didn't want to spend too much time because we had two other museums we wanted to go to, and they both close at 6:00 p.m.  We picked up a baguette sandwich, tore it in half, and ate it as we walked to the metro.  Our plan was to go to the Petit Palais next.  We took the metro to the Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau stop.  There was one other thing I wanted to do on the Champs-Élysée...I wanted to stop by Laduree for some macarons.  When we arrived the line was very long for take out, but very short for the restaurant.  Into the restaurant we went.  We still had to wait, longer than we anticipated, but it was worth it.  No macarons today.  I had tea, Jim had coffee.  And we each got our own goodie.  Jim was thrilled, as he usually shares with me.

It was pricey, but delicious.  A real treat.  It delayed us more than we thought, so we decided to skip the Petit Palais.

Our final museum for the day was the Carnavalet Museum (Musée Carnavalet).  It's a museum of French History.  We got there after 5:00 p.m. and they close at 6:00.  We didn't have time to see much of it.  They are closed tomorrow, but we may try to get back there on Tuesday.  They let people know it was time to leave by shutting the lights off room by room.  We can take a hint!

Since we were in the Marais, we went to Rue des Rosiers, the Jewish street.  It's lively there, particularly on Sundays.  They were celebrating Sukkot, a holiday I don't really know much about.  This is some information I found about it -

"Sukkot is one of the most important holidays for Jewish people and it is celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei, which this year falls on 8 October.

It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals – together with thePesach, or Passover, and the Shavuot, or Feast of Weeks - during which Jews living in the Kingdom of Judah would make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.

Meaning of the festival

Sukkot is the plural of the Hebrew words for booth or tabernacle and it is commonly translated as the Feast of the Booths or the Feast of the Tabernacles.

It has both a religious and an agricultural significance. It commemorates the dwellings built by Israelites during the 40-year-long period in which they lived in the Sinai desert after leaving Egypt.

According to the book of Leviticus, God told Moses Israelites should "live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Sukkot is also a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as Chag Ha-Asif, the Festival of Ingathering.

The first known description of Sukkot can be found in the Torah's Book of Kings, which narrates that the Tabernacle built by Moses in the desert to house the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem during Tishrei and many animals were sacrificed.

Hoshana Rabbah

Sukkot lasts for seven days for people living in Israel, and eight days for the Jews in diaspora. The first day is like the Sabbath: a day of rest in which work is forbidden. The following days are known as Chol Hamoed, or festival weekdays.

During the seventh day - Hoshana Rabbah, the Great Hosanna - people go to the synagogue to perform a ritual during a special synagogue service. 

In the synanogue, people make seven circuits around the bimah, the central point of the religious building - instead of the one circuit done the other days of Sukkot - while reciting the Hoshaanot prayers."

There was music blaring from a truck, and men on the street holding palm fronds and lemons.  One of the men approached us and began speaking to me in French.  I told him I don't speak French.  He asked if I was Jewish.  I am. I was raised Jewish, but I'm not a religious person.  He handed me the palm frond and lemon, and began reciting a prayer.  He stopped, waiting for me to join in.  Holy cow, now what!  But all Jewish prayers start the same, and seem to really only vary at the end.  Amazingly I remembered the main part, and I faked my way through end of it.  He seemed satisfied as I handed the palm frond and lemon back to him.  Not bad for a Sunday School dropout.  Then he turned to Jim.  Not Jewish?  Okay, au revoir to you.

We stopped for some dinner, then made our way back to the apartment.  We didn't do everything we had hoped to today, and we got rain for part of it.  But it was a day of Monet and Laduree.  A good day.  Tomorrow I'm setting my alarm.  No more starting our sightseeing at noon!  We only have two more days in Paris and I don't want to waste them.

Saturday in Paris

I had always wanted to go to a flea market in Paris.  Jim and I did that at the beginning of January 2009.  On that trip we spent 10 nights in a wonderful apartment in the Latin Quarter.  The sun didn't rise until 9:00 a.m. that time of year, and Jamie didn't want to get up early to go with us.  Smart girl!  For the entire two weeks we were in Europe we had freezing temperatures.  The warmest day was a high of 33 degrees.  That was the day it snowed.  Anyway, we went to the Vanves flea market and froze.  I really thought I had frostbite on my toes.  I was wearing Ugg boots and warm socks!  For this trip I wanted a do-over, so we went back to the Vanves flea market.  It is just the right size, not as huge as the St. Ouen flea market on the North side of town.  We enjoyed the nice morning, browsing through all the interesting things.  We bought an old key that I'm hoping will fit in the French armoire that my mother bought at an auction about 45 years ago.  If I had to get rid of every piece of furniture I owned, keeping only one thing, the armoire would be it.

After spending the morning at the flea market, we took the metro to the St. Michel area.  We wandered over to Notre Dame and sat on a bench along the side of it to eat our lunch.  We got into a conversation with two women who had just flown in from Philadelphia earlier in the morning.  They couldn't get into their apartment yet and they were suffering from lack of sleep.  Been there, done that! After we finished our sandwiches we walked to the Isle St. Louis for some delicious Bertihillon ice cream.  On the right bank of the river there are a couple of blocks that have pet stores.  French people love their dogs and literally take them everywhere with them.  I think that's great, except for the people who don't clean up after them.  Merde!!  We went into the stores and I loved seeing all the cute puppies.  They cost a fortune here.  No wonder why they get so pampered!  We then walked down Rue Rivoli, the main street that goes through the Right Bank of the river.  It is lined with stores and restaurants, and it was jam packed on a Saturday afternoon.  We went into the C&A department store to use their bathroom.  This is a large store with 3 or 4 floors.  We were told they didn't have one. What?!?  Starbucks to the rescue.  We worked our way back to the apartment.

Phillipe and his girlfriend, Anita, had us over to their apartment for dinner.  He gave us directions on the metro, and said he would meet us at the metro station.  When we got to the station we saw there were exits out to several different streets.  Luckily we guessed the right one.  From there we took the tram two stops away to their place.  Anita had made lasagne and tiramisu for dinner.  The food was delicious, and it was nice to spend time with Phillipe and get to know Anita.  The evening passed too quickly, and we got home late.  It was a really nice day in Paris!!

Lovely Paris!

Today was the day to get rid of the car and take the train to Paris.  But first, we had one more Beautiful Village of France to go to: Les Baux-de-Provence.  We arrived early and had the place mostly to ourselves, except for employees of the various shops, etc.   

When a half dozen tour buses showed up, we took that as a sign that it was time to leave.  We set the GPS for the Avignon TGV station.  I think it took us on the narrowest, twistiest (is that a word?) roads in the area.  It just seems that there should have been a more direct way to go.  We eventually got to Avignon and found the station.  Then we had to find the rental car location.  Then we had to explain about the tire, having to replace it, and so on.  When I mentioned that I had attempted to call and just got a recording, then hung up on, the employee mentioned that he has heard that from a lot of people.  Anyway, they got a new tire for their car, so all is well.

The train ride was uneventful, and we easily found our apartment.  The owner, Joël, was there waiting for us.  He took us up the the 2nd floor (3rd floor U.S.) apartment.  We couldn't be happier.  After the place we've stayed in the last 3 nights, this is heaven.  It's small, but has everything we need.  Joël even had fresh flowers, bread, milk, orange juice and other things for us.  I think we are going to like it here just fine.  I love this street too.  It's a pedestrian street and it's very picturesque.  It has been used many times in film, and I even saw a music video set in Paris for Pharell's song "Happy" that used the street.  I think there are "Happy" videos for many cities.

We started some laundry and then went to the grocery store for some food.  After putting things away we headed out to buy some metro tickets.  We decided that for our first night in Paris, we should go to the Eiffel Tower.  We got there when it was still daylight, but we wanted to see the light show. We went to the Trocadero and had dinner.  We finished up just in time for the 9:00 sparkles.

Although this is my 4th time to Paris, and Jim's 3rd, it's the first time we've been here alone.  It's going to be a great time.

Provence, How We Will Miss You

Jim and I had talked for years about going to Provence.  Three years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Barcelona, the south of France and Paris with my long time friend Marie.  The original plan was to spend 6 nights in Barcelona, a week at her timeshare near Perpignan, and 6 nights in Paris.  When her friend decided not to go on the trip, it seemed like a good opportunity to change the plan.  I asked her how she felt about spending only 3 nights in Barcelona and use the other 3 nights elsewhere.  She was on board with that, and we discussed where to spend that extra time.  Provence was a good fit, but I was concerned that Jim would be unhappy that I was going without him.  He said it was fine with him, as long as we still get to go together.  And here we are!  And unfortunately it's our last night here.  We were going to spend 4 nights, but we decided that we should be in Germany with the family an extra night.  That night had to come from somewhere, and I didn't have the heart to take it from Paris.

Today we explored the Luberon Region of Provence.  We started in Lourmarin.  The book 'A Year In Provence' was written by Peter Mayle, and Lourmarin is where he lives.  It was a very nice little town.  We both got a good vibe there.  From there we went to Lacoste.  We had to drive through Bonnieux to get there.  They are both hilltop towns that face each other over the valley.  The roads in this area are very narrow and windy.  Lacoste is the French home of the Savannah College of Art and Design.  The Marquis de Sade lived in Lacoste for 30 years.  He was notorious writing dirty novels, hosting orgys at the castle where he resided, and for kidnapping peasants for scandalous purposes.  He was eventually caught and was imprisoned for 30 years.  The word sadism comes from his favorite hobby.  The views from these towns were fantastic.  I've taken many photos with the camera on this trip, but due to needing to delete some from my iPad, I can't put any more on it.  I've used my phone for most of the photos I've put on the blog.  Unfortunately they dont all transfer to the iPad.  The third town we went to was Roussillon.  It is also at the top of a hill, so there were more very narrow windy roads to get there.  What makes Roussillon different are the red rocks.  It reminds me of Sedona in Arizona because of that.  When we arrived we found the tail end of their weekly market.  We like to buy a small water color painting of a place we visit on each trip.  At the market there was a woman with her water colors.  We bought one of St. Remy, since we are staying there.

Photos of Roussillon -

And last, but not least, we went to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.  It's not a hill town, and there is water running all through it.  It's sometimes called the "Venice of Provence."  We enjoyed it a lot, sitting by the water and listening to it flowing, and walking around the town checking out the shops.  

Photos of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue -

We had a very full day exploring as much as we had time for in the Luberon.  Tonight we pack, because tomorrow we will head for Paris!!

Market Day in St. Remy

I woke up this morning to the sounds of the Wednesday market being set up.  The vendors were talking to each other as they prepared for the morning ahead.  I looked out the window and saw this -

As time went by more and more vendors appeared, setting up their tables and arranging their wares.  I've been looking forward to this.  I knew the market would be at our doorstep when I found this apartment to rent.  By the time it was fully light outside, the view out of our window looked like this -

This was just a small fraction of the market.  We spent all morning checking out all the vendors.  They sold everything - meats, cheeses, soaps, clothing, shoes, flowers, spices, table & bed linens, veggies...

People come from all over to buy things at the market.  Most towns have a market day.  Some towns that are a little bigger have two markets a week.  St. Remy isn't very big, but they also have a Saturday market.  I had a lot of pasta with pesto left over from dinner last night.  Our plan was to buy a rotisserie chicken at the market, then have dinner in the apartment tonight.  We saw two places with chicken, but we decided to wait a bit.  We didn't want to carry it around.  We waited too long.  When we went back to the first chicken place they were totally out.  The second chicken place had two, but they were reserved.  Reserved?  Who knew?  We blew it.  

We had a big lunch.  Omlettes, salad and dessert.  They eat omlettes here for lunch or dinner.  Breakfast is very light.  Usually a croissant or similar, and coffee.  Think of a Continental breakfast.  Jim  was so happy that he didn't have to share the dessert with me.  And he got coffee.  Remember the thimble sized coffee I mentioned before?  That's what he got.  Here he is, enjoying it.  Oh yeah, it was only half full!

So no chicken for dinner tonight.  But we didn't really need it after that big lunch.  The pesto pasta, salad and a fresh baguette was perfect.  And there was plenty of bread left for sandwiches for our picnic lunch tomorrow.  We will be off to explore the Luberon area of Provence.