Today is Thursday and the only reason I know that is from the daily program! I continue to try the daily breakfast special, today was crepe with berries and it was so good! Of course I also had to have croissant and today I had 2! This morning we started with an onboard private lecture from the famous chocolate house, Valrhona. We had a powerpoint presentation and learned all about how to chocolate is made. After the lecture we had a chocolate tasting and we tasted 5 different varieties of dark chocolate from different regions of the world. Valrhona has relationships with small cocoa farms throughout the world and it's amazing to taste how different the cocoa beans are. This was a great way for me to start the day! Following the tasting we walked to ... read more

It was nice waking up in Avignon again. We had already spent 2 days in this town and it felt familiar. After breakfast we broke into groups and went on a walking tour. We use a "quietvox" for this. It's a small ipod like speaker with a detachable earpiece. You keep the earpiece for future use and everyday get a new "vox". The vox's have numbers and that is your group so when you walk around you have a considerable distance you can be from your guide and still hear. It's very easy to use. Today we are touring the Palais des Papes. For all of you who know I am not a history buff, I was surprised to learn that Avignon was the home to 9 popes over the years. Eventually the pope moved back ... read more

Today we celebrate our 30th anniversary in Avignon. I have 10 minutes to journal before we leave the ship for our morning tour of the Palais de Pape. We enjoyed our stay in Arles. We walked the the town when we arrived and returned to the ship for a jacuzzi (I wish I could call it a hot tub but the water is pool temperature so I have nicknamed it the "cold tub". However, at the end of the day it is so refreshing. The weather has reached 90 degrees every day and it's equally as humid as hot! We had a morning guided walking tour of Arles yesterday. We saw the arena, where they have bull fights and a sort of running of the bulls. There are so many old buildings and so much history ... read more

Well, to pick up where we left off....It is now 2:00 pm on Friday. We have just eaten lunch at Barducci's on vouchers compliments of Delta. We had to use both our lunch & dinner vouchers just to get lunch! To catch you up I need to return to Thursday night. We arrived at JFK anticipating a minor lay over as we switched planes. We found out, as I anticipated that one of the pilots did have a maximum shift issue & therefore our 11 pm departure was going to be postponed until 11 am on Friday. Of course this caused so many connection isses that immediately the Delta agents were surrounded & the lines for help hours deep. We waited to hear more about our future travels only to receive very little communication & eventually ... read more

We've begun our journey with well wishes this morning from Maxine. Matthew was our private chauffeur to the airport. We had Bloody Mary's in the Delta lounge as we waited to depart on our first leg of oir trip. Lunch at Atlanta Bread Company and some more waiting at the Delta lounge. We have about an hour before we board our 767 to Paris. Next entry from somewhere in France!... read more