France

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The long-anticipated morning (very early morning) arrived last Thursday. David drove me to the airport at 5:15am, in plenty of time to make my 7am flight to Toronto. Uneventful flight to Toronto, where I had a fast 2 hour turnaround to make my flight to Rome...and I had to change terminals. I learned it can be a bit of a test, getting from Terminal 3 to the new Terminal 1 in Toronto...long walk to the elevator after getting my luggage; after 6 minutes waiting for the elevator, I informed an airport official neither lift was working and, along with another lady catching the same flight to Rome, ran back to the escalator which took us to the next floor, made a very fast walk across that floor to another escalator - and finally arrived at the train platform for the train to Terminal 1, from where Alitalia departs.

An extremely long line-up at security met us after check in, but we got through with enough time to check out the duty free shop. I decided my suitcase, purse and rather heavy backpack were enough to try to carry on the Metro from Charles de Gaulle airport to my hotel in Paris....

Slept most of the way to Rome, where the flight arrived a wee bit late; somehow made it through that airport to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 & catch the short flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport, which left about 45 minutes late. This flight had a number of rather unhappy children on it...and no movies to watch, so I tried to just doze off, despite the child behind me repeatedly kicking my seat....

I found the train station at CDG without much trouble and was soon on the fast train to the Chatelet train station, which was about a 10 minute walk to my hotel, the Hotel Beaubourg, in the 4th Arrondissement, the Marais district. Lovely small hotel; room was great, with a big bathroom...and a huge tub! First thing I did was have a soak in the tub. It had been a very long trip to get here and I fell sound asleep in the tub!

Sandi Heath, who is also staying at the villa in Sommieres, sent me a Blackberry message, which woke me up - thank goodness! We met and headed out to meet Nancy Farran, our hostess, and her friend Doug Baxter. I was so exhausted I don't remember much of the meal at "Robert & Louise - Restaurant au Feu"; I know the meal was great, as was the wine, and Sandi walked me back to my hotel. Without Sandi's aid, I'd probably still be wandering around the Marais District!

I asked for a 7:30 wake up call, and also set the alarm on my phone, just to be sure. I heard the alarm go off, got up & halfway dressed before I looked at the time...it was only 12:30am. Odd - I checked the alarm; it was indeed set for 7:30. Assuming I had just dreamt I'd heard it, I went back to sleep. The next time I heard it, I was up and fully dressed before checking the time - it was 2:45am! I realized my phone was set on "vibrate", so as an email message came in, the phone was vibrating - and that's what I was hearing...duh.

At 7:30am on the dot, the wake-up call came. Good thing...when I looked at my phone later, I realized I'd sert the alarm for 7:30 PM, not AM. Clearly I had been completely exhausted the night before! Sandi was waiting in the lobby with a taxi waiting. We headed to Gare de Lyons, where we met Nancy & Doug and caught the very fast train to Montpellier.

Again, there seemed to be an inordinate number of children on the train, both with families, as well as travelling on their own - there were 2 cars devoted solely to children travelling solo. We learned it was the middle of the spring school holidays - aha! Suddenly it all made sense.
Quick, very pleasant trip to Montpellier; we all piled into a taxi to the airport, where Nancy picked up the car she will have for the next 3 months, a very comfortable, 4-door Renault.

After a quick lesson from the rental agent on the ins-and-outs of the car & its GPS system, we were off! It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Nancy did a great job of getting us to the small town of Sommieres, where we were to meet Wendy, who manages the villa Nancy has rented. We were early and realized we hadn't eaten; we stopped at the Auberge Pont Roman, the beautiful old hotel where Wendy was to meet us at 3:30; they were no longer serving lunch, but redirected us to a crepes restaurant - which was excellent and very reasonable.

Met Wendy back at the Auberge & followed her up to the villa. Good thing - the roads twist and turn without mercy; it would have been almost impossible to find without following someone!

The villa is lovely - just like in the pictures in its website (http://www.bellevuesommieres.com/) - completel with clear blue skies and sun pouring down. Ahhhhhh....... Nancy had bought groceries online before she left, which Wendy had picked up for us, so we unloaded luggage and groceries, got everything put away, and explored the villa. The pool is large; too chilly right now for swimming, but it will be a godsend come the hot weather of late May and the summer. The marble floors are not just beautiful - they will also be nice & cool during the summer heat.

Nancy had invited Wendy to come back and join us for dinner; she showed up with a huge box of fresh, bright red, sweet strawberries from Spain. We have nothing like this at home at the moment - they were delicious.

A quiet evening after Wendy left. We were all tired - to bed around 11:30. We're heading to a farmers market in the small town of Aigues Mort tomorrow!

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