Some Random Musings Sunday morning, well rested and just about at the halfway mark. I have a few moments to do a bit of blogging before we head down to breakfast then pack up the car and head towards Brive. We have never been to this region of France, so completely new experience. What we do know about Brive, is that during WWII it was the regional headquarters of the resistance and the first city in France to liberate itself from the Nazi’s without outside help. The population is around 56,000 and it has a train station (with TGV service.) The rest we will just discover when we get there. It is Sunday, so finding a place for dinner may prove to be a challenge, but I am sure we will find something, hopefully ... read more

A Change in Plans Sometime during the day at Chateauneuf, we received an e-mail from the restaurant we were going to be having lunch at when we arrived in Toulouse, informing us of some major street and parking closures in the center. The parking structure we were going to use and the central metro stop were all closed for the day, and would make getting to and from the restaurant difficult. Well, it was also going to make getting to and from our hotel almost impossible and getting around the city even more difficult. That e-mail changed entirely the direction of our travels. The next three days were to be Perpignan (near the Spanish boarder), Toulouse and Pau. We needed to make some decisions, so we decided to not go to Perpignan or Toulouse and instead ... read more

Today starts the main reason for coming to France for this trip. It is time to start the research of which village or city will become our future home. This section of the trip is also a week of one nighters, in several different cities. All of them are not potential future homes, but several are a possibility. The next few days the title of the days entry will be the City we spend the night. The first stop is Grenoble. Before I get into the day’s events, of which there were not many, just a few musings on Lyon. The most important is that Lyon has completely redeemed herself from our first trip. Better hotel, better food, and just an overall nice experience. The breakfast crowd each morning was a hoot, all retired couples traveling ... read more

We only had two things on our schedule for today: Musée des Beaux-Art and the Paul Bocuse Market. Even with only two things on the schedule we were still up at 6 am to get ready for the day and have breakfast. The breakfast here was pretty classic French breakfast, bread, cheese yogurt and fruit. The addition here was some sliced meats, mainly nice French ham, and hard-boiled eggs. The coffee was not as could as Hotel de Champs du Mar and the croissants were not as light and flakey., still better than anything back home. Today’s blog is going to be fairly short as I don’t have a great deal to say. We spent a few hours in the museum, which is in what was once a Benedictine Abbey dating back to the late 16thcentury. ... read more

Due to Technical Difficulties, There are no Pictures (Camera is on Strike) The day started at 6 am, our normal get up during vacation time. If a certain someone did not take 90 minutes to get ready, we wouldn’t have to get up so early (no I am not that certain someone), in any event, down to breakfast at 8. Had several good conversations with other quest, the majority seemed to all be from Washington State. The woman couple at the table were off to Versailles for the day (Sunday is the better day as that is when the fountains are working), we gave them a few hints on their visit and some dinner tips for later in their trip. We woke up to pouring rain and I mean hard Portland Oregon Winter rain. Fortunately, we ... read more