Today seemed like a long day waiting for 6 pm to finally come around! I woke up and had a nice breakfast courtesy of Jean-François . His grandson, Mathis, was spending the day with him and Colette had to drive down to Biarritz for a meeting. So, J-F told me he bought Mary Poppins for Mathis to watch on DVD. It was a treat to watch Mary Poppins in French! Good thing I knew the story and all the songs! After the DVD was finished I went out for a walk around Bordeaux for a while and then came back for a little sieste. Finally, it was time to walk to the train station to meet Ken and it was wonderful to see him again! He didn't seem too worse for the wear of traveling and ... read more

Today I just laid low for most of the day. Still feeling a bit under the weather but I think I'm on the mend as I could eat today :) Yesterday I slept from 9 am to 5 pm with my stomach pains waking me up every hour but last night I slept through the night. I liked that! I had to drive into Guéret today to get the rental car checked because it had a pesky message telling me "le niveau de l'huile à réajuster". That lasted for a bit and then it said "niveau de l'huile correct" and then back and forth for the last 2 weeks. So, today I decided I'd better get it looked at before I make the 4 hour drive to Bordeaux tomorrow. Thank heavens for Google maps :) I ... read more

Just a quick entry to say I'll write all about Limoges tomorrow after Mom is safely on her way home and I am back in Crocq. Nice here in Limoges. The hotel is quite funky. It's got an amazing collection of old gramophones and phonographs. I'll get a couple of pictures to show. It's also well-situated....just around the corner from the Office du Tourisme and lots of shopping! We hope to get to a porcelain factory today and see if we can afford to buy a tiny piece of famous Limoges porcelain. I am sitting in the Office du Tourisme writing this at their Wifi hotspot. Remembering to slide the Wireless button to ON really helps with connection! Bye for now!... read more

Today we woke up to sunshine and blue skies and so we decided to drive east to the next region called le Puy de Dome. This region is known for the many volcanoes in the western part of the region. Puy de Dome itself is an inactive volcano which tourists can visit by 'navette'(shuttle bus) to the top during July in August. Between 2500 and 5000 visitors a day come in the summer and the parking lot at the top has spaces for 150 cars so they use the shuttles. Approaching the area from the west is beautiful. The volcanoes themselves become evident almost as soon as you cross into the region. The panoramas are stunning and continue to be so until you leave the region! Of course, the panoramas are breath-taking in Creuse, too, but ... read more

Today I woke up and walked up to the boulangerie to buy their special "pain feuilleté" (Jean-François - help!??) which is a cross between a croissant and a baguette and they only make it on the weekends. Mom made sure I went out and got some! It's delicious! After we gobbled that down, we jumped in the car and headed out on our day's adventure. We drove to the south west towards a large lake called Lac Vassivière. It's a lovely lake in the south west corner of the Creuse region and a part of it is also in the adjoining, Haute-Vienne region. The first stop of the day was Felletin to buy gas. The little rental car I have seems to be able to get about 900 km/tank (if you run it dry - when ... read more