What a week! We had some real highs (see blog photo of Saint-Michel-de-Mourcairol--a little 12th century chapel overlooking the ruins of a 10th century chateau, altitude 468 meters) and some lows (getting stuck in an underground parking garage), but it was another super week here in Languedoc.

To clarify the parking garage "low": we went to our favorite shopping center in Beziers Wed. night to see the new Woody Allen movie (To Rome with Love) and have dinner. Les left his parking ticket at the restaurant, and when we returned to get it, we were given another ticket instead. We enjoyed the movie (cute and typically Woody Allen) and went to our car, first stopping at the parking payment machine. We put in the ticket the restaurant gave us, and the machine swallowed it. After several attempts at getting it back, some nice ladies explained how to "annuler" the procedure, and out popped the "mauvais ticket". They told told us to go to the "acceuil", which, after riding around the almost empty parking lot (by this time it was 11:00 pm), we couldn't locate. So Les decided we'd just go the exit and see what happened. In my usual timid fashion, I was certain we'd have the whole parking team down on us with fists raised (happened to us once in Cannes when our big van got stuck and we stopped up half the Riviera while we backed out), but Les plowed on. He stuck in the ticket, and out it popped. He tried again, and it popped out again. After 3 tries, he pushed the "aide" button, and a very sterm voice came on, asking us what the matter was. Les said: "Mon billet est perdu" (my ticket is lost), and miraculously, the man replied: "Bon, ca va, Bonne soiree" and up went the bar. Obviously, 3 years of Rosetta Stone has finally paid off! We compared this linguistic breakthrough to a time in Bavaria when Les drove into a car repair station and said: "Das petal ist kaputt!", which it was. Sometimes you just have to get down to the basics!

Thursday and Friday nights, the electricity in our little village went on and off several times. It wouldn't have been so irritating, but M. Espagnol, our next door neighbor (very nice, really) has returned, and brought with him a very loud contingency who like to stay up late and smoke and laugh under our bedroom window. This is entirely okay (considering they were only here 4 days) if you have your fan and your sound machine on, but with no electricity.....And it was eerie that the whole town went out! Each time it happened, the Spanish would erupt into even more eccentric conversation. Of course, Les slept through it all.

Friday night we went down to Meze, a lovely little harbor town on the Meditterranean Sea for dinner, then a concert featuring Earth Wind and Fire Experience (supposedly the former guitarist of E, W, and F formed this group here in France). After a nice dinner, we walked over to the "arena" created in the main parking lot on the port, showed our tickets, and were told we couldn't enter with my camera. They were actually checking purses and backpacks. When I told them my car was 20 minutes away, they shrugged and smiled. We could already tell that the concert, supposed to start at 7:00, hadn't yet started at 8:45, and the part we wanted to see was second. So....we turned around and walked back to the car, got in it, and drove home! Last time we're going to fall for a concert like this one. Even Elton John, one of our favorites, was a possibilty Sat. night in Nimes. We could have been 2 of 7,000 people. Non, non, et non, merci. To see pictures of the lovely port of Meze, check out our album entitled "Meze".

Those were the "lows". Not too bad for lows, n'est-ce pas? Now for the highs!

Saturday, our destination was Montpellier, to the Musee Fabre, where a big Caravaggio exhibit was taking place. Lots of severed heads! With multiple images of John the Baptist, Judith and her Assyrian general, and David and Goliath, there was way too much of the same thing for us, but the museum is always a pleasure to visit. See the Montpellier album for views of La Place de la Comedie, its main square.

Saturday night we went to a lovely guinguette (a summer outdoor restaurant located next to a river with some kind of live entertainment) we discovered last summer. It's called La Famourette, and it is delightful. Picture a 21st century rendition of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" or maybe a gorgeous summer night at Morettis in Edison Park (for you Chicago people!), and there it is. Please check out our album entitled "La Famourette" to get an idea of how pleasant an evening we had there, complete with dogs, children, and live entertainment (including the parking lot--wow, can French people park in tiny spaces!).

Sunday was the perfect day for a hike, and we hit a real high here! We climbed a little path up and up and up, finally arriving at Saint-Michel-de-Mourcairol, a 10th century chateau ruin and a renovated 12th century chapel (altitude 468 meters). See our Saint-Michel hike/piano concert album to get the views from this incredible spot as well as our final highlight of the week (see next paragraph).

And finally, nearby, after a refreshing beer, we went to yet another 12th century chateau, this one now used by winemakers, to see a concert by a young Argentinian pianist, featuring Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, and Astor Piazzolla (2 tangoes). What a wonderful concert! This totally wiped away any disappointment in not seeing Earth, Wind, and Fire!

This week, we're off to Sicily, and another new adventure. We're ready, having each read several books, and viewing wonderful movies (our favorite, "Cinema Paradiso").

We hope you've all had a super summer week! Thanks for checking in with us.

Love,

Elise & Les