Salut, tout le monde! We have arrived in our other world!

Les & I left Charleston, our normal world, on June 7, to head for a week in Chicago with family & friends. (For recent photos of our families, see "A Wild Week in Chicago, June '14".)

We left Chicago on Monday, June 16, & arrived in Paris on Tuesday to discover that the French rail system is on strike. Everybody who had a paid reservation was shifted to the ONE & ONLY train leaving the airport that day, so we shoved our way onto the already full train with a lot of others. I had it easy--I attached myself to a very hefty determined man who was first on the train. Les got stuck with 3 pieces of luggage, & was the last man on the train. Whew!

We finally unlocked our door at 9:30 pm Tuesday night, & were delighted to find everything in good order. Computers & phone working, water turned on, bathroom clean & shiny, all thanks to Clarisse, our "gardienne". By Friday, we felt pretty well organized. We even bought a new "parasol" for our terrace. We are ready for the summer! For pictures of our house & village, see the photo album "notre maison, notre village".

Friday night, we celebrated the weekend by heading to Cessenon-sur-Orb, one of our favorite villages, for what we thought was their "fete de la musique". We got there a night too soon! Maybe that's why we got reservations at our favorite cafe right on the place! Oh well.

Saturday, we headed to our closest "big town", Beziers, for some shopping. First stop, Castorama, our "Home Depot" for odds & ends. Second stop: Auchan, for "stuff". Third stop: "Le Depot", one of 2 of our resale shops which we check about every 2 weeks for good deals. Fourth stop: "Brac en Vente", a combo antique & junk shop.

From there, we drove to Meze, a small fishing village on the Mediterranean Sea. We love it for its beauty, its simplicity, & the food. They've redone their esplanade, & we enjoyed watching the scooter crowd, complete with a French version of our Henry. You'll find both Henry & his French look-alike in the picture album labeled "Week 1, 2014".

The weekend closest to June 25, the "fete de St. Jean", is when most villages have their take on a "Fete de la Musique". On the way home Saturday night, we stopped in a small village for their "Elvis" fete, but as things were taking a bit too long, we headed back home before the King appeared. We did catch a glimpse of him. See if you can find him in our pictures.

Sunday morning, we drove to our favorite market town, Narbonne. If you've followed our blog from last year, you may recognize it as the Roman road town. Right in the middle of the place de l'Archeveque (the Archbishop's Place), is a section of the Roman road exposed. It was a major crossroads in the time of Emperor Domitian, & there are a number of Roman experiences offered there. But last Sunday, we limited ourselves to the indoor & outdoor market, had a lovely lunch right by the Roman road, & then headed to Bages, a small sleepy fishing (& artists') village on the sea. Then returning home in late afternoon, attended a lovely flute & choral concert at our village chateau in the courtyard. Lovely end to our first weekend in Languedoc this summer.

You all know how we love our terrace! We face west, & spent last summer battling the setting sun, which hits us right in the eyes. Last summer we tried a huge "parasol" (sun umbrella), which blew down before we could get it upright. We gave up on that one, & returned it. This summer, we thought we'd solved the problem with a smaller one that we move from place to place as the sun moves over us. Since yesterday there was very little wind, we left it open after after lunch. We went on to our afternoon activities, only to find, an hour later, the parasol had flown away to the rooftop 2 houses next door. It was wedged upside down next to a chimney & caught by a rope, just far enough away (& down!) where we couldn't reach it. It was there all afternoon smirking at us (see the picture in Week 1). We were a bit ashamed of our stupidity but assured ourselves that we were the only ones who could see it, & if we had to, we'd buy another one. And then....

A storm blew up last night around 10:30 pm. The rain came down in torrents. We heard a knock on the door, & as Les answered it, a French voice said: "Your parasol is in the river!" And yes, of course, there it was. And obviously, everybody in town knew whose parasol that was (& probably that it had been on the roof all afternoon). You can't get away with anything in a French village!

So here we are again this morning, with our parasol, on our terrace, watching this world wake up! The swallows are circling the sky, finding food for their babies.

And we leave tomorrow for Tuscany.

Caio!

Elise & Les