The biggest decision for this week's blog was which picture to use as the cover photo. Should it be the Dordogne River, which flows through Perigord? Should it be a chateau/fort, representing the tumultuous wars during the Middle Ages? Should it be a charming city, with pointed roofs & beautiful flowers? Or maybe a flock of geese, representing the ubiquitious "foie gras", on every single menu we saw? Or maybe pre-historic cave drawings, reflecting the importa...

August means HOT, almost anywhere, & this week was no exception here in Languedoc. Saturday morning over coffee on our already steaming terrace, we looked out at the mountains in front of us, & agreed that we needed to escape the predicted 105 degrees in Villevieille. And we had 3 destinations in mind, 2 in the Cevennes: 1. The Maison Mazet (a little Cevennes Mountain history) & 2. La Cascade de Vis (a little "soak your feet in cold mountain water"). ...

As of last Friday, July 28, we had exactly 4 weeks left here in Villevieille. Every year this happens--where did the time go? What did we actually DO? Why do we love it here so much? I think maybe we got a good idea why this past weekend. It's basically a REAL PLACE, with great charm. Les works all week, via internet & phone, on a bizarre schedule (1:00-7:00ish pm here) to accomodate the time difference of 6 hours for the US east coast & 7 hours for Chic...

Vive La Corse! Les & I just returned from 5 wonderful days in Corsica. We'd been there once before & loved it, so we decided it was worth a return trip. In fact, we loved it so much, that we want to take our children & grandchildren there for a week in 2019, to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. So this trip was a "research" trip--we want to make sure we show them as much as we can in the most efficient & entertaining way. Corsica the islan...

Salut de France! Weeks 6 & 7 have slipped by, along with both of our Independence Days, July 4 & July 14. This means that our summer here is at the half way point already. Oh well. C'est la vie. We still have 2 nice trips planned, & the joy of everyday life here for our remaining 6 weeks. For us, July 4 is an ordinary French day. This year, our French friend Benedicte came for lunch. It was so nice to see her again, & to hear about her family's a...