Welcome to our 2015 version of View from the Terrace. Actually, we are delighted to tell you all that we are now looking at a NEW view, on a NEW terrace, this one in Villevieille, France, about 1 1/2 hours east of our last terrace. You may ask us "why"? If you know us, you know we are vagabonds. And last August, we decided to just "take a look" at moving farther east. We had friends in Sommieres, just over the border of our department (Herault) & into "le G...

Here we are, wrapping up our summer yet again. It's been a great one! One week to go before what we call "RE-ENTRY". To us, it's almost what astronauts must feel when they come down to earth again. We spent the weekend going back to places we'd been before, & love so much! Friday was a holiday (Assumption Day), so we did our normal treck up to L'Aveyron to see our French friends Benedicte & Michel at their lovely summer home in the mountains. For Chicag...

Hello Everybody! Hope all is well with you & yours, wherever you are. This week was a fun one! We had friends here, from DC, to show around. Funny how showing off your turf makes you realize just how special it is! We started by revisiting a Roman pottery museum about 45 minutes from us. It's called Amphoralis, because that's where they made their "amphores", the clay jars they made for exporting wine & olive oil. They do an excellent job there of mak...

3 weeks of our ten week, 2014 Summer Experience left. Time to assess just why we love to spend our summers here in the South of France! Saturday the "meteo" (weather forecast) was NOT good, calling for rain all day & night. However, we pretended the meteo was wrong, & went on our merry way. We had a lovely day on the Mediterannean, where we had a delicious lunch of mussels & soupe de poisson in a town called Bouzigues, a walk in our favorite fishing...

Rivers! France is full of them. And sometimes they get crazy. Our little village, Laurens, has 3 tiny (most of the time) streams that run through it: The Naubine, The Libron, & The Sauvanes. They actually meet in the middle of town, each coming from a different direction. I love these canals--they are one of my favorite places to walk as they are most always dry & shaded, & very quiet. We live on the canal called La Naubine. It's not the American id...