We are surrounded by moving boxes (yet again!), and winding up our final weekend here in sunny Languedoc. It's been a great summer! Here are last week's highlights! We just had to go to our favorite movie theater one last time! This is located in nearby big town Beziers, and it's part of a new cinema/bowling/restaurant/shopping complex called Polygone. We took a few pictures there (see "Entertainment"), including one of our favorite tapas place, which we always chose over the others, including Big Boy, as seen in our blog cover here.

Thursday was an incredible day! Our realtor arranged a meeting at our new house, including Clarisse (our new house watcher), Georgianne (the mover), and Roland (the builder who will put in a new wood floor, redo the first floor kitchen, and install a new summer kitchen). Wow, was that wonderful! But that led us to what we had to do next....get all our choices made and get them into order for the work to be done while we're gone.

So on Saturday, off we went to IKEA, in Montpellier. Roland thinks the choices for kitchen "stuff" are better there, so we went to check it out. Getting there is NOT easy--it's off the main route that runs across the south of France, and on Saturdays (our only day to go), that means TRAFFIC--and we mean traffic like Chicago's Kennedy Expressway on Friday afternoon multiplied by 10. We also seem to have extreme disorientation once we get within 20 kilometers of Montpellier--getting in and out of there is really a maze. But we managed! See our picture album entitled "Is this a line at Disney? No, it'so Ikea!" to see what we found when we finally got there. By the way, they really have a great cafeteria there! We (and another 500 French people) enjoyed our noon meal there immensely.

You all know how much we love concerts, from classical to not so classical. Saturday night found us in St. Pons de Thomiere, up in the mountains, to attend an accordeon orchestra concert. This group has been together since 1950, and the ages of the accordeon players range from 14 to 71. They were practicing as we walked in (in shorts and t-shirts) but soon all were changed into black spangles! See our album entitled "Entertainment" to see this tranformation! And don't miss the drummer in the back on the right--nothing like a bare-chested drummer! Then on we went to our favorite town for dinner, Cessenon-sur-Orb, where we met a nice couple from London, via, of course, their dogs! I did my usual "Do you mind if I take a picture of your dogs for my blog" question, and they were quite willing to let me do so. Then, they offered to show us their almost-done house renovation down the street. Wow, what a treat! When we were right in front of their door, I heard running water. Actually gushing water! And yes, when they opened the door into the garage (a lot of village houses here have a garage on the first floor), there was the water pouring (into the drain, thank goodness). Whew! The water had JUST been turned on that afternoon, after a really long "dry" spell. They have English carpenters but for permitting purposes, have to use French plumbers and electricians. Of course the water was immediately shut off, and we went on to see this gorgeous, no expense to be spared, house. Bedrooms and baths on the second floor (over the entry and garage), and a wonderful full huge great room on the third floor with a library side bar and, of course, a terrace. The oven had 7 doors! American frig! Antique chandelier. And glory of all glories, every room had an American overhead fan! They do NOT EXIST here, so this was incredible to us. We certainly could have used an overhead fan during our last little heat wave, which conveniently ended yesterday.

And finally Sunday we dedicated to Francoise Gillot, Picasso's "companion" for 10 years. My Art Book Club read her "Life with Picasso" last year, and I really enjoyed her paintings (she was an artist in her own right) as well as Picasso's plates and pottery described so well in her book. She eventually left him, realizing that she was no longer in control of her life. She chose to do so quite dramatically. She dressed as a female toreador, and led the parade of toreadors to inaugurate the first bullfight in the town where they'd lived together with their 2 children. She waved goodbye to him (and his new mistress) at the bullfight and off she went to a new life. She married another painter, divorced him, and eventually went on to marry Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine. I've included some pictures of Francoise and her life with Picasso in our "entertainment" album.

So tomorrow we sign the proxy papers for our new house, which officially closes Oct. 29. Tuesday we are off early to Paris, then Aachen, Germany, for a look at Charlemagne's chapel and throne. We're meeting our Swiss friends Hans and Ruth in Paris on Wed, and will celebrate her birthday there on Thursday. Friday we head back to the states.

We hope you are all well and enjoying your end of summer. Stay tuned for the final "View from the terrace" next week. And thanks for hanging out with us from time to time.

Love, Elise & Les