Another summer & another chance for us to explore here, there, & everywhere! We are so happy to be back in France. It's amazing that after 9 months, we arrive on our doorstep, we open the door, & the magic of this little house welcomes us back! Immediately, we rush to the terrace to make sure the view is still there. And it is! Incroyable!

By the way, I thought I'd supplement this blog with another view from the terrace, looking out at our side yard, instead of the mountain view we always show. If you look at our pictures (Roots & Routes!), you'll see enough of the view, & the main mountain in it, Pic St Loup, our destination last Sunday.

Our next "just arrived" step is to check the phone/internet, our "window to the world" back home. So far, so good. All systems go.

This year, we've chosen "ROOTS" as our summer theme. There's a few really good reasons for this:

1. English Roots: My brother Paul, his wife Barb, & my sister Avis, Les & I are all meeting in England in August to do a "Roots Tour" of the area where our grandparents, both sides, orginated. Our week-long English itineary includes a day in Liverpool (the Beatles Tour & the Emigration Museum), a day in Derbyshire (where the Rimington side came from), a day in Yorkshire (where the Roodhouses originated), a day on the "Pilgrim Tour" (to follow the route our ancestor William Brewster took which would eventually lead him to the Mayflower), & an extra day for odds & ends. We'll be staying in a small inn in Doncaster, which is right in the middle of these 2 adjoining shires. We will all fly back to our French house in Villevieille for another week of exploring.....this time maybe France's Roman roots? It's really hard to escape them! They are everywhere!

2. Lithuanian Roots: Both Les & I did the spit test with Ancestry a while ago. Once your DNA is in their system, new cousins pop up! I get an email about once every 2-3 months from somebody whose DNA somewhat matches mine. Every time I add new information to my tree, little leaves start shaking. It's so much fun!

Les' sister Wendi, who also did the Spit test, got an intriguing message about 5 weeks ago, from a new "cousin" on her father's side. The result? We have just solved a major mystery re Les' grandmother, Lorraine Berchette, whose real name was Belle Weizer. We've known little about her origins until early May, when a DNA connection (through Wendi) gave us Belle's father's (Les' great-grandfather's) information. I immediately created a family tree for Les on Ancestry, & wow! Les' family tree is growing fast! Lots of roots are weaving their way up to the surface.

Ittziz (Ike) Weiser/Waser emigrated to the US in 1904, from Lithuania. His ship's manifest shows him leaving on the SS Merion, departing from Liverpool & arriving in Philadelphia Dec. 14, 1904. We were totally intrigued! Lithuania! It's on the Baltic Sea, right below Russia. We knew nothing about it but it sparked our interest immediately. With Wendi's help (she is a really good sleuth), we spent some time looking at all the records she'd accumulated, & a few really good websites about the country & its crazy history. And then it dawned on us...we're already doing a Roots trip to England, why not add another trip to Lithuania, unless it's too hard to get in (NOT! It's an EU country) & way too expensive (NOT AGAIN!). So we are booked to fly into Vilnius, Lithuania on July 20, & to leave on the 25th.

It's been quite a learning curve! We've been in touch with a Lithuanian tour company, as well as 2 sets of genealogists, one via Wendi's trip to the Balzekas Museum in Chicago (a major place for Lithuania immigrants), the other from the Lithuania website. The big issues, of course, are the language, or languages: Lithaunaian, Russian, Polish, Yiddish, & of course WWI, The Russian Revolution, & WWII.

We thought we'd pretty much hit a dead end, but just this morning, we got anothwer break-through, through a cousin (of course), with whom Wendi corresponded. We now have the name of his wife, Lena, as well as her parents, & the date & place of their marriage. So hopefully, our genealogists will have something to work with now.

3. Our French Roots (& Routes!): Neither Les nor I really have any evidence of any French ancestry, but we really do feel totally rooted here in this magical spot.

In Charleston, we are city dwellers. We have a balcony from our second floor apartment, & a courtyard off Les' office below. Everything is in pots--not a lot of plants ROOTED in the ground, except for the creeping fig that invades us each summer. But here in Villevieille, we have ROOTS embedded in the ground all around us: Olive trees, fruit trees ("nefs', figs, one dead apple tree), & tons of "lauriers" surrounding us. And then there's the IVY, which has become my total enemy, as it weaves its way through our dry stone walls, which keep us anchored on top of the big hill. Talk about roots! That ivy almost destroyed our long & beautiful hedge that hides our house from the street.

Sommieres, the tourist town in the valley below us, was the entry into the ROUTE DU SEL, or the salt road, a very important path through the mountains north. This past Sunday, we followed that route to go hiking in the Cevennes Mountains, specifcally to Pic St. Loup, the mountain we watch all summer long from the terrace. It's fun to actually BE in the view you look at everyday. We didn't make it to the top, but we did have a simple picnic overlooking the pathway to the Mediterranean. What a nice way to start our summer here.

We hope you are excited about your summer plans, & have a chance to discover new routes & revisit old routes! Wherever you are, enjoy this new season. Hopefully you will take a minute to look at our picture album, titled "Roots & Routes", of course! Please join us from time to time on our journeys.

Bonne ROUTE!

Elise & Les