Overcoming Obstacles…A wonderful week in Paros, Greece 6-29-22, Les & I flew from Montpellier to Paris, & just as we were waiting to board our flight to Athens, we noticed that our third flight, to Paros Island, was due to leave before we would arrive. Without notifying us, Air France had delayed the boarding time just enough to make it impossible for us to make that flight! We crossed our fingers, & boarded the 3 hour flight to Athens. Arriv...

Friday, July 15, Les & I arrived in London for a 3 day adventure that was planned, then of course canceled, in 2020. We couldn't wait to get started. We were shocked when we realized that the last time we were there was in 2000. We've always loved London, & this time we came prepared with a plan to focus on looking at London through the lens of the Thames River. This river-focus idea came to me while I was reading a detective series about a police detect...

Guédelon: A Back in Time Adventure to the muddy 13th century I've always been fascinated by time travel. I've always loved books that take you back in time, where there are 2 stories running simultaneously at different time periods. And I'm a total medieval freak, where the whole manor/castle social system intrigues me. I've managed to "go back in time" twice, each time via the internet, with a grandson. And each of these "adventures"...

The story of Abd el-Kader: In 1830, Algeria was part of the Turkish Empire. -at its head was a king, elected by the aristocracy, who had under him 3 "beys", at Oran, Médéa & Constantinople. -The population consisted of Berbers & Arab, all Muslim, as well a Jewish minority. At this time, France possessed few colonies:-Iles de St Pierre et Miqueon, La Martinique* & la Guadeloupe* in the Antilles-La Guyane in South American-se...

One of our favorite French cities is Marseille, France's second largest city, with about 1,000,000 people. Founded by the Greeks as Massalia in 600 BC as a prosperous trading city on the Mediterranean Sea, then later developed by the Romans, it is to this day the most important PORT of France. But instead of feeling like a huge city, it feels like a small, friendly, easy to love, fun-to-walk-around-city. Most summers, we go there at least twice. It has everythi...