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...

Gone with the Wind! Our fifth week already! And this week was so much different than the 2 before. The fourth week literally MELTED away with the canicule (heat wave) & our fifth week was COLD! The heat was literally "gone with the wind", when it switched directions--instead of coming from the south (Africa), it blew in from the Atlantic. Out came the blankets for 3 blustery days. No breakfast on the terrace! Our Encounter with Metal happened on Friday morn...

For this week's blog, I deliberately chose a picture of "Tourne-sols" or sunflowers. Those of you who have visited southern France probably know that these sturdy flowers turn with the sun. If you pass by a field in the morning, they will be facing east. If you go by towards evening, their faces are now westward, always facing the light. Somehow it fits with the week we just enjoyed with another set of friends, this time from Switzerland. Just like the tournesol...

What a wonderful third week we just experienced! Visiting friends, super art, Roman ruins, ancient cities, good food & wine daily. It's so much fun to share it all with friends. We did so many things, that I had to do 4 picture albums for this incredible week! Album 1: Friends, Romans, & Charlestonians: Our Charleston friends arrived by TGV in Nimes, the big city a half hour away from our house. After a quick lunch, we headed to the "Maison Carree", a f...

Ah...la Poiitique! Comme c'est compliquee! As you probably all know, France has, over the past several decades, embraced Socialism. This election cycle, the tide seems to be turning. In fact the tide has turned into a tsunami, according to our local newspaper, Le Midi Libre. The first of 2 rounds in the French "elections legislatives" was yesterday. Out of 10 political parties, Macron's party (LREM-La Republique en Marche) came out with 32.3% of the votes, 10 po...