Thursday, October 9, 2014 Morning Musings

Reviewing the day yesterday. This has been interesting so far. One of the things I'm going to have to remember is to tell Jerry is that he'd be right in style with his tennis shoes in Paris. In fact I was wishing that I had mine! Another thing is the clothing here. Jan was saying that she sees more women wearing hose than anywhere else and boots that were so in style when we were in Ireland are not so much the rage. I'm finding fascinating the pants that I think are maybe leather or in some cases rubber.
Last night when we were at the restaurant I had to go to the restroom. I went downstairs and along the hallway. I could see the men's room in front of me and as I walked along I could see the woman's off to the right but as I approached the door to the men's room I learned that I didn't need to go in because the urinal was out in the hallway!

Nice

After a three hour train ride we arrived in Nice. Lots of pretty scenery along the way. Went through Cannes but did not stop for a film. :-) we did see lots of very large yachts. If one were living there one would have to have a boat but would not need a swimsuit!

Did not connect up with our hostess at the train station. So we went walking to find a Bank and get money and on our way back found a chipper place and had a kebab. Then we got a taxi to the bed and breakfast. It turns out that the hostess had been at the station looking for us looking for her but just never connected up. Both she and her husband are artists. Lovely location on the hillside in a gated townhome type area. Dinner and wine with them lovely evening on the terrace overlooking the bay watching airplanes. We also watched the lights go on in the city and the gorgeous sunset.

Crops

This area seems to only have three crops that they grow in very rocky soil. The three are grapes, olives and the one in this picture. Do you know what it is?

Interesting

Interesting display.

Day 7 Morning

Had breakfast and a conversation with our hosts. Today we are off to Apt, a town of about 1,100. It is known for it's preserves.

B.Y.O.T.P.

Bring Your Own Toilet Paper (BYOTP) if you are using a public toilet and will have a need to wipe. If you are planning to sit bring your own seat too. If you are male and are not planning on sitting you don't even need to go inside the toilets, just use the pissoir that is in the entryway to the toilets.

How People Dress

I have noticed that depending on where we are in France the way people dress is different. When we were staying in Paris people dressed up like DD and Renea. There were also some in the business areas dressed a lot like Maria. Now that we've come further south I see more more of the ladies were dressed the way Becky dresses scattered all through the areas there are ladies dressed like Raynette. Ladies you have it pretty well covered you're all in style in France.

Bob you would have been very much in style with the group with workers we had lunch with a couple 3 days ago Jan calls them the "GADLP". That was at a road stop place where we ate lunch.

Found internet!

Paid 2€ for access for 1 hour. Sitting in the plaza working on the blog now not many people here.

Day Six

Done with breakfast, 6 cups of espresso with a side of baguette and croissants with homemade fig jam. Next order of the day it to go to the tourist information center to see if they have a strong WiFi connection. Then we start looking for a place to eat lunch.

The House! ...(For Roger)

Roger... See the picture of the house we found for sale! Can Jan cyber commute? It is up in the mountains right on the edge of the "Parc Naturel Regional due Leuberon"! I didn't ask the price, but with a little help... :-)

Day Five

Sucky internet access, but a very nice place to stay! Went to Mass this morning in Cadenet where Jan was asked to read one of the prayers of the faithful. After Mass she was stopped by a woman and told how well she read it with feeling and was asked if she was from Strasbourg because of her accent. :-)  Then we went looking for a cyber cafe so we could have lunch and get online. Finely around 1400 hrs we were back in Lourmarin still hungry and looking for a cyber cafe. We decided to just eat and learned that the restaurants/cafes stop serving food at 1400 hrs! We then came back to the B&B and had bread and cheese and rested for the rest of the day.

We could hear people hunting the wild boar between us and town. Apparently they are a major nuisance! None came to bother us so we just enjoyed the evening sunset and the waffles our hostess brought us around 1700 hrs.

We will stay here for a few days and just do day trips out.

Now I should do posts about the house we found and about the way people dress!

Morning of Day Four

The picture I posted yesterday was from the place where we're staying in Malaucene. When we arrived he gave us a tour of the beautiful garden and a glass of sherry. Both he and his wife are pharmacists who work on call. We sat and visited for an an hour then asked where would be a good place to eat. After laughing he shook his head and said at home is best, we agreed. He suggested a couple places downtown to eat. We went downtown and found the one place to eat called the blueberry restaurant at the blueberry hotel the food was ok the wine was so so, not one we will recommend.

Day Three Malaucene

Pour Anne-Marie... Cluck!

Second Day

We have found a wonderful B&B in Beaumes de Venise run by a young couple with a sweet young daughter and a magnificent hutch in their dining room. The room is really a separate studio apartment next to a small pool. The sink in the room is carved out of a large local stone. I will post a picture. The place is 500 meters from the place we will have dinner and wine. We must have wine because we are on the Cotes due Rhone region! ;-)

We erode the TGV from Paris to Avignon and shared our table/booth with a delightful young lady who has met the love of her life who lives in Australia . She and Jan chatted while I listened. I did follow most of what they were saying. :-)  We got off the train and got the car, an Opel Corsa, and drove to Beaumes after a short unplanned trip around more of the old city wall in Avignon.

End of the first day

830pm Paris 1:30pm our time. Long but good day we had. A number of people went out of their way to help us once the come to mind are the young lady who walked by the door for the Metro when Jan was having trouble getting it open and just opened it and kept right on walking. Went to Notre Same, sat outside, watched people while having a glass of wine. T hen went to the Louvre to see if the pyramid was still there. The next order of business was to head back to the bed and breakfast and along the way to stop for a wonderful supper. I had roast lamb it was still on the bone and the meat was the size of both clenched fists along with that there was scalloped potatoes these were the real thing! Wine with supper. :) Now to upload pictures.

Paris

Are we there yet? Yes we are finally after walking for miles in the subways of Paris and the airport and then on the streets we are now at the B&B. We are now going to the Muse'e d'Orsay and then we're going to get something to eat and come back here and crash.

Trip to France

We will be leaving for France in about 74 hours. I plan to post to this blog each evening while we are gone. I will also be posting picture on here. I don't want to post about the trip on Facebook until we are back and ask that if you follow along on this blog that you not post about the trip on FB until after I return. Thank you