Friday - Back in New York State...

Actually, the first shot is Belvidere, NJ (my favorite town in NJ) at the best breakfast place we know - Thisilldous (to pronounce it, separate the letters... this 'ill do us - I'm ashamed to tell you how long it took me to figure that one out!). At any rate the cook makes really interesting and great tasting American breakfasts (cousin John had today's special of pumpkin stuffed French toast crusted with pecans). When we were talking to him about our trip he shared he had graduated from the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. While there, he had lived on one of the boats under the Eiffel Tower. Small world!
2) One of our first views coming back into NY. How beautiful is that even if the umbrella of sunshine that has followed us around is missing?!!!
3) Pat "expected" to be on the road to Buffalo by noon but... dead battery... jump start... garage... lunch... new battery... She hasn't shown up back at our house so we hope that means she's on the road...
4) Clothesline shot (my own) sans clothes. It is raining here after all!

If you want to bear with me, we came up with a few "un-photographed" items, in no particular order, of our trip to share with you.
- There are 55 stairs from the entrance hall to Lizzie's guest rooms in London. Little did we suspect she was just trying to shape us up for those stairs in France!
- The walls of Zelda & Brian's cottage in Brittany are covered with his wonderful, colorful paintings of French country folk. (He doesn't sell or show his work - you are left to imagine.)
- On our second day of driving in France, cousin John was flagged over by a policeman at a round-about and given a breathalyzer test. Even though it was 1:30, we had not stopped for lunch so John was "clean" as the whistle he had to blow into. He did get to keep it for a souvenir.

- American music was everywhere we went. If you're into the music scene, the US is obviously the place you want to be.

- The French only use debit cards. No credit. If you don't have the money for it, you don't buy it. (Draw your own conclusions...)

- The public toilets are generally marginal and best left to our memories including my getting locked in the toilet in Vannes... (I'm home so obviously, I'm out...)

- In spite of several "near misses" where the collective sharp inhalations of our car's passengers about emptied the car of oxygen, the two driving Johns returned the car without a scratch and all of us without a heart attack.

We had a GREAT time!

And we trust that blur of red that passed us on our way home meant J&J did too!

Thursday - zigzagging our way home

Our plane tickets - leave from Bordeau at 6:15 a.m. (Yes, you read it right. That's a.m. as in morning. Arg!) The general accepted rule for international flights is to be at the airport 2 hours before departure. Let's see... 6:15 minus 2 hours (it doesn't even bear thinking about - arg! arg!).

However, in Bordeau one cannot get a cab until 4:30 a.m. (they do have some principles...) So 4:30 it was. (Of course that meant getting up at... arg! arg! arg!) We, the passengers may have been at the airport a little after 4:30, but the check-in staff were not. So we waited, and waited, and waited until about 5:00 at which time staff began drifting in. By 5:20 we'd checked our luggage and gotten our boarding passes. However the security staff weren't there. They showed up about 5:45. (What's the big rush after all?) The cafe/coffee vendors? Who knows what their hours were. At any rate, by the time we got to the gate we were able to board promptly.

Then came Amsterdam. By that time we felt a bit like these guys who greeted us. Only a 5 hour layover there. To "allow" you to go home without any euros left the airport has shops for just about everything except beds. (If you want to start a new business this might be just the thing...)

Finally, we were on the plane for our flight home. It only took 6 hours to get to London so we were all thinking the same to get home. Forgot Amsterdam was a bit further away. Duh! Forgot it takes longer to fly into the wind than with a strong tailwind. Duh! Duh! So... 8 hours later...

New Jersey and Joe in the Suburban never looked so good!!! Thank you Joe!!!

And, it's true, our luggage (not to mention all of us) would never have fit in that red Corvette. But, where oh where could it be? As we came into Newark we had a great view of NYC and I thought I saw something red buzzing along a street in Brooklyn. Any sightings, Kathleen?

Check tomorrow for one final blog about the trip. After all, we aren't all home yet!

And sorry, no clothesline shot of the day. Bleary eyed travelers at airports may need to have their laundry done but...

Wednesday - Moving on...

1) Amazing, but true - In spite of another week's worth of "expanding" we were able to pack all our luggage and the six of us into the car.
2) The "guys" - brothers, cousins, double cousins - too confusing...
3) The "gals" - simple friends (leave it to the women to keep things simple)
4 & 5) The red stone village of Meyssac on the way to Bordeau. Red or not, it was again lovely, interesting and built on a hill so we could get in a few last steps.
6) My clothesline shot of an upper balcony packed (if you can make it out) with drying racks.
7) Even a clothing store had a clothesline painted on the window.
8) One last photo of Meyssac. I actually had tried to capture the two little French women coming home with their baguettes, but these hill women are speedy and you only see a glimpse of the them to the left.
9) The land flattens out around Bordeau and is also a bit warmer so the fields switch over to vineyards. The new highway to Bordeau lets you zip right along.

Speaking of zipping right along, did Vicki & George and Sherm & Linda see that red Corvette passing through North Carolina in a BIG hurry?!!

Our last day in Peyrissac

1) Rita moving her horses from a lower pasture back to the one by the house. These horses are worse than walking a dog - they have to stop and sniff everything plus they have to stop and munch newly fallen chestnuts and fresh grass along the way. (At least they don't lift their legs...)
2) The tree in the middle of the photo, the one with the thickest trunk, is within a hundred feet of Frank & Rita's. Admittedly, at first glance that doesn't look very interesting until you learn that it is sequoia/giant redwood planted in 1889 by one of the village women. Saplings were given out at the World's Fair in Paris which she went to - the same fair for which the Eiffel Tower was built. Moral of the story - you're never too old to plant a tree as someone will be along at some point to appreciate it. The lady who planted this one I'm sure never imagined YOU would be looking at it.
3) The view out our bedroom window (also the entrance to Rita & Frank's home).
4) The hound dog who barks all night and sleeps all day. (Where are those hunters when you need them?!)
5) Ladies in waiting (probably to appear on someones dinner table).
6) The post office in Mercoeur, the next village over and the town Peyrissac is in. You might also note the clothesline in the patio just before it. I suppose if you spoke French well enough you could probably negotiate to have your clothes washed, dried, and mailed home.
7) Off to Argentat for a last bit of sightseeing and lunch and, what else?, stairs, stairs, stairs. To take one's mind off the stairs you might note the clothesline with clothes hanging on the balcony.
8) The crew outside the Le Saint Jacques restaurant where we had lunch (after climbing so many stairs one does have to fortify oneself you know) - another GREAT meal I might add. For once we were close enough to our beds to actually enjoy an afternoon siesta.
9) In case you want to learn just a little French, the word for trash can is poubelle (pronounced poo-bell). This one is reserved for tourists. So polite the French! Merci!

Back in the states we learned that J&J always wanted to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. I understand a red Corvette was seen in their parking lot. Keep an eye out, Joe...

On the roads less traveled...

1) This photo is especially for George. It's hunting season here and because Frank & Rita give permission for hunters to hunt on their land they are rewarded with part of the kill. Rita is holding yesterday's delivery of the rear haunch of a deer. In case you're wondering these deer are much smaller than we're used to in the states - only about 4 feet high.
2) Pat & I found buried in her guide book a reference to a flour mill that has been in operation since the late 1200's (that is NOT an error in typing either). The next time you're near Cales, it's well worth a side trip.
3) The owner explaining how it works.
4) The flour "sifter" sorting the flour into different areas of fineness.
5) And, he saves the best for last, the upstairs where people have lived for centuries. It looked like he still does too as it had a modern stove and washing machine behind where I took the photo. He's showing us how folks used to use the walk-in fireplace. Also notice the bottle and small glasses on the table. Other than a wine tour, I think this is the first tour where I've ever been served a sample of the local brew. This one happened to be plum alcohol that you consumed with sugar cubes. You could also crack and eat some of their local walnuts if you were so inclined. (Bob had two shots of the plum liquor and treated us all to lunch. I looked in the grocery to see if I could find more of that liquor, but no luck - or perhaps it's Bob that's lucky...)
6) Parking - Yes it was under a cliff and more or less in the road, not that it mattered. Believe me, we were the only traffic there abouts.
7) John, Judy & Bob with Rocamadour, the cliff village, in the distance on the left. We chose to just view rather than walk dooooooown and uuuuuuuuup. Besides, it really is very touristy.
8) The entrance to Gouffre de Padriac, a huge cave that has a river running through it. That speck you see on the path down there is actually a person. For once this French site had a series of 3 elevators that take you down to the opening. Then (after going down a few more stairs) they take you by boat on the river deep into the cave where another guide takes you by foot deeper into the cave. It really is huge and has beautiful formations. Then, surprise!, it's up 150 steps (believe me we counted every one!) ooooh-ing and aaaaah-ing and hufffffffing and pufffffffing over stalactites & ...mites until we came down another 150 steps before arriving back to the boats for the return trip. Guess what? Those "few" steps we came down after getting off the elevator suddenly seemed to multiply but at least the elevators were still running.
9) In the cottage Pat, John & I are staying in, we also have a walk-in fireplace with, you guessed it, a clothesline!

Where is that red Corvette? Did Jeannette & Don see one in southern Missouri? And perhaps that really was a Corvette Beni & her friend saw in St. Louis heading toward the Arch...

Move over Julia... & Julie...

Shots mostly from Peyrissac...
1) Pat "at home" enjoying a flat surface and her nightly read.
2) One of the trails that Rita, Mary & Frank cleared for the horses. It looks beautiful now but I can tell you it had to have been a LOT of work at the time.
3) A spring (they call it the source) in Rita & Frank's field. It's one of the springs pilgrims stopped at on their trip to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. They would stop at the spring and often spend the night at the monastery that's just over the hill and which still has monks. Rita & I were out walking this morning (the hills are STEEP so those pilgrims were in good shape, believe me!) when we heard the bells ringing. I listened but couldn't hear the monks chant. Next trip.
4) The ceiling continues to go up in between sightseeing, eating and drinking. Please note it's only the men in the photo that are related on this trip. Who knew so many women could put up with so many Grossmann/Keck's for so long!
5) After having just seen "Julie & Julia" and then coming to the heart of France, I felt obligated to make beef bourguignon for lunch to day. Bet Julia didn't have Rita's wild mushrooms to add to hers! It was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS even if I do say so myself.
6) Clothesline (really a drying rack) photo of the day with guard cat.
7) This is an alert to Pat's kids - that's Pat coming out of the realtor's office in Beaulieu. Your inheritance may be changing soon...
8) This photo is especially for Susann who sent Rita dye for her wool. Wouldn't you LOVE to have a studio like that?! (I do apologize, the collage cut off part of the building.)
9) The group enjoying the evening outside the cottage Pat, John & I are staying in directly across the road (all 8 feet of it) from Rita & Frank's. The dog with cats on top sleeps in the middle of the road - not a problem since they get one car once a week going by on the same morning each week. I gather the dog, sighs but gets up and moves for this car.

Back in Brady, Texas, my mother & sister (in separate houses) may have been wakened early this morning by the roar of an engine. It was the talk at the local coffee shop - could a Corvette actually make it from Arizona to the heart of Texas in a day? However, the pressure is on J&J to get back home because they know J&J will be flying back on Thursday plus... it is a Corvette after all plus... Texas roads are, well, flat & straight. Can J&J make it?

Sarlat & beyond...

From one of our last trips we remembered the Saturday market in Sarlat. All the markets are appealing but this one is particularly large & varied (probably because it's also a tourist town).
1) Somehow I managed to quickly take a couple of pictures of the market where there was a lull in shoppers (no reflexion on the vendors in the photo I can assure you).
2) Meat "vans" complete with butchers not only come to the markets but also visit on a weekly basis most of the little hamlets in France. Rita said the one that comes to them looks like this. (If Rambo, our old RV, wasn't so rusty I'd think we might look at converting it.)
3) A bateau on the Dordogne River. (Don't even think about it, John!)
4) The village of La Roque-Gageac where we had lunch. It's squeezed in and up the cliffs by the river leaving just enough room for the road.
5) Looking up between two buildings you might be able to see one of the paths that goes up the side of the mountain. In case you're interested, there's also a clothesline strung across the first patio. And, yes, real people live here, not mountain goats.
6) Are you sure we're on the right road, John?!
7) Strawberries being grown hydroponically. These are the small, ever bearing French strawberries that are a larger version of our wild ones. The best strawberries you ever hope to eat. You can buy them all summer long, even into the fall and, yes, we bought some and ate them all.
8) The Grottes de Cougnac (caves) near Gourdon are filled with stalactites and some prehistoric cave paintings made by Cro-Magnon man (the paintings, not the stalactites). In fact if you want to see cave paintings, this is the region of France to visit as there are several caves open to the public where you can view them. Those of our group that went on the tour said it was very interesting. Pat, John & I (we just weren't in a Cro-Magnon mood) enjoyed a cool drink at the cafe instead.
9) This is an odd photo but perhaps you can make it out. Our car has a huge sunroof (upper part of the photo). This shot shows the road (far too narrow) we were on out the front window (bottom part of photo) with the cliffs on the side and at times overhanging the (far too narrow) road. The 3 folks in the way back were especially cozy since it's actually designed to seat only 2. They were also very happy when we finally got on a wider, straighter road and even happier when we finally arrived home.

We understand Judy's cousin in Arizona just might have caught a glimpse of a red Corvette zipping by.

Friday... An assortment...

Everything around here is so photogenic, I just can't help taking lots of photos so you'll have to suffer two sets today.
1) One of the turns on the one lane road to John, Judy & Bob's cottage. The road is so narrow some trucks refuse to deliver there.
2) The stairs to Frank & Rita's front door & one of their out buildings.
3) Another clothesline - metal post.
4) The sign pointing to where J,J & B's cottage is (so you know it really exists and so I don't have to spell it).
5) A neighbor of Frank & Rita's out to feed the chickens. Unlike NY, France now has a law that you can't buy your neighbor's eggs unless they're an "approved" egg producer. For once we have less regulations than other places & I hope it stays that way.
6) A lovely fixer-up-er. Is that beautiful or what?!
7) Fun in the kitchen. Pat fixes her Polish ex-mother-in-law's fried sauerkraut. It was DE-licious! Add homemade applesauce & local sausages - we didn't go wrong.
8) Two wild parasol mushrooms that our car brakes for when we spot one (or two). Frank & Rita have harvested several using this technique. They look like...
9) John, under supervision of brother Frank, slicing the artisan bread purchased at the market.
1) The sign for the tiny place where Frank & Rita lives.
2) The home project for this trip - completing the sheetrock between the beams in the master bedroom. This may be a longer project than we imagined.
3) The start of the main road to Peyrissac. That's our car. It doesn't say but one can safely assume it's one lane.
4) Our visit to Chateau Castelnau-Bretenoux, the first chateau Bob had ever been to. This is very odd since he's traveled more than all of us put together. The only way to the top is by foot - up, up, up. Take special note of the round turret on the left.
5) View from one side of that turret.
6) View of Judy after she made it to the top of the turret.
7) On to Carennac - a beautiful little town on a river. Look hard and you'll see a clothesline in this lovely stone alley.
8) Even though it was right in town, what you see in the upper opening is a bee hive. There were lots of flowers in town.
9)Another photo of Carennac. The "penthouse" apartment on the right still looked available, just in need of a few repairs. If you feel up to stairs, make an offer.

Back in the states, cousin Carole flying out of San Francisco may have spotted a red Corvette on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Utah Salt Flats to San Francisco in one day?!!! It is a Corvette after all.

Thursday - Caught up!!!

We're spending the next few days with John's brother Frank & his wife Rita. Peyrissac, where they live and which is on very few maps is very, very beautiful with lots of trees, steep hills and quiet you don't find in many places these days.
1) Rita was out early this morning showing me her garden. That's a VERY healthy aster blooming in the background.
2) The kittens seem to think their older dog, Oxane, belongs to them.
3) One of the stalls at the market we went to in Argentat this morning. (Yikes! I hope pointy boobs aren't on the way back again.)
4) Enormous loaves baked in a wood fired oven. Of course we bought one. (How is your oven coming, Leigh?)
5) Lunch ala Rita - fresh veggies, local beef (which made Pat very happy), fresh fruit. And Bob surprised us with coffee flavored macaroons for dessert which he found at the market. They were to die for!!!
6) Another in my clothesline series - this time it's our clothes thank heavens. It had about come to the point where we wanted/needed to drive along with all the windows rolled down...
7) Another in the clothesline series. Stone walls in the sun are perfect for the final drying of jeans. This wall is outside the cottage where John, Pat & I are staying.
8) It is English walnut season in the area. And this is one of the big containers filled with walnuts ready to go to the processing plant where they shuck, dry and shell them.
9) The cottage where John, Judy & Bob are staying. Note the roofs in this area of France are mostly stone.

The Salt Flats of Utah? Could it be that J & J are running the Corvette through time trials there after the Alaska trip? Wow!!

Wednesday - Moving south...

We're on the road again, this time to Peyrissac in the Limoges region of France.
1) Road stop for coffee & .... Bob ordered a double espresso (somehow I don't think Bob's French is as good as he thought it was).
2) Things to play with in the car - a Renault Espace which they don't sell in the US. It has trays behind the front seats for the passengers. Of course the water bottle did not fit in the hole in the tray - assume they think passengers should drink only wine.
3) This is a French car. Therefore, how on earth is one supposed to collapse the tray? The instruction manual gave instructions for hanging on to the handle above the door but not for putting the tray back. Bob is a mechanical engineer and spent a good deal of time trying to look under the tray to figure it out. Cousin John runs a body shop and fooled around with it for several minutes. Actually the whole endeavor took at least 30 minutes to figure out and as many laughs. The answer - just push down hard on the front of the tray - Duh! Bob figured it out although I'm not really sure if it was out of frustration or engineering skill.
4) Are we in Kansas, Dorothy? Nope, it's still France. Just the part that doesn't appear in guide books. Note the wind generators in the distance (about the only thing worthy of note). Pat & I got several pages of our books read during the day.
5 & 6) Stopping in Niord for lunch, Bob spotted a sign for a restaurant with a waterfall. Trust me, the land around Niord looks exactly like photo 4 except for this one little road that takes you down into a hidden valley with a stream/canal and a wonderful place to eat. We whiled away a couple of hours over lunch.
7 & 8) Back on the road - note the roofs have changed from slate to red tile.
9) The main part of the view from the way back. Let's just say we were VERY happy when we found Frank & Rita's house in Peyrissac!

Out walking Roscoe, did Bridge spot a red Corvette driving off one of the ferries into Seattle?

Tuesday - To the Savage Coast

1) Where to go on our remaining day in Brittany? We eventually decide (mainly it was decided by the last folks to bed) to head west to the Savage Coast. First stop - Vannes, also a medieval city with obviously the same first floor tax structure. Notice how the top floors touch but there's plenty of room to walk between buildings on street level.
2) Loved the roof line. Shakespeare could have built the Globe here as well.
3) Bridge over the moat - the flowers were lovely. Judy is thinking of having her husband build a bridge as well.
4) Crepes are a regional specialty and we couldn't resist eating here (nor, I suspect, could a lot of other tourists). It was named no doubtedly because it's in a cellar. (In case you can't see it, the sign is a mole.)
5) Vannes' answer to the Paris bike rental. LOVE those colors!
6) This photo is for KK & GG - one of the standing stones near Carnac. Turns out Carnac is "home to the world's greatest concentration of megalithic sites". And to think we just went there on a whim!
7) The coastline just past Carnac is known as the Savage Coast because of the high, crashing waves. The day we visited it was calm. The most savage photo I could come up with was to have Bob pose behind a motorcycle. Who knows? It may inspire Bob for his next trip...
8) I hope you can enlarge this photo to see the megalithic stones. There are literally hundreds of them in straight lines called alignments. This field of stones dates back to at least 5,000 BC (who knows what the decorators had in mind back then) and has 1,099 stones (we didn't count).
9) How many pounds of great French cheese and bottles of great French wine does it take to add a bit of girth to one's behind? (We're not telling.) How many well padded American butts does it take to break a French toilet seat? Six. How many Americans does it take to decide on a new toilet seat at "Mr. Bricolage"? Five. (Judy chose to look at curtains instead - go figure.) How many Americans does it take to install a French toilet seat? One with five Americans standing by hopping up and down on one foot.

Word is that more special Corvette tires had to be flown to Juneau, Alaska.

On to Monday - A Peek at the Coast

1) First stop - Pontorson. Judy is already planning to have her husband John make some of these planters for her.
2) Notice the fence - instead of slates, they're made to look like colorful pencils outside the Notre Dame Nursery School.
3) Mont St-Michel. This Gothic abbey was built during the 13th to 16th centuries. It was built on a rock in the middle of the sea without power tools so I guess they were entitled to take a few centuries to complete it. This is a World Heritage Site and cousin Bob has been waiting until the 4th grade to see it (that's closer to a century than not but don't tell him I said so). It was a bit foggy when we started out but we got lucky.
4) We thought we'd left Tillie the VW at home. Looks like she's on tour as well.
5) Some of the stairs going up - no elevators for those guys (or us). Thank heavens the current residents did decide to modernize a bit and put toilettes part way up.
6) The abbey cloister - I don't want to even think about how many buckets of dirt they had to cart up that mountain to put this in!
7) They climbed (zillions of steps), they saw, the climbed down (zillions of steps), they sat... and sat...
8) Lunch in Cancale known as the French oyster capital. Some of us had oysters, some didn't. Turns out Pat, Judy & cousin John are a bit more squeamish in their eating than Bob, John & I.
9) Dinan - one of the best preserved medieval cities in Brittany. Taxes were based on the square footage of the ground floor so they built small below and broadened as they went up.

Word has it that Chicken, Alaska had to fly in special tires for this crazy couple driving a red Corvette on the Alcan Highway. They wouldn't have tried that, would they?!

Sunday - once again...

John finally figured out a connection for our computer so I'll try once again for Sunday. (With English keyboard periods........... YES!)
1) Streets closed in Paris - you got that. Pat, still not fully awake but in the car (that's her in the photo). Cyndy off to the airport on her way home.
2) Our first toll booth experience - cousin John learns how to start the car & use a clutch...
3) Chartres Cathedral built in the 1200's with over 2,000 carved stone figures, some of which you see on the right & some of the best stained glass in France. (It does need a bit of cleaning however.) John & Judy are in the photo but are not carved - yet...
4) And then we're invaded by some sort of Scout Jamboree. They're everywhere. We decide to continue on our way -
5) But not before Pat & I stopped at one more church (it was Sunday after all). This one was totally different - painted on the inside, my favorite so far although I must admit I'm about churched out for this trip.
6) Judy in front of the cottage our friends Zelda & Brian from London so generously let us use near Pleudihen. I don't know what they said to those hollyhocks behind Judy but they're by far the tallest I've ever seen.
7) Our group enjoying a leisurely supper of sausage, cheese & wine in the cottage kitchen. Very relaxing to NOT be driving or squeezed between the luggage and to be in the country.
8) French cat - I think he spoke English.
9) Another in my clothesline series... those are concrete posts. Hanging clothes is not a one shot deal here.

Back in the states, Roscoe awoke Bridge early Sunday morning with his barking. Could it have been J & J in the red Corvette?