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?!!