Barge in France... Part 2

We met a delightful group of people on our barge trip on the Canal du Midi in France. There were 18 passengers on the barge. The four of us from Philadelphia, a family from Los Angeles, a couple from London, and a group of ladies from Canada. Delightful companions, all. The ladies from Canada were a very congenial and interesting group. Here is a photo of them holding their flag. My husband took this picture... he was very taken with these ladies, and I think he charmed them as well.


Most of the vacation was casual. However, on our last night we had a "dress-up" dinner to say goodbye. Here we are all dressed up in our finest.

The four of us:

The French countryside was beautiful, and we discovered many lovely things there. Below are some photos of a village market we visited. Flowers, fruit, vegetables, bread... wonderful!



We didn't lack for chocolate, either. Here is a photo of a chocolate maker in a shop we visited. The samples were delicious!


We visited lots of lovely cafes:

Finally, we had to say goodbye and leave our barge. What a wonderful week! We all agree we would do it again in a minute!

Our Idyllic Vacation on a Barge in France... Part 1

I finally got some of my favorite photos converted to digital so I could keep them on my computer. I wanted to share some of them here on my blog. They bring back wonderful memories, and chase the blues and blahs away.

In 1999, my husband and I traveled to France, for the first time in both of our lives. A barge trip in France had been the lifelong dream of a couple of our best friends. So, the four of us decided to go for it. These are some of the photos we took on that wonderful trip.

Our adventure began in Paris. Here are our two guys looking up at the Eiffel Tower. The lights on the Eiffel Tower spelled out the countdown to the new millenium. It says " 141 days until the year 2000". Our guys were looking a bit puzzled, as they don't read French.



After Paris, we took the TGV south to wine country. We met up with our barge, which took us down the Canal du Midi. Life on the barge was relaxing, exciting and fun. We had a guide, a captain, a chef, and a charming crew. They treated us like royalty. We had three wonderful meals a day. With each, they served special wines and cheeses from the area.

Our barge, along the canal:

Two of our friendly servers:

Days on the barge were quiet and lovely... floating slowly past beautiful French countryside, having wonderful food and wine and enjoying the company of our fellow travelers.


The barge went slowly enough that we could get off and walk alongside, and they had bicycles for those who wanted to ride along. We stopped at locks along the way. The lock-keepers live in cottages by the canal. They come out and turn the big wheels to work the locks, while people stand on bridges above and greet us.

The lock-keeper's cottage:

Visiting with the villagers along the way:

We took day trips into the countryside. We visited historic places, toured castles, tasted wine at wineries. Every morning a member of the crew rode his bicycle to the nearest village to buy fresh croissants at the local bakery.


Barrels of wine in the caves:

Tasting the wine:

Signposts in the countryside:

My husband along the way:

Whew! That's enough posting for today. I will put more photos up tomorrow.

The Blues, The Blahs, Whatever You Call It...

I had another post here with some really silly pictures of circus clowns portraying our politicians, but I took it down. It was too depressing. Yesterday, I was mired in the news, and feeling very blue about it. This is supposed to be a mellow, happy time of year... or so we are led to believe. But I haven't felt it much. Too much trouble going on in the world and too few of our leaders who seem to have the wisdom to do anything positive.

This morning, I read Susan's post about "blah". She was feeling blah yesterday. I was feeling blue yesterday. They feel pretty much the same, I think. But I liked her explanation better. And she had a nice photo to illustrate it. Much better than my circus clown/politician pictures from Google Images.

I have so many wonderful photos I would rather talk about. They represent many happy times and beautiful places I like to remember. My photos are not post-able though. They are all in photo albums and shoe boxes, not digital. I think there is a way to make them digital... I am investigating at the moment. Another technical dilemma for the baby boomer blogger.

Now I am going to go put on some Christmas music and ignore the news today.

Winter Lite (So Far)

We had our first snow here over the weekend. Not even an inch, but it looks like winter now. Not too much like winter, just a dusting. Looks pretty, doesn't it? I don't mind this kind of snow. It's pretty but it doesn't really get in your way. We do have heavier snow here in Kentucky, but usually not this early.

We have a tree in our back yard that decorates itself... see all the little red berries that have popped up? I think that looks prettier than any man-made decoration I've ever seen. (They show up better if you click on the photo.) I do have a few man-made decorations. There is an elf sitting on my front porch, and a stocking by my fireplace that says "Mele Kalikimako"... Hawaiian for "Merry Christmas". It's a sort of "amulet" that I keep in hopes of being able to live there one day.

"A World that Stands as One"

On July 24th I watched Barack Obama give his speech in Berlin. I was amazed when I saw the endless sea of people there. As I listened, I found myself buoyed up by his words. He introduced himself as a "citizen of the world". I thought that was a wonderful idea. Such an improvement over the last eight years.



These are the words that stayed with me. These are the words that made me decide to vote for him:

"Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic can not stand. The walls between the countries with the most and the countries with the least can not stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian, Muslim and Jew can not stand. These are the walls we must tear down."

Idealistic? Definitely. Naive? Maybe. But it brought me hope. And it was nice to see how the rest of the world reacted, too.

Yearning

It's not even winter yet, and I am yearning to be in this picture.

Tell Me Isn't So...

Oh no, not another one!