Un voyage en France en trois temps

The Loire is such a lovely part of the country. By now, we've been to many parts of France and I have to say that the Loire is my favorite. This is our fourth trip to the area and I can envision returning a few more times. I am totally fascinated with the caves. When we visited the Dordogne a few years ago, we came across caves that were high up on the cliffs, seemingly difficult to reach. They were at that point just empty holes in the rock, carved out by ancient people called Troglodytes (literally, "cave dwellers"). I had a hard time figuring out just who those people were, when they lived, etc. Then a couple of years ago, we went to a town in Italy called Mattera that is famous for its caves -- a whole ancient town of cave houses, churches and probably markets as well. So, one draw for me in Amboise, our apartment town, is the caves. In my last post, I showed this photo of modern cave houses, which from their front porches look just like any other houses...

We left our home on the harbor in Pemaquid Beach on Thursday a week ago and five days later we were in Versailles, with a stop in New Jersey to do laundry and repack.  We are always sad to pack up for the season and leave Heron Cove because we have come to love being there. We have in a few seasons made more friends and acquaintances than we did in living in our New Jersey home for 46 years. Of course, that could be because for most of the formative years in New Jersey we were busy with raising children, getting additional college degrees (several of them), and building careers. By the time that our work lives were over, we had bought our house in Pemaquid Beach where we have immersed ourselves in fitting into our community. However, the promise of a trip to France made the end of the season routine easier to tolerate. And, so, here we are!  We left Newark airport on Sunday, arrived at CDG airport on Monday and for the first time ever, we stayed at the airport hot...