Un voyage en France en trois temps

We left the Loire (hopefully not for the last time) on Tuesday and drove for a few hours to one of the famous wine areas of France: Bordeaux. Probably most Americans, if asked to name the big wine districts of France, would be able to recall Bordeaux and Burgundy.  We briefly visited Burgundy (Bourgogne, in French) about four or five years ago. We happened to be there in a small town called Beaune just as they were having a festival with marching bands in traditional costumes. I would have sworn that we were in Alsace-Lorraine because the bands surely sounded like oompa-oompa beer bands and the players were wearing variations of lederhosen. We were, however, quite far away from the Alsace. When Larry asked me what part of France that I would like to visit on this trip, without hesitation, I said Bordeaux. I loved the look of the vines on the rolling hillsides of Burgundy and I was curious to see the vineyards of the other side of the country. In fact, of course, ...

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...