wednesday night/thursday morning. 12:48 am

waiting for walker to return from the usa samoa rugby match in st. etienne this evening. our good friend bernard, walker's brother, called last evening to invite walker. needless to say he was ecstatic, couldn't stop dancing.

bernard picked him up at 11, as we were headed to valence to meet nancy's cousin alice and her husband jim. we went our separate ways. about 5 we get a call from walker that they have been to a coal mining museum, and since the guide spoke only french, and there were a number of english only speakers they asked if anyone could translate. walker acted as the interpreter for the tour.

couple of hours later get a call from bernard saying he is forwarding a picture he took, and lets me hear the star spangled banner being played at the stadium. also tells me walks has been on the large screen as the anthem was playing. he had our american flag with him.

anyway, usa mounted a valiant second half comeback, but came up short 21-25. must have been a great match to watch. our young american had a great time and is coming home with a rugby ball of his own.

he's back...1:05 am. too excited to sleep, wants to go to montpellier for the match sunday.

Carlos

for those of you who don't know carlos and aurore, some explanation is due. carlos is our caretaker when we are away. his mother, aurore kept house for the prior owner of our home for 25 years. they are our security system when we are not here, checking on things, keeping the yard, and cleaning up after we, or other guests have left. carlos is mid 30's and aurore has just retired. carlos is in america today. he left monday for a month to attend a cousin's wedding in wallingford, ct. we told carlos we would take him to the train monday morning to start his journey.

we were on our way home from the dordogne and the phone rings. it is carlos. we know he is nervous about his trip, and wants to make sure we are coming home to take him to the train. yes, carlos, we will be there. he wants to come up and see us when we get home. pre trip jitters. we pick up the dog, and carlos is here to greet us as we pull in. we go over everything again, and then we head to bed. telling him to get some sleep, he will need it.

alarm set for 6:45 to pick carlos up at 7:30 for his 8:36 train in valence which is 20 minutes away from our house. wake up at 6:30, just as well, alarm doesn't wake my sleeping beauty. pull up to carlos' at 7:30 on the dot. he and aurore come out with his bag, and the one we gave him sunday night to carry the champagne in, his wedding gift to the cousin.

aurore, of course, doesn't look like she'll let him go. she told us this has always been a dream of carlos, to visit his uncle in america. it looks like he'll get there! we ride along to the station and i can tell he is nervous. this is a day of new discoveries for him, his first tgv ride, and his first airplane excursion, first trip to america.

we get to the staion and i am hoisting his heavy suitcase along as he rolls the suitcase we lent him along. we have a coffee and croissant while waiting. better than standing and fidgeting. finally time to go, and we proceed to the gate, me lugging the monster, carlos rolling the other. as we get to the gate he says he'll carry the heavy one, and i tell him, "no, you'll carry both. this is the end of the line for me." he realizes at that point that from there on he is on his own.

we shake hands, say au revoir, and he makes his way down the elevator. i walk back to the car and look down at the platform to see him standing alone.

bon voyage carlos!

we will let you know if we hear from him. can't wait to hear his stories when he returns.

9/24 Home again!

When we left off, we had visited some of the most beautiful villages in France. above you see Estaing on the left, and Rocamadaour on the right. we had gone to bed too late, and got up early to see some of our gite mates run their dogs. irish setters, brittany spaniels, and a couple other breeds. all were professional hunting dogs here to be trained by their trainer before competition. it was a beautiful morning, and the dogs were fabulous and very well trained. walker was in heaven.

we left Sebastians after a wonderful breakfast of fromage blanc, and homemade jams and bread. our destanation was the grotte de peche merle, a cave full of prehistoric paintings. the area around sarlat, and les eyzies in the dordogne is full of caves and dwellings of prehistoric man, including the famous lascaux cave.

following our trusty gps, marge, we avoided any road of any significant size, preferring the goat paths and other petits chemins of the area. all told we may have passed 4 cars in about 20 miles. peche merle was fantastic! it was mind boggling to think that the paintings we saw were done 25,000 years ago. little is known about the paintings other than their age. why they were done will remain a mystery subject to conjecture.

we then advanced several thousand years to the 9th century with a stop in rocamadour, the resting place of the hermit amadour. this is another pilgramage stop, on its own, and on the way to santiago de compestella. built into the side of the cliff it became a major tourist destination in the middle ages and continues as that today.

our next two nights were spent at les granges hautes, a bed and breakfast in a tiny village in the dordogne. a lovley spot for relaxing, swimming pool included. our schedule did not include relaxing. we arrived at 7:30 p.m. with a loaf of bread, some cheese, wine, and foie gras. nous sommes en perigord, quand meme.

we have not talked about food much, and that has not been the point of this trip. however the perigord region is famous for truffles, foie gras and the accompanying duck and goose. we did quack a little as we left, bringing back some wine, foie gras, and magret de canard from a farm next to our b&b.

saturday morning found us in sarlat for the market. if you don't think they take foie gras seriously here you just have to walk around. more stores as well as market stalls with foie gras, confit, magret, cassoulet and any other form of fowl you want. it was fabulous.

a note about sarlat, in 1964 they dedicated a portion of the old town as a protected area. it is well preserved, and a beautiful city to visit. the conservation of the patrimony in france is significant, and this was a wonderful example. the area is a little hard to get to, but well worth the effort.

back to pre-history. we spent several hours in the museum at les eyzies, where they have one of the most significant collections of pre-historic artifacts. much has been retrieved from sights in the area. a very technical museum, with almost too much to take in. lascaux II was next, the recreation of the famous cave. the original is closed to the public to preserve its condition. the replica is extremely well done, and the quality of the paintings is extremely good.

our last visit on sunday pulled a lot of our visit together. it showed how the cro-magnons lived. they did not live in the caves they painted. they were ceremonial sites. their living quarters were built into large overhangs in the limestone cliffs. all in all a very interesting learning experience for us all. Life changing to say the least!

how to even catch up. 9/21/2007

whew! alot has happened in the past week. nance put a quick post out with our latest portraits. since then we have bought a volkswagen passat station wagon, insured it, and picked it up. we dropped the dog off, got our gate fixed (it was dragging the ground), and left for our trip to aveyron and the dordogne. the bank called today and turned us down for a car loan. they said something about sub-prime. tant pis for them. i will move my account. about 4pm wednesday we left for a 4 1/2 hour drive to millau, site of the famous viaduct de millau, the longest suspension bridge in the world. it was a long way.

we spent the night at the chateau de creissels, an old chateau with a wonderful view of the viaduct. a quick, 2 hour visit to maison causse, a ganterie...glove maker and we were on our way to cross the viaduct. the glove factory was very interesting, and the lady running the boutique let nancy try on every glove they made. she was wonderful, and very interesting. needless to say we left with a pair of very fine gloves.

the viaduct was incredibly beautiful! we left millau to travel south to go north. someday i will find out how to post the map of our trip. may need walker's assistance to do that. the viaduct was constructed to route traffic coming south towards the mediterranean coast over the gorge of the lot river, and keep it out of the town of millau. they say it saved five hours of travel.

after crossing the bridge, we headed north for the valley of the lot. the aveyron department has 10 of the most beautiful villages in france. we managed to see three of them. they were indeed beautiful. well preserved medieval villages, not too touristy. the scenery was beautiful, weather couldn't be better. but, the roads. our gps, marge, must have been set on, "choose the route with the least traffic." we saw almost no cars, and the continued for two days.

our last village was conques. it was a stop on the route to santiago de compostella. how they found it in the middle ages, how they built it, and how we found it were all miracles. we will post a couple of pics from here later. needless to say it was pretty incredible, tucked away in a valley in the middle of absoulutely nowhere. incroyable!

the rest of the evening was spent driving to our resting place for the evening. domaine de bel air. sebastian had dinner waiting...really, they had started. walker called it the best place he ever stayed. chambre d'hote, table d'hote. we were a group of about 14 around the table for a wonderful meal prepared by sebastian, the son of the owner. salade with summer truffle, veal browned in duck fat, then cooked until it fell apart, cheese, fig tart, and no lack of animated conversation.

we went to bed too late again, and will continue with our saga when we get back. will also try to fill in the gaps we have left while hurrying on to the next adventure.

a bientot!

Late Afternoon in Our Neck of the Woods 2

Late Afternoon in Our Neck of the Woods

Road Trip #1

We leave tomorrow heading to parts unknown. We thought we'd share a couple of websites of areas we are traveling to. We hope to be in touch along the way. Until then .... Nancy, Dick, and Walker

www.tourisme-aveyron.com
www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
http://goeurope.about.com/od/dordogneperigord/ss/dordogne_5.htm

Saturday night, 9/16/07 10:35 pm

dispensing with caps. sorry if i offend you.

it has been 6 days since we landed. it has been non-stop. we have made progress, albeit slowly, it seems. we got all the techno set up. wireless, phone, etc. it took some help, but only because we did not know what we were doing. a referral from our good friend martine spent 5, yes five minutes figuring it out and we aere dealing!!! it was worth the money. especially after i spent 45 minutes with wanadoo, and they did not mention pushing the button...5 minutes to push the button, a lifetime to learn which button to push.

our dog did very well on our flights over. i did see him in munich as he was being loaded. gave him a treat and told him everyting would be alright. he did not seem to believe me at the time, but does now. he is taking to france quite well. had his first and last trip to the market today. too much stimulation for him. he was well behaved, just too interested in everything to control well. the rugby match was better. a little girl waltzed him around'til he just had to rest. he is flaked out in bed as i write.

this week...getting settled, somewhat organized, and buying a car. need i say more. we know now why we drive cars forever!!! is it me, or the process? it may be me. we shopped in st. marce, romans, on-line, and grenoble. finally you just give up and say, "i'll take it." we did. a volkswagen passat wagon, 4motion. so we can ski. it wore us out, took 2 days, and finally we felt that we were getting a reasonable deal. time will tell. hope we are not blogging about breakdowns on the road. we will get the car wednesday, and leave directly for the dordogne and the caves of lascaux. there is too much to see between here and there for the time we have allotted. tant pis, we will make it work. don't know yet if the dog will go with us. will keep you posted.

knowing i have miised things important to relay to you i will sign off and regroup tomorrow. want to ride some in the morning whild walker finishes school which was postponed on friday due to car shopping. need to talk about his rugby, too.

tomorrow is jour du patimoine. all of the historic monuments are open for visiting. we will be touring several, as well as participating at a mediveal lunch at one of our restaurant haunts. should be a hoot, more later.

bonne nuit!