HARD TO SAY "AU REVOIR," GREAT TO SAY HELLO!

Our final day of this year long French adventure is upon us. It has been a year of enrichment, comedy, struggle, and growth. We are all different and stronger for having done what we have this year. It has been a journey were our eyes have been opened to many things about our world that 'staying home' would have never allowed us to learn and experience.

In short, it is time to say farewell to all things French. Here we share some of those goodbyes with you!

Goodbye to lovely French traditions and neighbors!

Goodbye to wonderful shopping!

Goodbye to foods that are too pretty to eat!

Goodbye to - "will it be red or rose?"

Goodbye to wonderful lazy days!

Goodbye to special places!

Though it is sad to say farewell to so many special people, places, and things, we have learned that no matter how wonderful the spot is you are visiting, there truly is no place like HOME!!!

So we close the door to this year's adventure, and head HOME. We carry with us a ton of wonderful memories from a year long journey that we will never forget. But now we are excited to return HOME, where all of you dear family and friends await us. Thank you for 'traveling along' with us during this year and know we appreciate your kindness and support! We are eager to see each of you. Until then, know we have missed you terribly, and we thank you for making HOME where the heart is!!!

Weather Woes

I know hearing about the weather does not seem of interest (esp. since many of you are burning up on the east coast), but this is FRENCH weather I am reporting on. And I promise it will be short - ish.

RAIN, RAIN, HAIL, RAIN and more RAIN --- that's the story since May 16th. What should be the most beautiful time here has been cold, damp, moldy, dismal, and of course depressing. We have had about 45 minutes of sunshine since mid May - and that is no lie.

Now for the details - it all started with the sand rains from northern Africa. Yes, the rain contains sand from the Sahara Dessert that the fierce winds there stir up into the atmosphere. The winds from the south bring the orange rains this way and everything is covered in the desert dirt. Then cold air from Greenland swooped in and the Sahara warm air met the cold, and we had a hail / wind storm like we've never seen before.

The hail started at 10 pm and lasted about 15 min. There was SO much hail that it took a snow shovel to get it all off the patio. At noon the NEXT day, there was still hail on the ground. Along with the hail came straight winds (like a tornado - but no spiral) which our Rhone Valley occassionally gets.

Given that walnut trees are blooming now, and crops are trying to grow, the hail and winds were quite destructive. In our area of Isere (equivalent to a county) 5,000 walnut trees were blown over. This is an economic nightmare for farmers, and those of us that will look for stable walnut prices next year, will see a rise due to a shortage on the world market. So be saving your money for your Christmas baking ingredient.

Kate is convinced we live under a black cloud and I think she is right. The weather pattern seems locked down over all France. We are back wearing our winter "uniform" of warm clothes, and every day we awaken to fog and rain. Our poor plants are melting into the earth.

So that's it for the weather report. As I close, I remain oh so hopeful to see the sunshine before we leave, but as I look out the window, it is raining AGAIN.

Paris in a Whirl Wind

We last visited Paris in the winter, and we knew it deserved a revisit in the spring. Kate has a friend, Anna Stokes, from Winston-Salem, who is working in London, so we invited her to join us on our quick visit. It was so fun for us all to be with Anna. We quickly had our picnic lunch at the base of the Eiffel Tower and then it was off to see and do much in typical tourist in Paris fashion.

It had been years since Dick, Kate and I had visited the Musee d'Orsay, and Walker had never been. So it was only appropriate to wrap up our art history year in this museum. Kate and Anna went their merry way, and Walker wanted to explore on his own. Knowing he is not a fan of impressionism (he is a Renaissance man!) we figured he would make us think he was exploring and just circle back to sit on the bench where we were to meet up. He saw more, learned more, and I think appreciated his time at the D'Orsay more than any of the rest of us! A true testimonial to his year of European art exposure!!!

Kate and Anna continued their Parisienne experience by pounding the pavement for sightseeing and shopping. Dick, Walker and I were content strolling the less touristy back streets and cafes where we watched a Parisenne woman refuse to move her little puffy white dog from his seat at the table. Oh Paris, what can one say!!! As we continued meandering, much to our surprise we saw a high school class mate of Kate's ... David Eisenach is living in Paris for the summer!!! It was such a SMALL world experience to run into David!! And then Saturday night, Kate, Anna, and Walker were able to have dinner with him.

Sunday was rise and shine early, grab plain, apple, and chocolate croissants, along with our picnic items for lunch, and off we raced to the train for Versaille. The sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky. The day and the experience were amazing!! Versaille is of course a place without an equal both inside and out, and this visit allowed us the opportunity to explore both (along with hoards of other visitors). We had our lunch in the incredible gardens, Dick and Walker rode bikes, and Kate, Anna, and I explored Marie Antoinette's FABULOUS Petit Hameau (little hamlet). We all agreed a relocation to "Marie-ville" was in order!
What a place to escape to when the stresses and strains of royal life at Versaille were just too much!

Sadly to say, our camera was on a technical "vacation" during the weekend so we have no photos to share. It is best that you plan a visit of your own any way!

WALKER'S WRAP UP TO "WHAT A YEAR!" and HIS POWER OF NEVER ENDING SURPRISE

Last Day of Lycee (School) !!!

Walker completed his 9th grade school year on Friday and what an adventure it has been!!! Attending the French school has been a phenomenal education in more ways than one.

He has had a full French immersion experience (no english here!) , he has had 2 weeks of teacher strikes this spring which means school is closed with no make up for lost time option! He has had one week of student strikes (on behalf of the teachers who were on strike!). Student strikers barricaded the school for one week so students could not enter even though the teachers were inside looking out! Fifteen thousand student strikers protested in Grenoble, got into tear gas fights with the Gendarmarie (police), and it was all in true French fashion!!! Walker opted to be "American" and sleep late and enjoy being out of school. Now where other than France could one get such an education?

Between the often sporadic time spent in the Lycee, his online academic courses, and of course our travels, his 9th grade education can all be summed up very simply ... PRICELESS!!!

And then there are Walker's FRIENDS!!! He has made so many and he is very sad about leaving them, but he knows he will be back. The eight exchange students from various spots on the globe, with have become very close buddies, and I think those relationships will continue right along. The French school, rugby team, and skiing friends will probably be life long, just as Dick's friendships have been since he was an exchange student here whoa many years ago.

Walker and Stephanie from Canada

Chefs Alex (California) and Walker

Then of course there have been the "minor happenings" in our year with Walker. The comedy is never ending, and of course we've gained a gray hair or two along the way. If it wasn't crazy enough to bring our dog from the US, Walker rescued a cat who had lived stuck in a tree for a week. After 3 weeks of living happily on terra firma, the cat went back up in the tree only to spend 5 more days looking down on we idiots trying to get it down. A friend's 24-foot ladder came to the rescue. Since then, Meowsers has seemed to settle right down on ground level and in our lives! Both Zydeco (the dog) and Dick seem to be a bit snarly about the whole thing. After all it is an addition to our zoo!!

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Then, as with EVERY 15 year old, there is a need to practice driving. There are 2 challenges to this. One is being in France a teen does not drive until age 18 (I think that is a GOOD thing!) and the other is NO car has an automatic transmission. So, we've had to focus on steering, clutch, accelerator and brakes all within our short and straight drive way! Occasionally we've jerked and lurched across an empty parking lot. The day our 50 friends were coming for the Fete La Barbeque, Walker decided to "help us" by moving the car in the driveway. The assignment was simple and STRAIGHT FORWARD (er, backwards).

So there went the lavender and rose bushes, but miraculously not the house. The clutch and accelerator worked fine ... the brakes and steering ??? ... not so much!!!


Now school is out, our year is quickly drawing to a close, and I am sure we will wedge in some more adventures before we board the plane. So stay tuned to more reports on our straight forward French living!!!

Kate in the Kitchen and other French Adventures

Kate finished her junior year at Chapel Hill, where her studies in Journalism and French , working at the DTH newspaper, and socializing kept her busy. (Note: the previous listing is in the correct order!) Slowing to the favored French pace seemed to be no problem after a week of extended sleep ... sleeping by day and sleeping by night did the trick for her. Once rested, she has enjoyed travels to Montpellier, Paris and soon London. She has done antique shopping and price negotiations (in French) with her mother, and she has taken a liking to cooking. We happily reap the benefits (and the calories-ugh!) of her developing skills. Being in France makes it easy to fall in love with cooking! Fabulous markets and fabulous fresh ingredients!!! Ah, heaven!!!

Kate's stuffed zucchini blossoms on their way to the frying pan

Kate's confiture in the making

Yum, peach tart!!!

Through a project called "WWOOF", Kate is contemplating a week of work on an organic farm (if it will stop raining!). She is also investigating the world of French cheese by eating her fair share of the creamy stinky stuff, visiting fromageries, and spending a few days in our new, local, tres chic cheese shop. What better place to learn the world of cheese than here in St. Marcellin - where we are known ONLY for our cheese!!! And then of course, we are just a 30 minute drive to the land of Rhone Wines, so Kate has most certainly enjoyed the red and white libations. She is planning to spend a day or two "shadowing" a young FEMALE wine maker in Hermitage. Kate will learn what it is like to be a female farmer / vigneronne all from a dynamic woman who is earning quite a name for herself in the world of wine.

So Kate's GRAND TOUR continues. All along the way she enjoys honing her creative photographic skills, her cooking and eating skills, her French speaking skills, and her love of a good book and a nap!!! We love having her here!

Kate's photos

FETE LA BARBEQUE - Lexington Style

All year we have pondered what we could do for our collection of French friends that have so graciously shared their lives and culture with us this year. It only seemed fitting for us to share a slice of our American culture with them. Now that it is not an easy task to accomplish living here in rural France ... there is nothing American here except the new McDonald's, and that is NOT the slice of Americana we wanted to share.

Knowing that the French eat cochon (pigs) from the end of the snout to the tip of the tail (they waste not!), we concluded that NC barbeque was the very slice of Americana that we needed. Conveniently, Dick was in Winston-Salem when this culinary decision was made, and just as he has done with each of his other trips home this year, he was willing to re-open his sherpa service. Instead of bringing clothing, he was now to tote 20 lbs. of Lexington BBQ, cole slaw, baked beans and a 7 lb. tub of toll house cookie dough back to France. No easy feat for sure, but with a large rolling cooler, dry ice, and a prayer that customs would not arrest him, he was all set. He had a lot of questions from the airline and customs but he arrived safely with his cooler full of the critical goods.

Now, with that the food delivery was a success, our next challenge was how would we get 50 friends into our house on a day of predicted clouds and rain!!! We placed our ever so trusty friend, Carlos, in charge of the weather, but we think he had a bit too much to drink the night before, and forgot to "take charge" of the anticipated gloom. And gloom it was!! But the fete must go on, so scramble we did! We moved all the furniture out of our living room, and transformed the space into Cafe 3 Montee du Calvaire. It was real cozy, but that too is real French, so no prob on that front.

In rolled the flock of 50, the food went onto the tables, and as the French would say, VOILA!!! They ate, and they ate, until there was no more. No matter the age or stage of the consumer, the barbeque, slaw, beans, and chocolate chip cookies were a HIT. That is what is so lovable about the French - they eat, and they LOVE to eat! ... and throw in a bunch of wine, and there you have five hours of BBQ delight. Now that is a day's worth of food and fun with a bunch of friends.

Cafe 3 Montee du Calvaire

Our Philadelphia / St. Marcellin friend, Paula and her husband, Daniel

At the end of the day, a content Frenchman!!!

FAMILY, FLOWERS, FRIENDS, AND FUN IN THE PAY BAS

We are off on the TGV fast train for an 8 day journey north to the "Pay Bas" or low lands of Holland and Belgium. We had been planning this trip for a while so we could see a group of Sullivans that also are doing a stint of living abroad, (Rob - Dick's brother, Joan, Chris, and Andrew, as well as Dick's niece, Claire Blum). All of this family grouping is living in Leiden, Holland (Rembrandt's birthplace 401 years ago!) - just outside Amsterdam. We were glad to see the Dutch Sullivans so happy and well settled in their ever so quiet and quaint town of Leiden. The boys love their school and they are so happy with living in Holland. They love their freedoms (they ride their bikes EVERYWHERE just like all good Dutch folks!! ). They don't worry about crime (Holland has about 2 murders a YEAR!!!) and with the endless designated bike paths, these boys are free to go where ever and when ever they wish!!! No teenage taxi driving for Joan. It is a wonderful life in Leiden and we loved sharing a few days with our Dutch foreign legion of family.

Leiden, Holland

Cousins Claire, Chris and Spooky)

Cousins Andrew (left), Chris (right) and friend George

The Dutch love their bikes ... used by ALL ages in ALL weather!!
Amsterdam has bike parking decks!

The timing of our trip was also PERFECT for tulip viewing season in Holland. OH MY, what a feast for the eyes. We visited the famous Kukenhof Gardens and saw the fields from the trian!! I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Kukenhof Gardens

and Splendor in the countryside

We did an afternoon visit to Den Haag (The Hague) to visit the Mauritshuis Museum to get a taste of painting by the Dutch Masters. This is a small museum, but full of wonderful paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Steen, Leyster, and Vermeer. The next morning we rode the train into Amsterdam, for more Flemish School / Dutch Master viewing at the Rijksmuseum and of course a visit to the Van Gogh Museum was done as well. Both are incredible places, just not enough time. It was quite interesting to advance forward along the art history time line to the Flemish School, because this period marked quite a change from the previous centuries of art done for the royal courts of Italy, France, Spain, etc. We throughly enjoyed what we saw, but Walker still is a Renaissance loving kind of man. After museums, we visited the home of Anne Frank which is of course a very moving and thought provoking experience.


Next it was train south to Brugges, Belgium where we had another wonderful treat of meeting up with friends, Mary Margaret and Stan Link from Winston-Salem, and their son from Staunton, Virginia. Given that the Links are wonderfully informed history scholars, and we are curious history hounds, visiting the historic (and extremely picturesque) town of Brugges (via bike and boat) and a day touring Flanders Fields (of WW I historic importance) made for a perfect 4 day adventure. In addition to the Links, we were able to spend our last day in Brugges with Kay and Dan Donahue, also from Winston-Salem. For we Americans lost in France, this was a joyful family reunion of Americans.

Mary Margaret and Stan Link

Dick, Dan and Kaye Donahue

Brugges Roof Tops

Brugges Canals


*A note here for you fellow history tracing traveling types, we would highly recommend a journey to this part of Belgium!!! Flanders Fields was oh so beautiful, and learning more about the 4 horrific years of World War I that occurred here, enlightened us all! Another trip you need to add to your list!!!

WWI cemetary in Flanders Fields

w/ the famous red poppy

Next we were off to Bruxelles, to wrap up our journey. We spent two nights in the big, busy city (never our favorite kind of environment!). Maybe I should say we actually slept one night because our first night was such a total comedy (now) that sleep was hardly possible. Despite the lack of sleep, lots of hysterical moments were filed into the memory bank. Oh the joys of world travel!!! One has to be of tough skin I'll tell ya.

We had a gorgeous visit to the Belgian Royal Greenhouses, located just outside Brussels. This is where the king and queen reside, along with their 20 full time gardeners, and their INCREDIBLE greenhouses. The structures themselves are phenomenal, and then the range of floral beauty on the inside is just amazing. The greenhouses are open to the public only 2 weeks a year, and luckily our timing was just right. It was spectacular and what a national treasure for Belgium.

The next day we had to say good-bye to the Links as they flew back to NC and we chugged back south on the TGV to Valence where we were greeted at the train station by Carlos and Zydeco. Nice to see their happy faces. The next morning, the school bell rang bright and early for Walker, and then the next morning Dick once again did his "hop across the big pond commute" back to work in the US. With his being gone, the bright and beautiful spring days have kept me outside as I attempt to do some weed control.

Our next big happening will be the long anticipated arrival of Kate on May 11th. Dick will return on May 16th. At last we'll all 4 be living in the same hemisphere, in the same time zone and on the same side of the pond! It will be so nice for all of us to be here for our remaining 6 weeks in France. So stay tuned as the adventures, learning and laughter continue to take us to unknown destinations.

Solo, but not for long ...

LAST OF THE GREAT WHITE SNOW - Bessan, France

Mid April and we are all set for spring. But doing what spring does best, we had a cold snap that offered up an invitation from friends to go 2 hours north of Grenoble to the village of Bessan to ski. Naturally, Dick and Walker jumped at the chance for the season's last bit of skiing and I am always happy to sightsee and read. So off we go, striking out on a gorgeous Saturday morning, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect skiing and reading day!!! We traveled higher and higher into the mountains and literally at the end of the road was our destination. The road would normally continue on but the winter snows had the road closed for several months and who knows when the snow melt will allow traffic to cross through the pass again.

Steeple of Baroque church

Charming village of Bessan, France

We had landed at the end of the earth it seemed, but what a beautifully charming village we would now over night in. Bessan is a tee tiny village (350 inhabitants - more animals than people by far!), with a lovely baroque church, and lots of large farm dwellings. The village is known for Beaufort cheese (yummy)!!! The large farm dwellings have two levels. The lower level serves as the winter living quarters for many many cows, sheep and goats (milk supply for the cheese!) and the upper level is then for the human inhabitants. Due to the huge amounts of snow in the area, the cows, sheep,goats AND PEOPLE remain INSIDE from late October until late May. The reason for the animal / human co-habitation is body heat. The animals give off heat that then rises into the upper living quarters. Now my question was, is it only heat that rises??? Throughout our 24 hour visit, I did not see a single animal (except for a fox!). I did smell the animals, and saw many of the farm dwellings with the cow dung blocks stacked outside the door which is used as a heat source for the home when burned in the stove. So obviously these farmers have a way of life we have never seen before. The village thankfully does have electricity, though a neighboring village did not. The amazing thing is these farm animals do not see the light of day for all these long winter months, then when spring does FINALLY arrive, all the animals are taken up into the mountains for summer grazing. We developed a whole new appreciation for the mountain areas that produce the wonderful French cheeses we all enjoy!

Barn w/ ladder leading to dung block storage used for heating the house !

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But the purpose of the trip was not for me to sightsee, but for skiing! And what a day. Not a cloud in the sky and powder, powder, powder!!!

Skiiers on their way!

They found their heaven!

The Dehrbys have been wonderful ski buddies and instructors for Walker this year. They took him to Italy for a week of skiing, and that is when Marise really took Walker to a higher level of skiing. She began skiing at age 2 and was a part of the French national ski team, so needless to say, Walker has been a lucky fellow to have ski time with this family!!!

We stayed in the Dehrby's precious barn (no animals!) that they have converted to cute and comfy living space. They have beautiful views out their windows.

Window view on Saturday



Same window view on Sunday in a mid April blizzard!!!

No skiing for the die hards with blizzard conditions. Obviously all the animals of Bessan will remain in their cozy barns for several more weeks. It will be quite a while before the spring grasses will appear for sure.

We headed back down the mountains, and were greeted by full flown spring here at "home on the range." Our Vercors mountains seem so tame compared to the high peaks of Bessan.