Michelle's Many Musings

We just returned from a fabulous three-week trip to France. It was a dream come true; I've wanted to go since I was in elementary school and did a report on France (hey, it's an easy flag to draw!). Everything we could have hoped for and more, that was our much-needed and saved-for vacation. A brief synopsis:

* Paris for only 2.5 days (but what days they were!). We did most of the big well-known sights and learned the Metro pretty quickly. We also learned you can't eat supper before 8pm or so; we felt like barbarians if we tried to eat supper at 6:00 or 7:00. In fact, people were still arriving for supper when we were leaving at 9:30 or 10:00. And the pastery shops; my god why aren't all French people fat as houses?

* Provence for just over a week. What an amazing place, full of history, culture, scenery, and damned civilized speed limits. We explored museums, churches, ruins; went hiking, spelunking and swimming; and we enjoyed great food and wine (wine = me, anyway). We also put more km's on our rental car than you can imagine - I think we drove to Winnipeg during our trip in kilometres driven! I even went on a couple of short runs, which were relaxing and enjoyable.

* South of France for two days. It kind of sucked driving from Provence to the West coast in pouring rain, but we survived. Carcasonne was lovely, but way too much of a tourist trap. Yes I know I was a tourist, but there are limits to what one can tolerate in touristy things.

* West Coast for just under a week. We stayed at our friend Fabienne's family summer cottage in a little town called Moliets et Maa. It was heaven - just over one km from the amazing beach that stretched on forever, the self-contained cottage near the Atlantic Ocean was our home-away-from-home. Although we spent one full day in nearby Bordeaux (pedestrian heaven there, let me tell you), most of our time on the coast was spent locally and often at the beach. We were getting weary of the museums and monuments; it was time to relax. We played in the pounding surf and Chris learned the valuable lesson of never turning his back on the sea.

We returned home on a near-empty 767, so were able to stretch out and got some rest. Who ever imagined a trip as long as ours would be half-decently comfortable? It was a long trip back though and we're glad to be home. Oh to live in France!

With a bagette under my arm and a hearty "bonne soiree", I'm off to deal with the impact of jet lag....