Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

We left Valbonne by 7AM, so all was quiet....... it was Sunday and no local cafe was open yet for a coffee. We hopped on the A8 and stopped at what we would fondly refer to at home as a turnpike rest stop, which is rarely appealing, and usually features McDonalds with burnt coffee. But not in France.  Yes, it was a rest stop; yes it was McDonalds, but here the coffee is made to order (duex cafe creme, madamoiselle) on a fancy machine by a real barrista, and yes, you can have a croissant with that. That’s reason number 1. The harbor in Cassis We made great time to Cassis, a small seaside village and the home of kir, where Steve dropped me off near the harbor so I could buy tickets for our calanques cruise while he parked in another Rick Steves recommended parking lot nearby. So first, what is a calanques? The literal translation is creek. How do you cruise to creeks from the sea? Well, actually these are more like fingers of water created by the melting of ...

After a full day of village hopping yesterday, the evening brought a three minute drive back to Valbonne to roam the cobbled alleys and find a bite. The casual pace of our travels dictates we don’t think too far ahead for dinner reservations (it seems we only reserve those gourmet lunches for some reason), but, alas, Valbonne in the summer on a Friday night is a bit like the summer at the seashore, busy...with most bistros fully booked. Luckily, there is always decent Indien (yes, they spell it that way here) and we snagged a table outside for our repast.  As we strolled back to our car, we went through the bustling main square where there are about five or six restaurants, each having at least 30 or 40 tables outside. Every table was full, the decibel level was well above Craig LaBan’s optimal 75, young children were running about having fun while their parents sipped wine, and although it was almost 10 PM, the light was just leaving the sky, allowing the string lights and can...

BIOT... no, ANTIBES......mais non, MOUGINS.   It’s an impossible choice, to say the least, and all are wonderful in incredibly different ways. It seems impossible that three towns or villages within 30 minutes of Valbonne could all be so charming in such different ways.    We started the day in Biot, a very small, very old, not very touristy spot only 15 minutes away. We have already gotten the hang of driving to these small villages, learning to park in the free lots at the edge of town and walk in, making it easy to avoid finding ourselves on streets too narrow to actually negotiate and reducing Steve’s frustration quotient by 1000%. Biot (pronounced Bee-oht) doesn’t appear in the Rick Steve’s guide, and no one had ever mentioned it to me. It is an artsy town with a wonderful history of pottery dating back centuries and glass blowing currently still going strong. It was the perfect stop for our morning coffee, a sunny square and an hour walk through town, up...

Our central location in Valbonne made for a quick 30 minute drive on the Auto Pista with NO wrong turns and Steve silently yielding to the ease of GPS with our Hertz Wifi Cellspot making it easy-peasy. Rick Steves helped heartily with his recommendation to drive to Nice Nord and park in a free garage, buy a one day transit pass for 5 Euro and hop on the tram at Henri Sappia,to whisk us into centro in ten minutes. Only one problem, but as usual, people are so helpful. Our American chip credit card, no PIN required, was rejected at the transit pass machine. There was no slot for paper money and we were short on coins. The information desk attendant had no change. There was no where in sight to get change. But the oh-so-nice clerk, who spoke no English, offered to buy our passes with his personal debit card if we had a 10 Euro note, which we gladly gave him and - voila - we got our passes. We managed to get off at exactly the right stop for a quick cafe creme, and the beginning of the Ri...

So, here we go. After Steve’s test of the new blog app, surprising many of you with an email of us and two strangers riding camels (weren’t they in Morroco in the fall?) followed by an old blog entry from Asia, we  think we have finally downloaded a new blogger app that may work. Not sure how many photos we can upload each day, possibly only one, but if everyone continues to faithfully read without a great pictorial accompaniment, then I will have won the big bet......do they read for the writing or just the pix and occasional WTF?   After a stop in Arlington to visit Shelby, David and Eli (really, mostly Eli, who charms us more each visit) we were off to France, specifically Provence, where our very first blog began.  Back then it was clearly a needed substitute for my job, providing some purpose and structure each day, an ease into retirement. Now it’s still fun but more importantly once we are home and make our blog into a book, along with great photo books, we el...

The Marci Wrap Up Report So, how would we ultimately rate our SouthEast Asia experience? I know that everyone who reads our blogs thinks that each trip has a different vibe (true) and that our first blog in Europe sounded like our favorite extended trip so far. And while that is probably true (I always have called it the trip of a lifetime) you really can’t compare the three experiences.  Asia was by far the most exotic. It took us in-depth to a part of the world very different than ours. It delved into more history, took us to small villages where life was very basic, had more flights, hotels and short stays than ever before and was a bit less independent than we are used to.  Sure, we would do it a bit different if we had to do it over, but the experience overall was amazing. We didn’t just skim the surface, we truly feel like we got to know the people and places and had great experiences everywhere, even if places were dirty, or we were sweaty.  So, ...

The Answer Many correct or close to correct responses, but only one perfect answer, by my good friend Dave F. Here's the item in question: He is either a very knowledgeable guy ( true), or a great image researcher. He used the actual correct name, which is a “Song Loan”, he knew how it is used, and the country of origin...you get full marks, Dave. Whilst in Vietnam our guide took us to a village along the Mekong, where a musical performance took place for us....here's a shot of the 3 people performing traditional country folk music piece -  It was eerily haunting and reminded both Marci & I of southern US delta blues music... funny, because this was the same type of geography half way around the world. That old guy could really play that old electric guitar.... She sang, the guide sang, a very  interesting and weird 15 minutes. But what keeps the time to the music? No drums....the guitarist, while playing, used the Song Loan to drum out a rhythmic be...