The pictures reflect the heart---taken from the balcony of Stockemers condo, Hutchinson Island

contentment

contemplation

daybreak

consternation

 

 

Days on the beach on the Gulf Side

I took this picture of a surfer, said he's wishing and waiting.   and that i knew how he felt.    The grief hit me hard once i got to Florida, reminders of times here with Dan, missing his presence beside me.   I also felt good about being here, about driving here on my own, and felt adventurous.

Sarasota was so much fun, got to catch up with many friends.   Above are some Kalamazoo friends, whom i first met in 1968-70!   Trudi, Judi and Alan, and Nancy and Richard. What a thrill this was, we really had a fun evening, despite death, illness, and old age!

The heart goes on alone. feb.8, 2017

“This land, like so much of the French countryside, was a painting, but Mercier felt his heart touched with melancholy and realized, not for the first time, that beautiful places were hard on lonely people.”
― Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw

i now write our blogs alone.   My beloved Dan died last march 22nd and my heart aches every day.

i am on my first vacation without him, except for visits to kids or Jm or Laura.   Generous wonderful friends have allowed me to go to Sarasota, and Stuart, Florida.  I took them up on their offers and drove down here alone.
it's been fun, and i've decided to blog again, although it is so sad to  write this first one, alone.

i went to St. Petersburg on a rainy day, to the Dali musem, where they also had a Frieda Kahlo exhibit.   The Dali is as good as the one in Spain, although it didn't have the wonderful jewelry that was at the one in Figueres.

I also went to the Chilhuly Museum, which i loved!   His glasswork is gorgeous, dramatic, colorful.  all the rooms are dark except for the wonderful lighted glassworks.

Link to our pictures from France and Spain 2014

This is the link to our pictures from our trip to Spain and France 2014

https://picasaweb.google.com/112860836649995895286/SpainAndFrance2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCO3d2Y7AiaLKag
 

Things We Learned

1.  St Jorge's Day-  A Catalan holiday where the men  women a flower and the women give men a book.

2.  First of May- a big deal in France, a non-working Holiday where the men give women Lilies of the Valley.

3.  The Catalans, in Barcelona and Northern Spain mostly.  A proud people who have their own language, traditions, and strongly want their own Nation.

4. The Cathars-  a religious order during the Middle Ages who were eventually destroyed by the Catholics around 1300. 

5. The expression for having a cold in french is "j'ai rhume" and it's very difficult to say!

6.Some of the public toilets in France now have toilet seats, but many still do not, so therefore, French women must have a special ability to squat.

7. The best way to shower is to sit in the bathtub rather than stand in the tub with the hose as it sprays all over the place.   The bathtubs can be very large.

8. The "Chemin de Liberte" or "Chemin du Bons Hommes" are the trails leading from France into Spain that were used during WWII to lead Jews and other refugees, as well as downed American and British pilots, out of Nazi Germany and France into Spain and freedom.    These were the same trails used in reverse during the Spanish Civil War where the Republicans were fleeing from Franco.
Pat

Le Petit Chapeau Rouge

 

Our last day here, getting ready to leave. 

Our hostess Carol, Pat, Dan and Puppeteer Mathias Kuschta

It's been great to get to know Carol, and to meet her husband, Bruno, as well as Mathias Kuschta, a Puppeteer from Germany whose career Carol manages.  We've been included in dinners with them, and went to see Mathias perform today at community theater.

Mathias and the Big Bad Wolf and Pat

In the afternoon, we saw Mathias's performance, of "Le Petit Chapeau Rouge", which, if you haven't figured it out, is Little Red Riding Hood.  It was delightful!  Mathias is very talented.  The puppets are almost lifesize, and he really gets into the story.  The kids were yelling for our heroine to not go into the house, they were completely mezmerized by the play.   Very enjoyable!

Earlier, we went to a market in a nearby town, Creon.   It was another really great market, crowded and lively, with all sorts of booths.
We went home afterwards, only to discover that Dan had lost his phone.

Find my phone map

Without panicking, he used the "find my Iphone" app on the Ipad, and it worked. We  found the location of the phone. It was near the location of the market. The app locates it on a map. This picture shows what we had to work with. We waited for Carol to come home, then got in the car with her as she had some idea where the location was, and speaks the language.  We got to the general area, but couldn't figure out exactly where the house was.  We drove back and forth, all of us using our sleuthing abilities as best we could, and we were beginning to get frustrated.  We pulled the car over at one point to reassess the satellite picture, and who should drive up but a postman.
We all had the same idea at the same time, to ask him!   He stopped his car, and came over to help us, cheerfully.    Well, he told us he had just delivered mail to a house that had a sign on it that said, "Iphone found", in English!  We immediately drove over there, and found the nice woman who had found the phone and had smartly written the message. Quite the adventure! The app worked.  This is a good example of how friendly and helpful people can be.  We did find that throughout Spain and France.

Later that night, we went to St. Emilion's, walked around, and then had a wonderful dinner.     It's been a really good trip.

Dan's random thoughts

France has the best food

Less smoking in Spain and France than before but still a lot

Bordeaux is cool

Have to remember B and B 's in Europe 

Why is kerosene on a gas pump?

Pack fewer t shirts

Microfiber is great

Drink the water it's fine

The French have answered the question of toilet seats up or down. They take them off in public rest rooms

It's not fair that Europe has better trains than we do

Rotaries are a good thing but you can have too many 

The gps is always correct but sometimes not right double check with a map

The travelling itself is part of the trip

It's hard to stay organized when you move around a lot

We are language chauvanists in the US

Educated Europeans speak at least two or three languages

Peter Sellers Lives On

I have caught a cold, which has been inconvenient, but not stopped us from activities, including wine tasting.  I am learning how to say it in French, and it's "j'ai rhume".     I've done very well speaking French, I must say, but I cannot say the word "rhume" well at all.   I feel like Peter Sellers and the Pink Panther when I do.  I have actually made a few French people smile when I tell them this.   of course, I generally say this as I am making a purchase or drinking some vin, so maybe that is pourquoi!

We have been exploring Bordeaux, and what a beautiful city it is!    I think it's almost as pretty as Paris, and so much easier to negotiate. We want to return and spend more time there. Mostly we walked around and did  some shopping, had a very good lunch in a place called "La Belle Epoch" as it was decorated in that style.

We drove to St. Emilion,  where the big Chateaus are where they produce the wonderful Bordeaux wines.  Beautiful area!

We love where we are staying, it is with the sister of a friend of ours who owns a B & B called La Forge and has a website "whatscookinginfrance.com".  Lovely, and so is she and her husband Bruno de Montchard and another guest of theirs who is a puppeteer from Germany named Mateus.  They have included us in dinners and it has been very enjoyable.

I have really enjoyed talking to Carol, learning what her life has been like living here and raising her children to be bi-cultural.

Talking to her and others is why we love travel, you learn so much about other cultures.

We both have tended to talk to others when we're out for dinner in restaurants and have really enjoyed that.  Last night, we met a couple from London, who, as it turned out, were rather comical in an almost Benny Hill kind of way.   They were telling us about this book they found hilarious , "100 Ways to Annoy the French".   They talked about it loudly, in the middle of a restaurant in France.  They could add the 101st way to annoy the French.  What I found interesting about it, after my chagrin, was the undercurrent of centuries of nationalistic differences. 

We have also been struck by the views of the Catalans, who strongly want separatism, to be their own nation.  Travel can make this so real to us as we encounter these different cultures.

You Never Know What You'll Stumble Into

A busy travel day.   Drove from our place in the Pyrennes to Figuera to turn in our car.  We have to return it in Spain or pay 500 Euros extra if we return it in Spain, so we returned it, then took the train one stop to Perpignan in France, and picked up another one.   Long drive there through more mountains!   (who knew Spain had so many mountains or that the Pyrenees were so huge!)

Returned the car, had to take a cab to the other station to catch the train, then had to wait 2 hours for it.    Got the new car easily and efficienctly and were happy about 

that.

It can be frustrating, very frustrating, but we realize it's just all part of European travel.  Good to remember, to never be that rushed, because it just won't work!   Probably the spa yesterday helped us too!   We met a few very odd people on the train, one a woman named Sarah, who lives on the Costa Brava, but is originally Swiss.  The other, a man from Perth who is apparently a professor of culture but who travels all the time.   They didn't know each other either.   We met Sarah while waiting on the platform for the train, and within 5 minutes, she invited us to stay at her house and wrote her phone number.   She did the same for the man, i think!   (she is married, she kissed her husband a long good bye)    He passed out his business card to her and then to me, told me to get in touch with him.

I mean, I knew these people about 10 minutes!  I am friendly, but this puts me to shame!   I think, perhaps, people who travel a lot on their own can just be like this.

We drove to Carcasonne with few mishaps, and discovered the B & B we are staying in is delightful and near La Cite, the Walled City.   Very nice place, called La Maison Vielle, very small and private.

The Walled City is spectacular.   Very huge, well preserved and fun to walk around.  Ate dinner at a place and had the specialty around here, cassoulet.  Mine had duck confit in it.  wonderful, came to the table sizzling away.   Very, very filling, but very good.  

We walked around and went into the old chapel, saw a group of people standing near the altar.  Suddenly, they began to sing!  It was beatiful!   We just sat down and listened.  

It was not in French, we couldn't figure it out, though i thought it might be Polish.   Finally asked someone who said they were from Slovenia, on a bus tour, and were a choir.   

Very cool!

Actual conversation

Dan:   what does "je ne sais pas mean?

Pat: " I do not know."

Dan:  " but you say it all the time, how can you not.................oh!

They really wanted to get rid of the Cathars and a Stairway walk from Hell

The Cathars were a group of religious zealots during the 12th and 13th Century who were a very strict religious order whose beliefs contrasted with the Catholic Church. They were violently destroyed by the Church, and rather than agree to imprisionment or conversion, they stood their ground . Subsequently   they were burned alive.

This whole area, around Carcasonne, and the South of France is called "Pays Cathars", where they settled. One of the most famous strongholds where they lived was called Peyrepertuse, and it was a castle built into a rock formation high on a mountain.

We spent the first part of the morning at a charming town called Limoux, about 1/2 hour from Carcasonne.  We walked around and stumbled into the "marche", their market day. It was a  nice little town, with all the cobbled narrow streets, boulangers, patisseries, and cafes. We ended up eating lunch there.   I had an omelet with roquefort cheese in it, oh, delicious!  The real roquefort too.   We had an aperatif before lunch, the suggested one, which was a small glass of "blanchette", a white wine made from the grapes before they make it into champagne.  I liked it, it is very light, good for lunch.  (of course, the French drink wine all the time)     

After lunch, we drove to Peyrepertuse on a narrow, very narrow, curvy, very curvy road.  Beautfiul, but yikes, it is getting tiring!   Finally, we got there!   You have to walk up to the castle on these narrow, uneven, stone steps that are on the side of the mountain!    There are trees every so often to hang onto.  I don't know if the worse part was the uneven steps that were often very steep, or the drop off near by, or the mistral winds that were kicking up!  The winds were worse on the way down, which was somewhat fortunate, but I was hugging the right side of the steps, refusing to look anywhere but on the step I was walking on! It was quite a walk!    The castle was fascinating, once we got there, some of it has been restored.   I kept wondering why the Catholics would even bother to attack them, how the hell did they even get up there?

It's always amazing to me how old things are here and that they are preserved!   It is astounding, really, and is evident all over on our driving, we see parts of stone edifices everywhere, as well as grottos and caves.   This country itself is so old!

After the walk we returned to Carcasonne a different way, much, much easier and quicker.

We had dinner at a place near us that was allegedly Italian, although it wasn't.   Dan had Cassoulet again, this one was much better!  I just had minestrone soup, which was also excellent.  We began talking to the people at the next table, who were Italian.   It turns out, they were from a nearby town near the village we had stayed at in Italy! This is quite a coincidence because this village is very tiny and very remote!  

Relaxing in the SS Enterprise and a visit from St. Jorge

After the harrowing day yesterday, of the kerosene in the gas tank, the chaos of getting another car, and the very tense drive home through hairpin mountain curves at night, we decided we would go to a spa today.

We went to Andorra de Veille, to the -------Calda spa, which is allegedly one of the largest in Europe.  The building was new, and very futuristic, with aluminum scultures everywhere, hanging from the  enormous towered ceiling.  The stairways were back lit in blue, curving up to various floors.

We were led to our separate changing rooms, given thick white terry robes and towels, and fiip flops.  

We didn't buy the whole package, but our package included various thermal pools, a sauna, a series of different kinds of showers, a salt relaxing room, and a water bed.

We spent most of the time lolling in the water, walking around slowly, lying down on the beds in the water, sitting under the strong sprays of the jets, bubbles and water falls, all in lukewarm water.

We spent about 2 hours in the water, and didn't even realize it.  I went outside a few times, once to sun bathe, though i had my robe on as it was chilly, but also to swim around the outside pool and waterfall.

After, we went to the sauna and various showers.  We didn't spend very much time there, though i wish i had.  We were so relaxed, hard to even know why!   wonderful!

Later, went back to our village and took a walk into town.   It is St. Jorge's day, a Catalan holiday that is like Valentine's Day.  The men give the women a rose and the women give the men a flower.  And yes, Dan did get me a flower!  I couldn't get him a book, as they were all in Spanish, but I bought him a pastry!

Had our last meal with Tess cooking especially for us, and her husband (Alfonso) waiting on us, and of course, both of them talking to us.   The dinner was really wonderful, and I told her it should be her signature dish---she made a confit of duck, that was crispy on the outside but tender on the inside, served with thin slices of apples cooked in butter with sugar.  The combination of the 2 was perfect!

4 Days of wonderful dinners

So the place we stayed at, as we said earlier, is quite rustic.   Dan cannot walk in the upstairs loft where the bed is because he would hit his head.  I laughed hilariously the first night as he looked like Gulliver. The bed is comfortable and the loft is cozy, but it would probably be hot in the summer. 

We have grown quite fond of it here, however, though we are ready to leave.  The best part is the cook, Marie Therese, and her  husband Alfonso.

The rest of the very small staff are very friendly also.  It probably borders on overly casual, but we love it!  Their 2 delightful dogs run in and out, coming over for a pet, quite often during meals until they get shoed out.    Marie comes out and talks to us in her broken English fand she wants to learn the correct words and loves to talk!  One night, she talked about being Catalan, as well as her feelings, and her elders feelings, about Franco.  (NOT positive!)  She is proudly Catalan, as most everyone here is, and they display the Catalan flag 


But i want to talk about the food!  Marie Therese owned a restaurant in Barcelona in the Barrie Gothic district before moving here with her very nice husband.  We have been the only guests in the hotel for several nights, so she has cooked whatever we like.  And she can cook!  My  dinner was thinly sliced turkey rolled up with a wonderful emmenthal and blue cheese sauce, oh, it was wonderful!  Tonight was my favorite meal, which I requested--duck confit.   She cooked the duck crispy on the outside, so full of flavor from the confit, and tender on the inside.  But the best part was the accompaniment, which was thinly sliced apples cooked in butter and sugar.  The combination of the tastes was heavenly and I told her this should be her signature dish.

Dan will tell his own food loves.  

I also loved the Duck, and she prepared Mackarel which was fantastic  The best part was having our own cook for a week.  When we did eat somewhere else the quality was nowhere as good.  I also liked the sausages at breakfast and suprisingly the Spanish beer was quite good.

the good of the good, the bad and the ugly

So Dan wrote about the bad and the ugly, and i will write about the good.   The drive to Foix was beautiful, up and over a mountain.  Many hairpin turns, but well paved and marked, not as scary as others we've encountered.   Stopped in Ax les Thermes for a bit, and found it a delightful town.  Lively, with a charming square and a fun market, where, as Dan said, we bought some wonderful cheese and bread.  People were very friendly, tolerated my french, and actually smiled with us.

Saw the baths, which really look fun, and very tempting.

The Chateau at Foix is their big attraction, and we had hoped to see it more on the way back.   It overlooks the entire city, so we saw it as we drove through.  It is Romaneques, and i think had some significance with the Cathars.

In St. Girons, I did get to the "Musee de la Liberte", though even in the town, it was hard to find!   It's just a small little museum that is apparently not very well known.    I watched a video first about it, then walked around the museum.  The bad part was that I was very time limited because of getting back to the car, so I had to race through.   I got the flavor of it, and saw (briefly) the exhibits, and though I was there a short time, I enjoyed it.   Indeed, as we drive through the Pyrenees all over this area, we often consider how and where people escaped from Nazi Germany and Vichy France.   This trail was apparently started with the Spanish going towards France to escape Franco.   

History is so alive when you come to these countries!   So even if you knew about it, or heard about it, it has totally different significance.    For example, on the road, we passed through "Verdun", which we've all heard of, but I had forgotten that it was a long, bloody battle during WWI. (Not many pictures for today a little preoccupied with car). Will add more when we get home. 

A bad day in France and Kerosene at the Petro pump

In case you had any doubt, it is true that Kerosene does not work in cars. Things have gone very smoothly for us on this trip, and we have had few screw ups.  Considering neither of us speak Spanish, (Pat is doing a great job with French) and English is fairly easy to find,we have gotten around quite fine. The GPS has been very valuable and has worked quite well.

Today, though, was an exception.  

It all started quite well.  We mapped a course through France, which is only a few miles from our hotel, that would take us through some beautiful country, with the destination being a museum which was dedicated to the Freedom trail.  The Freedom trail was the route that many refugees from France took to Spain in WWII. Pat took a great interest in this, and  researched it, so I am sure she will post about it. She did visit it, though I never did make it.  I was spending quality time at a service station. 

Our trip took us through the town of Foix, France and Ax les Thermes, where we found a market in progress.  We wandered through the market, picked up some Bleu cheese, and a baguette. We loved the atmosphere of the town. There is a very nice Spa with a large mineral water pool. We didin't bring our swim suits with us, but it looks like it would be great fun and relaxing.   We then headed to town of St-Girons about 45 minutes away. St. Girons is a more gritty town, less charming, but practical. It seemed to have a large hospital, that draws people there.  The river was running angrily. Lots of run off from the mountains.

After an unremarkable lunch, we found the Office de Turisme, which was closed. So we went in search of the Freedom Museum. 

I decided to fuel up while we had the chance.  That's when the fun began. European gas stations are self serve and I have purchased gas in many countries. They are confusing, however. This one was quite large,  and had several lines.  I chose one that was empty and pulled to the front.  Nothing looked familiar, though it was a typical pump like you might find in the states.  I realized you had to pay inside, but managed to get the pump to start working. It did not look the same as the pumps I used in Spain and they were marked differently.  I made a decision about a pump, which also was different, and I began questioning whether I was doing the right thing.  The nozzle did fit in the tank, though not very well.  No one came running out of the gas station or anything so I kept filling the tank, and it didn't spill so I thought all was OK.  Who knew that the French word Lampant means kerosene? 

I filled the tank walked in and paid. I found out that the man who owns a station is married to a woman from California. He spoke fairly good English and was very friendly. We've got directions from him to the museum and took off down the road. The museum was not very well marked so it was difficult to find. We ended up driving around and back into the town. The car began to miss and not run right. At that point I knew that I had put something into the gas tank that did not belong there. 

I turn down a very narrow road and drove to the end. I didn't realize that this was a sidewalk. So I backed up the entire length of it. 

The car was running even worse. I did make it back to the gas station and explained what was happening to the man who could speak English. We went out to the pump and he explained me that I had filled the car with the oil that you used to heat with. I then took out my translator and realized that Lampitt means kerosene. This was not good.

This was the beginning of a three hour adventure of calling Eurocar in two different countries, getting a wrecker,  and riding 60 miles a wrecker through the countryside of France. When we arrived at euro car they had no idea what was going on.

Several phone calls and one hour later we did receive a car.  By this time we were an hour further away from our hotel than we had been before. we were now looking at a three hour trip over a 10,000 foot mountain. And it was dark. 

This was a rather harrowing trip over the mountain. There were many curves and switchbacks. It was pitch dark. I took my time and let cars pass when they could. We made it over without incident but I was rather tired when it was all done. It was nice to get home to our hotel in Spain. I'm not sure there's any moral to the story. It was a dumb mistake. I have to forgive myself and move on and enjoy the rest of the trip.

The repetition of the Catalan dance and the charms of the area

We are finding this area quite entertaining, though we can be easily amused, I admit. We didn't have an agenda today, for one thing, it is Easter Monday and nothing is open. So, we took a few walks and a few drives.

We saw a mare in a pen with her little colt, walked over to see--respectfully, since Mama horse was quite protective.   The little foal was barely able to stand up he was so new, and we found out that indeed, he was one day old!  So cute to see him wobbling his way to mama to nurse, learning how or run after her, though not quite running yet.

Took a drive later to find "Le Gare Jaune"" the yellow train, which is supposed to be a very old train that goes between a few towns through mountain passes.    It had intrigued us and we wanted to do it, but after going to 2 towns to find out about it, and not finding out much, decided to give it a pass. It would take an entire day, and we have already driven through much of the route. It is spectacular, but a whole day on a  small train.......

Came back to the room to plan the rest of the week. We will leave here earlier, on Thursday so we can spend time in Carcasonne and some other areas of southeast France.   Also decided to go to St. Girons tomorrow as well as the town of Foix, will be an all day trip.  This is where "le Chemin de Liberte" began and there is a museum there.  This is one of the trails through the Pyrenees that brought Jews and other refuges to safety during WWII.

Later, went to a village festival, or even a regional festival.  It was outside near a grotto that we had to walk to and consisted of many groups of children through young adults doing a traditional Catalan dance.  It was the same dance over and over!

 But, charming to see the traditional costume and all the Catalan faces, really a beautiful people. I believe we were the only people there who were not Catalan. It rained throughout the performance so the crowd and the dancers were all wet. This was not your normal tourist activity.  

The other charm we have found is the hostess/cook here, named marie Therese, who wants to be called Tess. She is a hard working woman and a great cook.  She is our personal chef this week, as we are now the only guests in the hotel.  Tonight's dinner will be roast chicken.  

Figures

I am sitting in the main courtyard at Dali museums  in Figures. This is a magnificent museum and exhibition. Because it is Easter week it is extremely crowded in the museum and the surrounding area. 

My knee started hurting from all the steps that we climbed yesterday. So I just decided to sit here and watch the people and enjoy the art that I could see from the chair. A fairly cosmopolatin crowd.  

After this museum we went to the second exhibit which was all Dali's jewelry.  Pictures of this will be posted when we get get them off the camera.  

After Figures we headed down the coast to Cadaaques then into France. Stopped in Arguliies.  Both coastal towns were packed with cars so we couldn't find a place to park.  Just kept driving and endeds up at our hotel.  More later, as well as links to pictures.

The sea, the mountains, and the salad, soup and chocolate, along with confit and a little cognac

A long, good day.  Left Figures for the coastal town of Cadaques, a town of white washed buildings on the beautiful mediterranean coast, the Costa Brava.  It was a gorgeous drive, looked like towns you see in movies!    It was crowd however, and we could not find a place to park!  We cannot come here during Easter week again.  

Drove on to Colliouere, a similar town in France that our friend, Katheen recommended.  A similar story, simply too crowded, but charming as all get out!  Ended up having lunch Argeles Sur Mer, which is definitely off the beaten path!   Each of us had a "galette", which is basically a crepe, very good.  interesting little place, the women next to us started talking to us so I got to practice my French.  Not too bad, but pretty rusty.   Still, fun to take the risk.

Drove a long way to our little town, back in Spain in the Pyrenees on the border.   Interesting place!

Very rustic, very remote.  don't know if I can stay here a whole week, we have to drive everywhere and it may take a while.  still, it has it's charms.  We walked into the nearby town and there was a little concert going on with the men, women and children in it singing I believe in Catalan, wearing the red Catalan caps.  Very nice moment.

Came back to our room and hotel, very rustic but quiet.   Very rustic, it was once a barn.   Well, I have already slept in a barn in Sweden, Per, if you are reading this, take note!    Had dinner here.  We will apparently be the only ones staying here next week, as the Easter crowds will be gone, so we have to let Maria Theresa, the cook and hostess, know about meals.  She will make whatever for us.   We ordered our breakfast tomorrow, eggs, bacon, coffee. She will basically be our personal chef!  Her husband and son work here too and we spent dinner time with her trying to explain the menu to us in her broken English.  The son and husband came over too to confer.  Ordering the meal took about 20 minutes but was quite amusing. I think this stay will be very interesting!