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.