We're baaaaack!!!

We landed Friday morning for France 2010. It was not easy, even though we were organized and shipped three boxes with mostly clothes, and some health food products I can't get here. It was still a difficult journey. So much to organize to leave with each of us running a business now, and getting the dog here as well. When we arrived at Terminal B in Newark/Liberty airport, the construction was overwhelming, road repaving, and other work left the terminal with no AC and I thought the ticket agent who was checking me in was going to faint from the heat and humidity. Fortunately, I had filled the dog's water bottle with ice and only a little water so she had cold water for most of the flight.

We were delayed an hour due to the late arrival of our plane. D.'s plane was going through Montreal and we would meet in Paris. He had the free ticket on Continental while I had to pay for Air France. But his plane was delayed leaving Newark and he and S. (my son) were the last to make it on board. The one bag they checked did not follow until the next day.

Fortunately, we were staying overnight in Paris at the Sheraton CDG in the airport. We ventured into Paris to our mainstay Chez Andre on Rue Marbeouf, to meet a college classmate with whom I reconnected at a recent reunion. She has lived in Paris for 20 years, and works at Hermes, how fabulous is that!

We had a lovely meal, nice company, with perfect weather. I gather that the weather in Europe has been terrible. When we arrived yesterday afternoon and stopped at our favorite farmstand to get some basics for the house, we chatted (I should say D. chatted, I listened) with the owner who told us about the weather for the last two weeks was terrible, high winds, and much rain, not good for the cherries and apricots.

When we arrived at the house we were sad to learn that one of our favorite trees, a beautiful apricot tree, had to be cut down after it became uprooted in one of the heavy storms, the mistral, during the last two weeks of bad weather.

But we moved in, exhausted, I unpacked while D. went shopping to Auchon because the stores would be closed on Sunday. And then we went into St. Remy for a late dinner at Bistro de Alpilles which has changed its menu substantially, but was wonderful as always.

Today, we slept on and off, watching some world cup with our German host and his friends. And I made a late dinner and we sat outside and enjoyed the air and light. I thought that however much I love being here, a Starbucks decaf cappuccino skim would be perfect tonight, but I won't be having that for a month.

We were spending some time also getting used to our new iphone 4g - which D. had decided we should have before we left, so there we were the morning we were leaving getting up at 5:30am, and on line at the store at 6:30am, and getting our reserved phones activated and out the door by 9:15 am, so not terrible, but stressful, to then get on the plane with a phone I am not familiar with. But fun and an adventure.

But now we will settle in and explore old and find new favorites.

More from the NY Times - Bordeaux

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/travel/20hours.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Haiku - attempt.

1.

A first trip to provence

In hot lavender july

Breathing olives and sunflowers

Mon premier voyage vers la Provence

En lavande chaude juillet

Je respire des olives et des tournesols

2.

the cold crispness of fall

like biting into apples

fresh from the trees – crunch

la croustillance froide de la chute

comme mordre dans des pommes

frais des arbres - craquement

3.

on the first day first class

overwhelming fear anxiousness

to find welcoming joy in language

sur ma première classe de premier jour

J'ai fait face à l'anxiousness primordialement de crainte pour trouver seulement faire bon accueil à la joie dans la langue

rU 261 - EU airline regs

who knew - this is an important article for those traveling to europe this summer:

if you flight is delayed or canceled:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37661370/ns/travel-tips/

Already in Provence

Yes, it is May, and in May in my world, my mind begins to wander to Provence. Although our house is already reserved and tickets purchased, we begin planning supplied and clothes and deciding what we need to buy in advance, what we need to send ahead (this year not much), and begin to work harder to finish everything we need to do before we get on the plane.

But today, when the temperature was to reach 90 degrees, my mind was already in Provence, as I dressed this morning in linen slacks and a t-shirt, and picked out my bag, sunglasses and shoes, as if I was going to walk through the market in St. Remy or have lunch in Apt or Aix, I have been infected yet again with the attitude and comfort I find there. And I wish I could maintain it year-round, but I can sustain it for only a few months after I return (our French class for 11 weeks helped), and maybe begin again a month or two before we travel again.

In the years when we are able to travel to Paris during the winter, we can get infused once again. This spring we were unable to complete our French class as planned, but that probably would have helped sustain the disease, and taken us to the brink of when we travel. But maybe next year we will try yet again.

But we are beginning the wind up to the wind down, and my mind will be getting ready to let down, unwrap and slip sideways.

NY Times nails it

As always, the Times gets it right about France in this wonderful article about Longuedoc:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/travel/09Languedoc.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

Other notes on Hong Kong

But not mine - from a reporter for CNN who lives there:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/05/07/lustout.hongkong/index.html?hpt=Sbin