Bonjour from Basil!

Hi, this is Sarah writing....Since this year we were unable to take our dog over to France, my parents said it would be alright to get a bunny. We just got her and named her Basil. She is very lovable and follows me around when she is out of her cage. It is very cute!!! She is small, grey and French!!! When we got her we needed to get a cage of course and so we had to choose between a 43euro cage and a 53euro cage. We don’t know why but the 53euro cage was HUGE!!!! So that is the one we chose! I think my neighbor Hannah who is seven, could probably sleep in it and get a good night's sleep!

Basil is wonderful and has helped me learn to take on a big responsibility since the cage is about as big as me it is almost like having a child!!! But I still love her!!!

Here, my friend, Mckenna and I are playing with her...

Post by Sarah Bates

Hiking in the Grand Luberon

This fall, my friend, Bettina, invited me to join a women's group called Les Amies d’Aix. This organization, made up of mostly French women, was formed about 10 or so years ago by a small group of women who enjoyed getting together and doing things. The membership is about 200 strong and there are a variety of groups to join-the most popular two are the Cultural and Randonnee(Hiking) groups. Bettina and I joined about 60 other women in the hiking group which was separated into two groups of about 30 each. Each month, we go on a day long hike to some interesting destination in the Provence region. A professional guide joins us each time to not only lead us, but to provide interesting facts about the area we are visiting.

On our first hike, we went to L’Ourillon on the south side of the Grand Luberon mountain range. Our starting point, the tiny town of Vaugines, was about a 30 minute drive north of Aix.

Here, at the parking/meeting spot, our guide, Stephane, gives us directions to Vaugines and some details about the day’s hike…

In Vaugines, preparing to go...




This lovely old church greeted us as we began our hike...



Meandering through the narrow streets of Vaugines...



This fountain looked like a mushroom...



As we neared the summit, the weather turned quickly from warm summer to windy winter....



We took shelter on the other side of the summit to rest and have lunch out of the wind. When we set off again, the skies had cleared and it was happily much warmer!



Here is a lovely view looking south. The mountain in the distance, the one that slopes off quickly on the right side, is Mt St Victoire....a much different view of her than you customarily see from Aix.



We arrived back, about 6 hours later, invigorated by our first and very enjoyable hike of the season. A la prochaine!

A Hot Time in Charleston!

As promised, an entry from our summer in the States...

In early August, Nick, Lindsey, Sarah and I all made a journey to Charleston, South Carolina . We were accompanying Lindsey as she returned to begin her sophomore year at the College of Charleston and also going to visit my brother, Bill, and his family who moved there three years ago. The day we left on our trip, the heat index there was a steamy 119 degrees!!

Fortunately, we found some cooling breezes on Charleston's waterfront...

Here's a view looking north east at the Cooper River and over to Mt. Pleasant, where Bill lives.

The College of Charleston has a beautiful campus...the way it is situated, you can hardly believe it is in the middle of the city.

Even the Starbucks is quaint....

This year, Lindsey has moved off campus into a darling 19th century house with three other girls. They're in a great part of Charleston and just a 10 minute walk from campus. Here she is with some of her housemates...plus one future college student!




We really enjoyed our stay with Bill, Diana, Lee and Will. One of the highlights was Lee’s 5th birthday party which took place the (very hot) morning after our arrival. Thankfully, it was a pool party and while the children all kept cool in the pool, the parents were cooled by an industrial fan that Bill had set up poolside! The party theme was Disney’s Little Mermaid, with Ariel as the star.


There were many adorable little mermaids at the party that day...


We ate out several times and sampled some good ole down home southern cooking like hush puppies, BBQ’d ribs, corn bread and grits. From what we've experienced, the restaurants in Charleston are many, varied and excellent.... something for every palate.

We're all looking forward to coming back to Charleston but hope maybe in the winter next time!

Nous sommes arrives!!

Bonjour tous le monde! Hello everyone! Thought it would be a good idea to get a quick, first entry into the blog of our second “Almost year in Provence”. Truly, we have to pinch ourselves! When we first set off on this adventure one year ago, we never dreamed that we would have the opportunity (or even the desire) to come back for a second year---but here we are!!!

Our flight from Boston to Marseille via Dublin was uneventful but also without much sleep so we were exhausted upon arrival but had plenty of adrenaline to get us through the day! We picked up our rental car (another Peugeot station wagon exactly like the one we got last year) at the airport and drove immediately to our ‘new home’. 950 Chemin des Lauves will be home for us this year and we are quite pleased with the accommodations.

The nice owners, JP and Odile, are still here, living in a small, separate apartment they have in the lower level of the house. They have been teaching us about the pool, house, lawn care etc before they depart Saturday for their ‘almost year in Toronto’. The house is very comfortable-spacious, really, when compared to our rental house last year. It feels a bit large for the three of us right now but when Nicholas and Lindsey or other guests are here it will be perfect. We look forward to being able to use it to entertain friends and host group events and really share the space. As you can see, Sarah is already making good use of sharing the pool with her Dutch friends, Jeanne and Lara.

The weather has been lovely but cooler than it was when we arrived at this time last year. Warm sunny days-up into the 80's but we’ve been using quilts at night when it has been down in the 50's. Also, we have already had our first mistral!! The house is situated on the top of a ridge so when the wind blows we really feel it!

Since our arrival, we have been busy getting settled into the rental home and seeing and catching up with friends. Many of them, like us, have been 'home' in the States or in other European countries, for all or part of the summer so we all have tales to tell. Which brings me to the last thing for this blog entry. When we left Duxbury, it was with heavy hearts and tears in our eyes. It was difficult saying goodbye to family and friends. We had a wonderful summer with them all and will miss them a lot. It was such a great 10 weeks I never had time to sit down and write but one blog entry the whole time, so hopefully I'll get that chapter of our lives onto the blog very soon.

A la prochaine!
Susie