Well we finally wrestled our way out of Paris, then spent a couple of days in Versailles touring the palace and getting OZ back in shape. After that we made our way to Blois and Chambord in the Loire Valley. We were starting to get the hang of small French towns. But all attempts at Ken's French either bring laughter, blank stares or frustrated looks. For example, "Rue" as we Americans say it apparently means "sauce" instead of "road" like we intend. So you can imagine what kind of reaction we get when asking for the "Main Sauce". Ken gave up on asking for water ("eau" pronounced "oo") because it kept sounding like their word for "where" ("uh" and is "ooh la la"). Instead he just asks for Evian. Generally speaking everyone has been very pleasant and understanding, but there was the Frenchman who, after saying that he didn't speak English, let Ken go all through his bastardization of the French language. Then the Frenchman grunted something in exasperation and turned back to his work and ignored him. When Ken tried again, the Frenchman finally responded in better English than spoken by most NBA basketball players.

While we had intended to do a lot more of France, time and the weather was finally catching up with us. We were paying for our procrastination in England, adding Belgium and Denmark to our itinerary, and lingering in Berlin and Paris. Not only were we running out of time to make Christmas in Switzerland, but also the weather was turning nasty and it was getting cold. We decided to skip Spain and Portugal and head for warmer weather. Fortune was with us as our friends and travel consultant, Suzanne and Jerry Hogsett happened to be Nice at the time and were able to set us up with a condo. So like wintering birds, we headed south for the Cote-d'-Azur. We made a quick stop in St. Tropez then continued along the coast to a little seaside town just east of Monaco called Cap Martin. Our place is on the hill and we have a 180 degree view of the sea. We rode the train into Nice today and spent a wonderful day lunching at a beach side cafe then exploring the markets and small alleyways. Living here means one is a cliff dweller. The houses, roads, and buildings are are hung precariously off the sides of cliffs that plunge into the sea. The streets are narrow and winding. We felt fortunate to find a place to park OZ at the condo and decided to leave her right there and rent a small car for further exploration of the surrounding hillside and country.

Monaco (all one square mile of it) is one big and very expensive shopping mall. The prince (Rainier that is) has a pretty good thing going here. I mean, it must be nice to have your own country.

The weather here is pleasant and we are all happy about setting up house for awhile and relaxing. We were all tired after Paris and were getting bored with castles and chateau's. As Sherry says, "This is a trip, not a vacation". So we decided to take a little vacation. We put up our christmas tree tonight and the kids are getting excited about the holidays.

- Ken, Sherry, Piper and Skyler

              
Next Postcard     Preview Page     Prev Postcard

[ Comments ]