Hello from France!

I think the air here is different; I wonder if there is a scientific basis for it. Outside our hotel room, there is a tiny courtyard with a little view of blue sky a few stories up. A bird just flew over. It is only a few steps across to the place where we ate breakfast. You tell the man what you want (he speaks more than enough English for that), as far as coffee, tea or chocolate and he brings a little pot to your table. Then you can choose pastries from the buffet--small pains au chocolat or raisins (even better than chocolate), plain croissants and rolls like individual baguettes. There is also cheese and two kinds of cold meat (charcuterie), as well as yogurt--French yogurt is delicious, a little more liquid than the typical American kind. There are many kinds of jelly and honey, but somehow the butter and bread is what I fall back on, the pastries finally being just too much, after eating them for a week, although still wonderful.

We are so happy to find this hotel; it has family rooms--ours has enough beds for six. I called yesterday on my French phone (thanks Anna!) and inquired--only 85 euros per night for two nights. When we got here, he directed us up three flights to a lovely two-story suite, a double bed upstairs with a bathroom, and one single bed and one bunk bed (room for 5) on the main floor. There was a little balcony and the bathroom had a tub. We left Vanessa in the lobby and took half the suitcases up. When we came down, the gentleman offered to show me another room on the main floor, which I happily did. He was concerned about madame...and rightly so. She could have made it upstairs--and down again when we left, but she might have stayed there the whole time rather than go up and down four flights of stairs. The new room, I figured out, was for people with disabilities. It has a shower that is sort of built into the bathroom and is all on one level. A little less privacy, sadly, but we sacrificed for the convenience of not having to go up and down the stairs--and having two double beds...Everything we do has to be explained and discussed with 3 other people, some of whom don't hear very well. My Dad was up in the first room, so we went back up and got the suitcases from there and told him the situation and said goodbye to our balcony...

It was only later we realized what a great location it has. The Captain was very tired and wanted nothing more than to write a column and catch up on his correspondence, now that we had internet access again. The three of us decided we needed to hurry if we wanted to get lunch, because we had learned that the restaurants will not serve after 2. The excellent man at the desk made several recommendations--there is a Hippopatamus (a French chain) not far away, a restaurant around the corner (L'Ane Qui Tousse), and a pizzeria the other direction. Man, have we seen pizza in the south of France! It is of course, quite different from American pizza (better, to my way of thinking). So we went to the restaurant down the street and sat at a table on the sidewalk.