Jackie has kept us so busy, it is impossible to keep up with blogging. We've had enough wonderful adventures for a week in the last two days. Yesterday we went to a mountain village of Gordes and spent the morning in the market shopping for table cloths and matching napkins and a few gift items. Our next project was to get the cheese for our communal picnic. Feeling ever braver with my VERY spotty French, I must have said something simple about fromage to the 60-something cheese vendor at which point he took a look at both Marie and me and clearly started flirting with us. I am sure (though I missed most of what he said) that he asked me didn't I think Marie was very sexy. Having no quick retorts of any kind, I could only answer honestly, oui!

We had our picnic of baggette, cheese, salami, ham, tapenade, tomato, melon and fruit tart on a picnic bench at the olive oil farm we visited next. Unknown to us before we arrived, the olive maker also makes a terrific rose wine which he graciously offered to our picnic. His tour of his grove and the machinery and process of mAking olive oil was as great as his wine.

From there we went on to Roussillon- home of ochre and it turns out, also a hiding place for Samuel Beckett. We walked there and through the town and had dinner there before heading home to Maubec. Our day ended about 10PM. Too exhausted to write then, we just cleaned up and fell into bed!

Yesterday we explored our little village of Maubec, la vielle and la jeune. The new part (circa 1800) houses a post office and epicerie, soccer field, and tennis courts. The old part built into the mideval fortress wall has elegantly restored homes, an ancient church, and raised cemetery, not unlike those we have seen in Mexico. We had a great meal in another village called Coustellet where Marie and I both embarrased Jackie by first asking to split a meal and then, even worse, asking to take half our cheese plate home with us. We are afraid we are about to be voted off the island! We visited a lavender museum in the afternoon where we learned the difference between lavandine (a common hybrid) and true lavender. And then with free time to ourselves, Marie and I went off on a hike for an hour and a half before cleaning up for another gourmet meal at La Bastide. We read for a half hour and had another peaceful slumber until well after our usual wake up time.

Sunday late afternoon at La Bastide du Bois Breant - Maubec

I would have have liked to report that we had a long but uneventful trip to Provence.  But alas, that was not the case.  The trip was long -- true.  We had cramped seating, of course, on the big jumbo 777 jet and though uncomfortable, Marie and I both slept part of the trip to Paris.  The food was edible though not great and Marie ate little of her pasta, all of her salad.  It was a half hour out from CDG when Marie got up to visit the W.C. and the next minute she was lying in the aisle of the jet completely passed out, and unresponsive to me.  I dropped to the floor and held her head and called her name, but she was not there!  Terrified again (memories of last year's ordeal flooded my mind), I realized that there was a young man behind me who obviously wanted to be closer to Marie but did not want to displace me.  I could tell that he could be of more use to Marie than I, since I was doing nothing helpful, so I moved a little to give him access.  Later he identified himself as Laurent, un medicin!  The stewards and stewardesses were great, and brought pillows and oxygen quickly, and then supplied Laurent with a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope.  Laurent's English wasn't very good, but good enough to reassure me that "this is nothing serious".  Still, it wasn't over quickly.  Even after Marie was back in her seat, protesting that she was fine, she fainted again.  Twice I ordered and then cancelled the medical team planned to meet us at landing.  When Laurent suggested that we delay our trip to Provence for a couple of days and just go to the hospital to get a checkup, I was reminded of how quickly I jumped out of the wheelchair I found myself in after fainting while visiting my Grandfather in hospital.  There was NO WAY Marie was going to the hospital instead of Provence!  Since she was fully back in her head and body, the decision was now out of my hands, which didn't mean I wasn't worried, but we went on-- on to a full strenuous day of travel by train -- lugging suitcases up and down staircases and running for trains.  And Marie was strong and fit and conscious!  It was a trying day but a wonderful one, made all the better by our knowing how lucky we are to be where we are - healthy and together.

We are struggling with Macbook and French Ethernet connection. So this blog entry is from a text message from my iPhone. THAT is all we are struggling with! Everything else is wonderful. Jackie is a terrific tour guide. She knows her clientele well and has paced this trip exactly right for us so far. La Bastide du Bois Breant is lovely. Our room is spacious, comfortable and homey. Meals have been scrumptious. And our companion travelers are friendly, punctual and fun.

Left a gorgeous day in VT and have landed in rainy D.C. Marie is blasting through The Book Thief so she is on the trail of a bookstore in terminal C for fear that livres anglais will be unavailable or just harder to find in Provence.

Getting ready

I have the jitters. Friends tell me it's excitement...it feels more like anxiety, the anxiety of responsibility / of needing all the pieces to be in their proper places, all the lose ends gathered and wrapped into correct and polite bows...in other words - everything is done that (I think) needs to be done by Saturday a.m. There's a few gardens that still need to be cleaned and organized, the fridge to be cleaned, chocolate candy to be packaged and delivered, house plants to be watered, last minute banking, a bit more harvesting/canning/freezing, house sitters to be oriented, there's recycling and composting....and, last but not least, we still need to pack - lightly. We are encouraged to not bring too many clothes, books, art supplies ... but what about all those shoes I know I will want to wear in France! Clothes are pulled from closets and drawers, laid on the guest bed to shuffle and pick through deciding what's the best, most practical and of course fashionable.

Chores and Decisions! That's what's making me jittery these last couple of days before we depart.

Taking iTunes rented movie

I'm downloading The Soloist movie for airport layovers.  We've rented iTunes movies when traveling before, and found the 17" screen on my MacBook Pro isn't bad to watch.  Also on our list of possibilities are Doubt and State of Play.  Other suggestions?

Flagging our bank debit cards

Our tour guide operator advised that we check with our bank to be sure our debit cards would work in France. Talked with the Credit Union this morning. And I learned that we do indeed need to "flag" them for use in Europe. All set now. Another reason we are glad to be doing one week with an experienced tour operator and afterwards five days in Paris on our own.

Pre-trip excitement

This morning Mara gave me the name of the falafel vendor in the Marais that a bunch of friends have mentioned - L'as du Falafel on rue des Rosiers. With name and street we are sure to find it now! I also located our Paris hotel using google maps. You can see it here too. Google's street view isn't very useful in rural areas, but in cities it can be wonderful. I love seeing the balconies our hotel is known for on my laptop before we arrive, Grand Hotel des Balcons. http://bit.ly/8kIKy

One week and counting....

We're off to France just one week from today. Though we haven't done much except the essential planning - accommodations, transportation reservations, and basic outline of the trip, we've been gathering articles, iPhone applications, and recommendations from friends. Just have to make time now to read the stuff! I decided yesterday to take the laptop so we will have email, we can download photos each night and we can keep an online diary of the trip here.

This is where you can find us:

Hello dear ones:

Marie and I will be in France 9/27 - 10/9. We leave on 9/26 from Burlington at about 2 PM. The first week 9/27 -10/3 we will be in Provence staying at this address:

La Bastide du Bois Bréant
501, chemin du Puits-du-Grandaou

84660 Maubec-en-Luberon
Tél. : 011 33 4 90 05 86 78

Our tour guide leader is Jackie Grandchamps, (cell) 011 33 6 33 26 83 22

From 10/4 - 10/9 we will be on our own in Paris at:

Grand Hotel des Balcons

3 rue Casimir Delavigne

75006 Paris

Tel: 011 33 1 46 34 78 30

And if all goes well with AT&T, we should have cell service in France at our usual numbers:

Linda 802-578-8810

Marie 802-578-8809

calls (incoming and outgoing will cost us $.99/minute so calls should be sparing or emergency, please.) Not sure if text messages will work or not. We have received mixed messages from AT&T.

There is a six hour time difference between the east coast USA and France. France is six hours ahead of east coast, example - at noon here at home, it is 6 PM in France.

We will be taking our laptop with us, so email will be free, though not as instantaneous as phone since we'll only use it early in the morning and later in the evening. Please do write us. It will be great to hear from home!

Read our online travel blog at http://LindaEMarkin.blogspot.com