France (by Mary)

Here in Lauzun, France all we do is go to the local market, eat, relax, and read =( . It is very quiet here. We are staying at my dad's friend's house built in 1830.We are staying here for two weeks. On the left is a picture of the house. Our bedroomss are on the very top floor and there's a marble spiral staircase that goes up there. The only history I know about it is that the old mayor of Lauzun built it and lived here. The statues are called caryatides. A caryatide is a woman statue with no arms. Every morning, we get to sleep in. When we wake up, we have fresh croissants. After we eat, we go to an open market. The markets have anything you could think of. They have fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, fish, sometimes clothes, and when we're lucky -- crepes. Once we stock up on food, we go back to the house and relax by the fire. There is a local lake down the street where mom and Jane do there stretches to "raise their heartbeat". Then they run with straight legs, kicking up all the dried leaves and look like the tuba players from CAL. Chase and I go fishing at the lake. We've caught one 7 in. catfish. After France, we go to Spain for 2 months. We decided that mom goes early to pick a fun town where we'll live near Seville. She is leaving tomorrow. We will catch up with her in a week and a half. When we found out that she was leaving, we said, "A week and a half?!?!?!" Please leave more comments. From the number of comments we get, it seems like you guys are all dead.

Nous Sommes Arrive ... (by Charlie)

Yes, we have definitely arrived in France ... and in style, too !! For the last few days, we've had the great fortune of enjoying the season's final vestiges of warm weather in the Cote d'Azur, relaxing in a luxury villa perched on a cliff overlooking Monaco, Eze Village and St. Jean Cap Ferrat.

NO, we haven't seen any movie stars, found any topless beaches, nor been to the grand Casino de Monte-Carlo, but we did visit the ancient Mt. Bastide, upon which Eze Village is situated and take a tour of the Fragonard Parfumerie.

Actually, for the first time since we've been in Europe, everyone has been able to "do their own thing", which has been a blessing. And there are plenty of activities available here: sunbathing, swimming, jacuzzi, SkyTV, big screen movie watching, reading, exercising. internet surfing ... and eating, of course !

Ciao

Well, on Monday we left the vineyards of Tuscany and drove to the northwestern coast of Italy without a solid plan. We'd had fantastic visits to smaller towns with quaint piazzas and recognized that we definitely prefer that to the bigger cities. Vespas, crowds, pollution and pigeons are part of the reason. We did learn a few things in that region, but it appears that we're focusing more on food than history. It's a considerable pastime for the kids now to seek out the best (homemade) gelato in town. There are two clues: 1) the ice cream must be in metal bins (plastic is a dead giveaway of factory-produced) and 2) if the banana flavor is bright yellow, forget it, the best is a slightly gray hue which means real bananas. This is education!
After a quick guidance prayer, Charlie and I brought the kids to Lerici and fell into four incredible days on the Mediterranean. Our hotel is right on the beach -- harbor on the left, castle on the point, rocky shore and promenade to the next village on the right. It is glorious. And unusually warm weather (75-80°) has us on the beach until sunset. The ocean has revived all five of us! One day, Charlie and I took a boat to Cinque Terre which is set of five small towns nestled into the cliffs of the mountains around the cove. Fantastic!
Constantly grateful...

Italy

If you didn't have a schedule, what do you think your schedule would be? That's our life these days. Of course, we're five different people, so we'd have five different schedules ... or at least two ~ 'grown-ups' & kids'. Charlie and I wake up, have coffee & breakfast, and then decide who has the toughest task of the day ~ waking the children.

We drove from southeastern Switzerland into a part of northern Italy called Sud Tirol. It was a blend of Germany & Italy, so it was slightly strange. German language, German architecture, German efficiency, but lots of pizzerias, vineyards, and Italian license plates. There were still gorgeous mountain towns and we had a beautiful one night stay in Merano. Then we headed south to a town between Venice and Verona called Vicenza (Mary is thoroughly confused, too). A friend of mine from high school married a wonderful Italian man and she runs a B&B in an 18th century villa. http://www.italialodging.com/est/villapasini/ It has been another incredible reunion and I feel so fortunate to reconnect with an important part of my past. (Jane can't wait to see my old photo albums now!)

Once again, we were in a cultural haven when we travelled to Venice, but a highlight was learning that our water taxi driver (Matteo with wavy long hair) had seen the Italian Job filming as well as hosting Brad Pitt on his boat last year. These are the memories that we will keep ~ the art history is all mooshing together. :)

I believe we're going to a place without Internet for the next few days, so don't forget about us. We'll write again when we're able.