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.

Yodel-a-hee-hoo

It’s a good sign when Chase asked, “Is today Saturday?” No. “Monday?” Nope ~ Thursday. “What?” We got a great apartment here in Maloja (CH) and it makes a huge difference to have some space and be able to cook our own meals (okay, heated bathroom floors don’t hurt either).

Charlie and I continue to be so pleased to see the kids get along with each other. We both remember having numerous tiffs with our own siblings whenever we traveled. These three do everything together, all day, everyday . . . and night. They’re either cracking each other up or Mary’s keeping us all in stitches with her Zac Efron imitations. They really miss Rock Band, but that hasn’t hindered their guitar, mic & drums trio. We’re only 8 weeks in ~ we’ll keep you posted. I have to say, writing these blogs forces me to look at our experience in detail. But it also tempts me to write what is entertaining to the reader and avoid some reality. My biggest challenge is to appreciate the small stuff in each day. Certainly, every day brings blessing or hardship, but always a lesson. No big purpose is always evident, but I’m trying to soak up what’s right in front of me rather than worry about the future. I just finished reading “The Alchemist” and there was a good reminder that, if you focus on the present, “life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is in the moment we’re living right now.” Oooooh ~ philosophical. P.S. Any good reading recommendations are always welcome!

I’ve always used Switzerland as my natural beauty standard and it hasn’t disappointed. Each of the past two days has been centered around great, long hikes. The average temp here is running about 6-8*C midday (roughly 45*F) so the uphill trek is a welcome warmer-upper. The first day we took straps and carabiners so that we could cross slightly treacherous wood & cable bridges, etc. Then we came across a zipline, which was great fun. We only argued once about which direction to go and I’m not telling who was right. It only cost us a half hour or so. What’s the big rush? Yesterday was windy and cloudy. Again, the family was generous to go along with my suggested destination. We took a tram (think Squaw Valley, but smaller) to our starting point and began a 2 ½ hour hike up to see six separate lakes. I’d post a picture of Mary’s displeasure after an hour of uphill into a snowstorm, but that wouldn’t be very nice. The lakes looked more like mud puddles, but locals insist they reflect the sky and minerals when the sun is out. See, you won’t find me asking “Why won’t anyone listen to me??!” I KNOW why. It was a perfect summer day (see photos).

We really did laugh a lot once our fingers thawed. You can see we’ve lost all vanity, too.

You’re Driving a What ?!?

Our current mode of transportation is this brand new (leased/rental) 2008 Peugeot Partner – although we’ve all agreed that it does resemble a small delivery van, we’re happy to report that it’s able to fit all of our vast quantities of luggage, has been remarkably spunky on the German autobahns and Swiss mountain roads, yet still gets about 50mpg !! The kids love it, because...

"It's a Thriller!"

Swiss Delight (by Charlie)

The tagline in the tourist brochure reads: “2456 metres nearer to heaven” … welcome to the Upper Engadine of the Swiss Alps (think St. Moritz), where we have to suffer for the next 5 days hiking, biking and enjoying the early autumn season change, surrounded by hundreds of snow-capped peaks and blue/green lakes.

There are those who say that the Swiss way of life may somewhat stifle creativity and spontaneity, yet I’m sure I could fit right in here – imagine a place where the public transportation runs like clockwork, crime and unemployment are nearly non-existent and where everyone’s kitchen garbage bag has to conform to a certain standard.

We’ve experienced all the emotional extremes while on the road for the past two months – the excitement of seeing new places, exhaustion after multi-hour drives in our new Peugeot Partner (a.k.a. the “delivery van”) and utter frustration & disbelief at watching the financial market chaos. I suppose I should be grateful since I’m not sitting on a trading floor, but … I’d hate to missing a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We had the pleasure of staying at the home of Drew & Isabelle Welton during the last several days. Like Colleen and me, they are both AIESEC alums from c.25 years ago. Today, in fact, marks their 20th wedding anniversary, which we recall attending as if it were yesterday. They and their two delightful children, Lucas (17) and Michelle (15), tended to our every desire, showing us around town (bikes, go-carts, discoteques) as well as escorting us on an excursion to Davos, where they’re in the process of building a second home. We'd post photos, but we had our first photographic catastrophe and Zurich was deleted. (Sorry Lucas! You really would have a huge picture here!)

We also had two bonuses during this visit ~ Colleen's brother-in-law was in town on business, so we got to see Jay!

And we had a quick, but wonderful reunion with friends in Liechtenstein (how many of you have been there?) Thank you for the lunch and tour, Jodi!

Like I said, life is good here …