Provence

We have an ambitious schedule here  in France. It is also an incredible learning experience for me since the tour is conducted completely in German! I can get the guide to give me some of the info in English if I need clarification on something but I am finding I understand a lot of what she says. I don’t speak it very well but certainly ich verstehe enough to show up for meals and buses so I must be doing something right. The WC on the bus is non-functional  and they sell beverages so we do make stops every so often. Pictures often tell the stories of our lives and I do get the opportunity to take pictures along the way. I use my phone  and iPad to take most of them because there just isn’t time to check my lens, focus, re-focus and then still end up with a so-so shot or no shot at all. So let me bore you with my version of “my vacation slide show”! There are so many I did not get to take but I hope you enjoy them! Up first  is what I thought was a cute ad for beer that I saw in Nürnberg.

 

This particular beer company makes a lot of ads like this but this was just one that I managed to capture as we stopped to pick up some more people in our group.

Shortly after we crossed into France we picked up our tour guide at a roadside rest stop. Her name is Heidi. Next to bus were these enormous butterfly bushes. I have never seen so many nor so big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop Dijon. Beautiful city with many winding streets. Beautiful parks, beautiful statutes, beautiful arcs. But what do I focus on?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it was everything you would expect it  to be. A place just packed with stamps and albums and very little room to move around.  It did not appear that he did a very brisk business but at least he was following his heart.

Our first night in France was spent in a little inn outside of Dijon. When I awoke the next morning and started to explore I found this beautiful little park like atmosphere. The French just seem to do everything beautifully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now we are onto Lyon. This is the city where you will find the confluence of the Rhone and the Soane. It is a city of beautiful sidewalk cafes, churches, patisseries, wine bars and many, many bridges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw so many beautiful things and didn’t really get the opportunity to capture them photographically.  There were herds of Charolais cattle which I remember seeing in CA as we would make the turn off US 101 into San Juan Bautista. I was so excited when our tour guide confirmed that was what we were seeing and how they were such good beef. There were fields upon fields of sunflowers–made me think of “Under the Tuscan Sun” and want to run out and buy a little place to live–oops you need money to do that. Nice to  dream anyhow. And I saw lavender fields. The purple just jumps out at you. There were beautiful fields with newly bound bales of hay. Everything was so idyllic. It truly is the relaxing holiday that I so envisioned this to be.  No students to worry about, no camp to think about it, no reports to submit, no one asking me to make decisions. Just me,  relaxing. And for those of you that have made it this far, have fun translating the schedule that I embedded up in the first paragraph. Today (5 July) is Tage 3.

Tschuss!