2020 Was a Year

 I try to do a year in review to remind myself of some of the fabulous things that happened. 

The Eiffel Tower as sunset nears. 

A morning run and reflected lights by the Louvre

This year especially, I know that I was luckier than many because I had an almost normal summer and got to do some traveling, when many people have been locked down since March. But, let's not jump ahead. 

January 2020:

What delightful thing happened in January? 

Grace and Jack got married

We had no idea at the time how lucky we were for their wedding to take place smoothly when so many other weddings were cancelled in 2020. 

Then 2020 got more difficult as I decided to stay in Ohio to teach three classes while Earl returned to France.

He got back just in time to continue work on our new house and to see record floods in Quillan, which luckily didn't affect our house. 

I considered staying in Spencer's bachelor pad since most nights he was at his girlfriend's place, but in the end I went back to the comfort of Deb and Greg's place in Upper Arlington. 

Deb and I enjoyed some Blue Jackets games. 

I got to celebrate Grace's birthday with her at the end of January and flew to Florida right after, just in time for both Grace and Spencer to come down with a bad case of the flu. Afterward, of course, we wondered if it might have been more than flu. 

February 2020:

Always so happy to spend time with Mom and Dad. Yes, Mom makes a delicious big breakfast.

I loved spending a week with Mom and Dad, plus Tupi, who didn't live to the end of 2020. Nothing beats humid runs during February, listening to the sound of the shrieks of giant dinosaur birds, and ending up with a jump in the pool. 

I didn't know at the time, that I wouldn't see Mom and Dad again in 2020. We're all waiting for a Covid vaccine so we can get together again. 
Because I was teaching English to kids in China throughout the month, I knew how bad the Coronavirus had gotten. I wore a mask on my flight back from Florida and felt quite silly doing it. Now, it's so normal.  

For my final week in Ohio, I stayed at Earl's niece's house with her two girls Regan and Caroline. Nearly a year later, my phone is still littered with selfies they took. 

Julie, Regan and I the morning before I left.

The last time my hair was straight!
So happy to see my husband, my friends, and my own home in France. . 

I flew back on February 22, landing in Barcelona on my birthday, February 23rd. Earl and I were apart for about 6 weeks, the longest time we've been separated in our marriage. He met me at the airport with some flowers that he filched from Jules. 
We had a lovely birthday celebration with friends and a local restaurant. 

March 2020:

As I look at pictures from last March, I rejoice to see us sitting outside at Esperaza market and in the square in Quillan as early as February. Fingers crossed that we have a similar early spring this year. 

Perhaps an Irish coffee at an outside bar

Jack and Grace arrived March 13, having taken a 2-week cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Barcelona. We drove down to pick them up, not realizing that theirs was the last cruise ship allowed to dock in Barcelona. A day later and they would not have arrived. 

We stopped in Perpignan for lunch, and Jack began to be surprised by French food.
Cinnamon in the ketchup. A sausage hamburger that was two sausages.
 Any sandwich on a bun is called a hamburger, example a chicken hamburger. 

We had a "free" weekend wandering around markets and sitting at cafes, and then France went into lockdown the following Tuesday. 

That meant that we were limited to walks together, within 1 km of our home. I just loved having Grace with us, although no honeymoon couple wants to start their marriage in confinement with their in-laws. 

Grace and I walked, finding flowers and blossoming trees as the spring arrived. 

April 2020:

April continued in lockdown, but we committed to getting a kitten, mostly because Grace was so lonely without her own cats who were caught on the other side of the Atlantic. We couldn't get the kitten until April, so the month passed with walks and flowers, and we began to sneak friends into our garden for drinks. We continued to be careful, not inviting friends inside. 

Wisteria bloomed, in spite of the pandemic

May 2020:

We ventured out to retrieve our new kitten the week before lockdown ended. Grace had been in France for two months, staying in our little enclave, but as we drove home from getting Louis, she suddenly saw the mountains. She pointed out the mountains with surprise, and I laughed. We live amongst those mountains so it's hard to see the mountains when you're in the middle of them. 

We called him Louis Catorze, and the most polite way to describe him is that he has character.
He also frequently draws blood so we're hoping he calms down eventually. 

With the confinement drawing to a close, we began to take local trips with friends, exploring Cathare castles that we had never visited. 

With Jim and Theresa at Chateau de Queribus


Grace and I wandered to Carcassonne, about an hour from our home,
and we went up to see the castle, known as La Cité.
The statue of the woman at the front, Lady Carcas, has wonky boobs, not sure why. 

June 2020:

In June, we took a trip, staying within France. For our 30th anniversary, we traveled to Pont du Gard. Grace had been there before but it was a first for Jack who loves Roman history. So it was great for him to experience it. The Romans build the Pont du Gard in the first century to carry water to Nimes.

Earl, Grace, Jack and I in front of the Pont du Gard

We visited Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux de Provence where the artwork is projected on the walls of the former limestone mine and come to life. 

This exhibition was Gaudi and Picasso. But a new exhibition is out now
and I can't wait to go see Cezanne

After a night in Aix with Grace and Jack, we traveled to Nice and enjoyed a few nights to celebrate our anniversary. We had never visited Nice before and were not overwhelmed with the beaches, which are heavy pebbles that filled up our shoes or pierced our feet. We bought beach shoes but the pebbles still sucked us down. Not a top choice if swimming is your goal. 

The panorama is beautiful. I had some great runs, and Earl and I enjoyed drinks and the view. 

July 2020:

Back in Quillan, July is tourist season and also festival season. How lucky were we to sit outdoors with a tableful of friends, not just for Bastille Day but for so many great evenings. 

Outdoor festivals

We danced to bands and felt like it was a normal summer in the south of France. 

Earl got interviewed by a producer from 2020. But they didn't use enough of his interview. 

I had a fall in July that has curtailed my running for months, but I don't need to share that picture. 

August 2020:

At the beginning of August, I took a hiking trip with my friend Claudine. We stayed in France, but just headed farther south toward the Spanish border. 

We climbed past several waterfalls and ended at a pool on top of a mountain. 

We hiked on some of the hottest days of the year and didn't drink enough water, but we came back alive and had a great time. 

The rock formation is called Les Orgues or the organ, for obvious reasons. 

In August also, Grace and Jack left us and headed to Dublin to create their new life with grad school and whatever other doors opened to them. 

September 2020: 

In September, Earl and I dashed up to Paris for a few nights and watched the end of the Tour de France, which was moved from July because of Covid-19. 

The Tour passed very close to our hotel so we simply walked out and watched them zoom by. 

I had hoped to see Paris while tourists from other countries were banned, and I did. We ate at outside cafes; we got off the Metro the one time that it was crowded and we felt it wasn't safe; we browsed at museums and took pictures without other people marring their perfection. 

The Rodin Museum

A train ride home from Paris and we returned to normal life, like fixing up our old house. 

Earl painted the doors and shutters, perhaps Cornwall blue

October 2020:
Then Earl promptly headed out on a hike to Spain along El Camino de Santiago

He definitely chose the paths less taken

As October neared an end and the warm days grew shorter, we planned a girls' trip to Collioure along the coast. 

It's a charming town and sometimes you just crave the Mediterranean. We had lunch outdoors and were surprised at the number of tourists there. 

Then we headed to a more deserted beach and did some bellydancing. 

Freestyling!

A new lockdown was announced and we arranged one more meal in a restaurant on the night before the confinement. 

Only six people at a table, so we had to split up. 

Women at one table

Men at the other. 

And that is the last time we ate in a restaurant. 

November 2020:

The lockdown lasted through November. We weren't as careful, inviting friends to join us for drinks or meals. Going on lots of walks in the mountains and wondering what Christmas would be like this year. 

This is just a walk I took one morning from my house.
Around every corner is another beautiful mountain. 

We had a sneak Thanksgiving celebration with American friends, technically still not allowed to gather with friends. 

December 2020:

All of that lockdown let us paint our living room. It used to be an electric blue and now the walls are cream-colored with the staircase wall a gray green. I loved the new look, although it took three coats of the cream for Earl to cover the blue. 

Who knows what may come next. Maybe a new chandelier

Then on December 20th, we flew from Barcelona to Dublin to celebrate Christmas with Grace and Jack. And Tucker flew from Columbus to Dublin to meet us. 

Tucker and Earl in the lights of Dublin

For some reason, Ireland was continuing to let Americans fly into their airport. Tucker had a Covid test before he came and we got very lucky that now of us contracted the virus during our travel. 

Tucker, Grace and Jack at St. Stephen's Green on a sunny day. 

We spent our evenings playing family games and I went out each morning to get coffee at Starbucks, one of the things I miss from home. 

We arrived home safely, in spite of countries closing their borders. 

So we managed to travel to the U.S., France, Spain and Ireland in a year without travel. That's nothing to complain about. 

I've gotten to see two of my three children, even though I haven't seen Spencer or my parents since February. 

I'm hopeful that we'll get the vaccine and my parents will get the vaccine and we'll be able to reunite in the coming months. 

Here's hoping for a 2021 without so much excitement. 

Dreaming of France -- Nîmes

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

On Sunday, The Tour de France ended its stage in Nîmes, which is in the Languedoc-Roussillon department of France. To me though, it's in Provence. When my husband and I rode our bikes from Avignon to Aix en Provence, our first overnight stop was in Nîmes.
Since we rode our bicycles over the same roads that the riders from the Tour de France were riding, we were especially interested to watch.
The Tour stopped in front of the Roman coliseum, or amphitheater, that still remains in Nîmes. I don't know why we didn't get a good picture of it, but here is a post card we brought home.

We stayed in a hotel right across the street from the coliseum. It's called La Lisita and we loved looking out the window to see this amazing Roman structure. Here's a picture of me under an umbrella alongside the coliseum wall with our hotel in the background across the street. No comments on my fashion choices. Remember that it was a biking trip and we only had the clothes we could carry on our bikes.

And we went to see a number of Roman sights, including the Mason Carrée, which is a Roman temple. I think that's what this picture shows. The people in it are not us. They just got in the way of the shot.

The museums and the gardens included a lot of Roman ruins. If you get a chance, include it on your next trip.
Thanks for playing along today, and please visit each other's blogs so  you can get more snippets of France today.
I'm also joining in with Paris in July. Check it out for many good recommendations on French books, movies and lifestyle.

French Breakfast and Movie Review

I don't want to only post book and movie reviews during Paris in July, but I'm not in France so that does limit my experiences.
This morning, I brought France to myself by baking pain au chocolat and plain croissants for breakfast. I shared a pain au chocolat with my husband then spread homemade strawberry jam on my plain croissant, all while drinking a cafe au lait and watching the Tour de France as the bicyclists speed toward Nancy.
We have a connection to Nancy because a French boy from that town came to stay with us one summer. He brought us a delightful little book with pictures of the Villages de France.
This one is from the Lorraine region, where Nancy is also located.

But, back to food. At Trader Joe's in the freezer section, you can buy a 4-pack of chocolate croissants or an 8-pack of mini croissants each for $4.99. Set out the little frozen nuggets the night before. The next morning, they have thawed and risen. Beat an egg and spread across the top of the croissants before baking. They're very yummy and a good 2nd choice if you can't make it to France or French croissants.

Earlier this week, I watched a movie set in France. Even if I don't enjoy a movie set in France, I usually enjoy the scenery. This one -- not so much.

The Family, directed by Luc Besson and starring Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer, would be the perfect movie to watch if someone wanted to move to France, and you wanted to convince them not to. There is not one redeemable thing about France in the movie.
The premise is that an American mob family is relocated to Normandy in the witness protection program. The mob in the U.S. is still searching for them to kill the whole family. As a matter of fact, the movie begins with an assassin walking into an apartment and killing a family of four. Then he cuts off the finger of the father and sends it to the mob boss in prison. The mob boss compares it to the fingerprints of the dead guy to DeNiro's character. Nope. They killed the wrong family and continue the search. And that sets the tone for the hilarity and violence that continues throughout the movie.
I'm not big on violence, but what bothered me more than the violence was the way the French people were portrayed. The grocery store clerk and two older French women made fun of Pfeiffer's character as she searched for peanut butter in the grocery store. So she blew it up.
The worst French characters were the high school students. None of them were attractive and that offended me. They also seemed to be typically American -- bullies, jocks, nerds and sluts.
The French were shone in a bit of a better light when the family threw a barbecue, but according to the son, they were only coming to make fun of the Americans. So they served hamburgers and Cokes.
The movie ended pretty violently with the family coming out to relocate again.
Apparently this movie is based on the French movie Badfellas, which must be a play on Goodfellas. It's supposed to be funny, but don't choose it if  you're dreaming of France.

Dreaming of France -- Arc de Triomphe and The Tourist

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
Today was the last day of the Tour de France. I love watching it on television so I get a little glimpse of France every day. The last stage in Paris took place in the evening so they could include a light show. The sun had a hard time complying though, as it seemed to stay up til 10 Paris time. Chris Froome, a Brit, won the Tour and he seems like a nice enough guy.
Once it finally got dark, the organizers cast lights onto the Arc de Triomphe behind the podium.
Here's a copy of a photo from the Daily Mail in the UK.

And here's a link to part of the show. It's definitely worth watching if you didn't see it.

Also this week, I saw a movie that at least began in Paris. It's called The Tourist and stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Have you seen it? The scenery in Paris just feels so French! And then they take the train to Venice, so what's not to like it?

Jolie is gorgeous and Depp does so well playing a math teacher from Wisconsin. I'd never think he could play an ordinary character. 

Here's Jolie in a Paris cafe from a blog post called The Collider.

And here she is walking on a Paris street. Doesn't she look elegant, a throw back to the women in the Cary Grant movies of the 1950s.

I'm still participating in Paris in July hosted by Thyme for Tea and Bookbath.

Nicknames in Cycling

This morning, the Tour de France ended with a sprint along the Champs Elysees. I love watching the racers in the streets, passing the Arc de Trimophe, the Place de la Concorde. I can see the bateaux mouches along the Seine.

Here's the Champs Elysees on a day
when bicyclists were not racing.

At the beginning of the Tour this year, Swiss researchers discovered something called Higgs Boson, known as the God Particle. Now I don't understand what this is, something about the fact that even empty space has the potential to become something.
But what I do know is that at the same time scientists announced they had discovered this Higgs Boson, we were watching Edvald Boasson Hagen ride the Tour de France on Team Sky. And his name seemed so similar, that for the rest of the race, we called him God Particle.
Apparently, the rest of the race world didn't pick up on it, cause they said one of his nicknames was Bo-dawg.
Today, on the final stretchh up the Champs Elysee, the God Particle led his teammate away from the rest of the field and launched him, allowing his teammate to win the final stage. The God Particle is very selfless.
I don't suppose his name will catch on, except in our family

Cycling in France

I needed to write another post to get rid of the complaining post below, so I thought I'd focus on France again as part of Paris in July, thanks to the meme from Thyme for Tea and Bookbath
I'm enjoying the Tour de France on television in the mornings. I watch to see the countryside, but also get sucked into the drama of the racing. I cringe and look away at the crashes. Bicycling in France was one of my favorite vacations of all time.
In October 2002, Earl and I left the kids with my parents and went to France for 10 days. We rented bikes from Bourgogne Randonee in Burgundy. They delivered the bikes to Avignon in Provence for us where we began our tour. We traveled with saddlebags on the bikes and nothing else, so we really had to pack lightly.

This is me standing with the bikes. In the background on the left is the bridge from the famous song, Sur le Pont d'Avignon, and that's Avignon on the right behind me.

We had a very loose schedule planned on where we would stay each night. We pieced together some different bicycle routes from the book Bicycle Tours of France by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks.  

The first day was the hardest for me. Maybe because of jet lag, but also because we didn't take any chocolate with us along the way on the 40-mile ride. I think we pictured stopping at a 7/11 type store to buy something to eat. Bad planning.

I need to scan this photo again to get it in
 the computer in a more usable form.

We rode across the Pont du Gard, a Roman adqueduct near Avignon and ended our day in Nimes. We had no hotel reserved, simply pulled into the center of the city on our bikes and went to the tourism office. They helped us find a hotel across the street from the Roman amphitheater. In spite of some rain, we made our way from city to city. One day when it was raining, we put our bikes on the train for a short ride to the next city. We also stayed in Arles, Salon de Provence and ended up in Aix en Provence where the brothers of Bourgogne Randonee retrieved the bicycles.
On the trip to Aix, we had lunch in a little village called Equilles. We could see Aix in the distance and we lingered over pork chops and green beans, along with glasses of rose. For some reason, we still consider that simple meal to be one of the best we've ever eaten. Maybe it was the fatigue, the ambience, the company.

This trip has been our high standard for vacations since then. We can't wait to move to France someday where we can take bike trips whenever we want.