Dreaming of France -- What do you love about France?

Thank you for joining 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.

This morning, as I drove my college son back to college, because he had missed his bus, he asked me why his father and I hate the U.S.
"We don't hate the U.S.," I hastily said, and he knew that already.
We don't want to move to France because we are unhappy with the United States, we want to move to France because we love it.
Mostly, people could say, "Of course, you love France. You've only been there on vacation."
But I did spend three months in France working as an au pair, so I have some experience working in France.
While there, traveling from Corsica to Bourges, we spent a few days in Aix en Provence. A relative we were staying with, took me to the main street of Aix -- the Cours Mirabeau, and while we explored shops along this street, I had a strange tugging at my heartstrings, as if this was the place I belonged.
I've felt that every time we traveled there.

Here's a plaza in Aix en Provence

We also appreciate the culture in France -- the importance of long, slow meals. The emphasis put on education and music and art. The value of spending time with family and friends.

Enjoying dinner at a Moroccan restaurant with friends in Aix en Provence. 

A musical interlude by our friends' children. 

 And all of these things draw us to France without even talking about the food and wine.

Without even considering the beauty of the diverse scenery throughout France and the glory of the history.

We biked across the Pont du Gard, a Roman-built aqueduct in southern France. 

We realize how fortunate we are to live in the United States, to have been able to raise our family here, to earn a good living that may allow us to move to France in the coming year.
What do you love about France?

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave your name and blog address in Mr. Linky below, and leave a comment letting me know what  you think about my love affair with France, or your own passion for the country and its people and cultures. Also consider visiting the blogs of others who play along so we can all share the love.

Hip Harley Rider

This blog post could probably just be a tweet, but, I'm sharing with all of you.
On my run this morning, I ended up running on the sidewalk along a street with a lot of businesses, so the traffic picked up.
I started hearing music, above the music on my headphones and figured a car must be coming up behind me with the windows down and the music jacked up. The fairly mild weather could encourage drivers to roll down the windows.
But as the vehicle got louder and passed me, I saw an older guy with gray hair pulled into a ponytail riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. He wore no helmet, of course, and a black leather jacket. His feet stuck forward so that he could lean back and  hold onto the high handlebars of the motorcycle.
He looked like a typical Harley rider, except for the Christmas light that he had attached to the frame of his motorcycle. The lights shone pale blue.
I didn't get a picture. I should have because the lights were obviously a string of lights that had been wrapped around, up and down on the main section of the bike. But here's a photo to give you an idea.

Photo Credit: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/harley-davidson-motorcycle-dustin-k-ryan.html

So, an early morning Harley rider with his bike lit up might catch my eye, but the music blaring originally caught my attention. And then it hit me. I expected a Harley rider to be playing some sort of heavy metal rock. "Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway..."
Instead, the music coming from the motorcycle was a woman singing R&B.
And it made me want to laugh and remind myself not to stereotype people.

Music During Special Moments

Tonight, I was watching the replay of The Daily Show with John Oliver. He and his guest were talking about important moments in their lives and the music that played during those moments.
I didn't expect that I would connect with specific songs and turning point moments, but two immediately jumped to mind.
The first was a huge crush I had on a guy from New Zealand. I met Mike when I went to interview him for a story in the local newspaper. Mike was riding his bike across part of the United States, and Ohio didn't get a lot of people from New Zealand at the time.
The sparks flew as soon as I sat down with him. We went on a few dates before it was time for him to move along. I offered him a ride down to Kentucky where I was going to visit my grandmother. We went boating with my cousin and explored the woods near my grandmother's house and swam in the lake. He asked me if there were alligators in the lake and I laughed at him since we were in Kentucky instead of Louisiana.
But I was leaving for grad school and he needed to continue his journey south. He decided to try to catch a ride down south rather than riding his bike. So the afternoon I was returning to Ohio, I dropped him at a truck stop. As I drove away, Phil Collins' song "Against All Odds" came on the radio. "How can I just let you walk away... How can you just walk away from me when all I can do is watch  you leave." I cried as a I drove away.

So that's the first moment that came to mind when I thought of important moments and music. Then I felt bad that I didn't immediately think of my husband, who, obviously turned out to be much more important than this hot guy from New Zealand.
That's when I remembered a Sunday afternoon the spring of 1988. Earl (who would become my husband), Mike and I decided to take my new Mustang convertible to visit a flea market. Afterward, we drove around in the hot Florida sunshine and heard, for the first time, the Bobby McFerrin song "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Can you imagine how that felt, riding around with the man I would marry, feeling the sun on our skin, the wind in our hair and singing at the top of our lungs -- "Don't Worry, Be Happy"?
How bout you? Can you remember music playing at special moments in your life?

Dreaming of France -- French Music

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.
On a warm afternoon this week, Grace and I were walking to our small downtown to visit the chocolate shop.
"This would be perfect if we only had French music," she said.
So I pulled out my iPhone and pressed the Pandora app. I set it to "Under Paris Skies Radio" and we listened to French songs for the rest of the walk.
Pandora is an online radio station and when you choose an artist or song that you like, it chooses other songs that are similar.
Whenever I'm missing France, I listen to "Under Paris Skies Radio." Here's a sample for you from Pearl Django