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.
When Earl and I were traveling in May, we drove through a charming town that was wreathed in roses.
We stopped and took some pictures in Camon, France.
A sign as we drove into town let us know that it celebrated a rose festival, and we soon saw why.
Nearly every building had a waterfall of roses cascading along its front wall.
I didn't know anything about Camon, but when I looked it up, I learned that it is known as Little Carcassone, which is a famous walled city that we also visited. Apparently Camon first began in 923, growing up around an abbey. It was destroyed by a flood in 1289 and then rebuilt.
But the things that caught our eyes were the roses. This used to be a big wine growing area, and the roses were planted as an early warning sign. If the roses began to show disease, then the vintners could try to protect the vines, according to Francethisway.com.
The area doesn't have a lot of vineyards anymore, but the roses remain, like a woman adorned in her finest jewels, they drape the city.
Next time we drive through, we're definitely stopping to explore a bit more.
And how long will it be until we are in Camon, France again. Maybe not as long as you think.
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave your link below and visit each other's blogs to share your love for 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.
As this post is published, we're flying home from France.
Le sigh.
But we had a fabulous time and can't complain about an 18-day vacation.
While we were in France, we visited the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct. We had just been in the village Uzes where the water ran across the aqueduct to the more southern town of Nimes.
The sun came out at just the right time.
We have never gone to the top of the aqueduct, but apparently you can take a tour and go to the top level. I did take a picture of these stone steps that lead up to it.
Although the steps look ancient, they were built in the 1800s. You can see where they are worn away in the middle.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave you link below and visit each other's blogs to share your love for France.
Yesterday we left our outpost in Mireval, the place from which we had traveled all around Herault, France (that's a region of l'Occitanie) and moved farther southwest.
On the way, we decided to visit a village listed in the "charming village" posts, called Roquebrun.
We thought it was on the way, but truly, we had to drive into the mountains, then back out the same way to get there.
I thought it was charming and would love to live there, but I have to be honest that it was a little isolated.
The village was totally surprising because it is in the mountains, but palm trees and orange trees and cactus grow on the sides of the cliffs.
I read about the microclimate on Wikipedia, and even though the village is in the Massif Central mountains, it is surrounded on three sides by mountains to block the wind, and it also gets heat from the dormant volcano to help the warm-weather plants grow.
Flowering cactus in the mountains! We also saw orange trees.
Apparently, the city is sometimes called "Le Petit Nice" because it overlooks a river and the drive along the mountains is similar to the drive above the Mediterranean Sea.
There's an ancient tower there. We climbed up to see it, but it was closed from 12-2:30 for lunch.
The town was beautiful, but isolated.
There would be plenty of outdoor hiking and biking, but not too many cultural activities.
We visited on a market day, of course. And there was a mobile barber offering haircuts.
Too cute.
The city had a couple of restaurants and we sat outside in the sunshine. Unfortunately, Earl chose a meal that included veal kidneys He ate it like a trooper.
My starter was so delicious. A melon cut artistically into thin strips and shaped into a flower, along with the ubiquitous salad and vinaigrette plus a piece of ham. My main course was duck, which was a bit dry, but it wasn't veal kidney mixed with mushrooms, so there's that!
Here's a selfie of us up high above the river Orb.
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.
I've written some guest posts for the FranceBookTour of my novel Paris Runaway. I thought I'd share one of the posts that I wrote for bookwormerz which ran on Sunday. It tells the story of how, after a
rocky start, I fell in love with France.
Falling in Love With France
I
visited France for the first time at age 20. My college boyfriend and I went on
one of those 21-day tours where we visited 14 countries, or maybe it was a
14-day trip with 21 countries. Either way, one of those countries was France.
I’d
gotten sick in Rome, with Montezuma’s Revenge, and it lasted into Paris. I
remember visiting Notre Dame and desperately searching for a bathroom nearby.
What I found was a Turkish toilet.
Those
are hard to find in France these days, but a Turkish toilet was a stall with a
place for your feet to go on either side of a drain in the floor. I still can’t
work out the mechanics for a woman that doesn’t result in damp underwear. That
experience could have ruined my love for France, but it didn’t.
A
year after college graduation I was working at a newspaper and dating a
photographer, whose sister was married to a Frenchman. The sister, who was
pregnant, her husband, and their two little girls had tickets to go to France
for the summer, when the sister was ordered to bedr est. Someone needed to step
up and travel with the girls. I volunteered.
Here are the two girls and their grandfather, along with a couple of cousins, on the balcony in Corsica.
I
told my boss I was going and that I didn’t care whether I’d have a job when I
returned. Picture me as a bossy, impetuous 22 –year-old. (Luckily, they found a
summer intern and my job waited for me.)
So
with two little girls and a Frenchman I didn’t know, we flew to Paris. The
first few days could have ruined my love affair with France as I took the girls
on a bus to their great-grandmother’s apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
But the bus went the opposite direction that we needed and we ended up on an
impromptu, hot, diesel-fueled tour of Paris, getting off at several stops in
hopes of finding our way. Another day I
got separated from the girls when they stepped through a Metro stall with
sliding doors, and the doors closed before I could follow them. A flight
attendant behind me had an extra ticket and used it to reunite me with the
girls.
But
every negative experience melted away as I traveled with the girls and their
grandparents over the next three months. We flew to Corsica and spent our days
splashing in the Mediterranean and enjoying each meal as a symphony of tastes
and textures.
Me, on the beach. There are probably naked, or at least topless, people right behind me.
Our evenings filled with concerts and tennis matches and nights
on the veranda watching the star-spangled sky for the slowly moving space
station.
When
we returned to mainland France, we stayed one night in Aix en Provence. I can
still remember the thrill of coming home that rippled through me when I stepped
onto Cours Mirabeau, the wide boulevard lined with plane trees.
For
a month, we stayed in the family’s country home near Bourges. The house came
into the family during Napoleon’s reign, and it had served as a base for the Germans
when they invaded during World War II, then the Americans when they drove back
the Germans. The numerous sets of French doors opened onto a yard, which led to
fields of sheep and flocks of chickens. We walked to the village for bread each
day, stopping to feed a pony.
Here I am, prepared for dinner, as I sit on the terrace writing. I wish you could see my
adorable ankle socks and aqua shoes that matched my top, but this print is not the best quality.
Finally,
we returned to Paris and the grandparents’ apartment in the suburbs. The
grandmother urged me to explore the city while she watched the girls, and, oh,
what adventures I had as I wandered alone.
I’ve
included memories from this trip in all of my novels set in France – The Summer
of France, I See London I See France, and Paris Runaway.
In
each of my French novels, I try to recapture the magical experiences of that first
immersion into France – the trip that taught me the importance of savoring each
bite of luscious nectarine, rather than worrying about the juice that ran down
my arm.
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France today. 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 love affair. And consider visiting the blogs of others who play along so we can all share the love.
I'm also linking to Paris in July. Hope you'll play along with both Dreaming of France and Paris in July. We can't have too much France love, right?
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
Since it's Father's Day, I'm thinking about my dad and realizing that we won't be in the same country next year on Father's Day since my husband and I plan to move to France next May.
My brother and me as we celebrated an early
Father's Day with my Dad before he
returned to Florida last week.
And I know that I will return to the States to visit my parents, but I wonder whether they will fly over to see us in France.
They have traveled overseas before, but they went to New Zealand and Australia. They've never been to Europe.
So when my parents visited from Florida a few weeks ago, I broached the subject, asking if they'd come visit.
My dad didn't beat around the bush. He asked whether they have golf courses in France. He and Mom golf four or five days a week and they live just a few houses down from the clubhouse at their course.
Frankly, I couldn't answer their question. Although I've visited France 11 times, I've never looked for a golf course there.
"There must be golf courses," I said. "Aren't there professional golfers from France?"
And my parents agreed that France does have professional golfers.
So today, preparing for another Dreaming of France, I thought I'd see what my Dad can dream of in France. I searched for golf courses in the Languedoc Roussilon region of France where we plan to move. And, apparently, this region is a haven for golfers.
This map shows the top 15 courses in the area.
And from the prices, 40 to 50 Euros per round, it seems that the price is comparable to what people pay to play in the U.S.
Now we'll just have to figure out how to get my parents' clubs over to France, but at least I have a chance to see them in France someday.
Have you ever played golf in France? Is it very different from playing in the U.S.?
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave your name and a link to your blog on Mr. Linky below. I really appreciate your participation and I hope you'll leave a comment plus visit each other's blogs.
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.
We first visited Monet's Garden in 1998. We learned about it from a children's book, Linnea in Monet's Garden, which features a little girl from Sweden who visits Paris to see the gardens of the famous artist.
We were staying with a French friend, Marguerite, in Paris when we said we wanted to visit Monet's Garden. She had never heard of it, so she came along with us.
Here we are on the lovely bridge that Monet painted so often. Marguerite is in the red coat, dressed for winter as the French do right up until summer erupts. I'm holding Tucker, who was 2. Spencer was 4 and Grace 6.
Here's a shot of the pond and the gorgeous weeping willows.
Here's a show of Monet's pink house with the green shutters from the gardens.
I'm not sure if this cat was in the window at Monet's house or elsewhere in France, but the stucco wall and the green window trim with the lace curtains make me think it was Monet's house.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. I'm hopeful that more people will begin to join us now that summer is ending. I appreciate your participation and hope that you'll share your love for France with the rest of us.
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.
I love having French friends. They teach us so much about the country we love. They give us good food and a place to stay whenever we visit. They've showed us so many fascinating things and popped the cork on numerous bottles of wine.
On our upcoming visit, we aren't staying with our friends, but they are going to meet us in Paris to celebrate our friend Danuta's birthday.
I have the hardest time figuring out what presents to take someone who is French when I visit from the United States. On our last visit, we hadn't planned to stay with them so I didn't take a present. When we went at the last minute, I bought macarons from Lauduree. The whole family loved them, of course, because they are French.
So here's my latest idea for a present.
What if I make copies of photos of our families from each of the 9 visits we shared in France? I can put the photos in a photo album and give it to her for her birthday.
But I don't know. I'm too close to it. Is that a good idea for a gift for a French friend? Does anyone have some better ideas? I'm running out of time.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please visit each other's blog so you can share the joy with other Francophiles.
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.
After nearly five years away from France, I'm finally returning. It's only for 10 days, but I'm ecstatic at the idea of once again immersing myself in French culture. Every picture someone posts from France, I think, I can see that myself very soon.
We'll be traveling to the South of France, so for only three days we'll be in Paris. We've seen most of the main tourist attractions. What should we see or do in Paris?
Earl says he wants to visit a jazz club.
I think I'd like to do a tour or class with a chocolatier.
Now I'm counting on you all to direct us to the best off-the-path places to visit or take a tour or to sit and drink in the wonderful ambiance that is Paris.
I look forward to your suggestions.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs too. You never know when you'll find something new to fall in love with.
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.
As much as I love visiting many parts of France, I can't get over the excitement of Paris.
And I love going to Montmartre so all of Paris is spread out at my feet.
This is such a clean shot of Sacre Coeur. It looks pristine and artsy doesn't it?
Earl and I are on the steps in front of Sacre Coeur. He's so tall, you can't really see Paris spread out behind us, but take my word for it that it is there in all its glory.
I hope you'll visit each other's websites to see more glimpses of France and know you aren't the only one dreaming of France.
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. We have friends who live in Nantes. While visiting, Grace and Earl went on a boat tour of the Loire River.
Here's the ancestral home of the Dukes of Burgundy.
And here's a shot of the sparkling sunshine on the river with so many sailboats around.
Watching the Tour de France is making me really yearn for France. Can't wait to see what you are sharing.
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