A new adventure begins.

Bonjour from Paris.

It’s been a while … so a recap on our movements. We left Pretty Beach more than three months ago, arriving in Paris in late May, along with the ‘heatdome’ from Northern Africa. First up, we visited all the girls and partners and grandchildren in Paris and Strasbourg, then spent June, July and August in the south west.

In June we walked for nearly four weeks on the Chemin du Puy, the first two weeks with our friends Felicity and Brett, prefaced by two days in Lyon and then a wonderful rendez vous with my sister Pam and brother in law Peter who has been cycling in Europe for about 8 months by then. They generously made their way by many trains from Budapest to Le Puy en Velay to meet us for the weekend before we started our walk. What a treat. Happily I captured all of that and our camino in my Chemin du Puy ‘trip’ blog. 🥰

Post camino, The French and I hired a car and enjoyed a week long road trip catching up with friends and family near Toulouse, in Foix and in Pau. From there, three days in beautiful Arcachon Bay, to the south west of Bordeaux, visiting Andernos les Bains, Ales and Cap Ferret and surrounding areas - which would sadly be devastated by fierce fires just a few weeks later. 😔

From Arcachon Bay, we drove a short distance to Libourne, a delightful town north west of Bordeaux, that sits on the confluence of the Dordogne and Isle rivers. This would be home for July and August. I had planned to write regular news of our time in Libourne but … I didn’t. 🤦🏼‍♀️ So, a quick summary follows.

Despite the heat, extreme for weeks at a time, we enjoyed daily life in Libourne (grateful for our comfortable and airconditoned accommodation) - and we visited Bordeaux, Saint Emilion and Bergerac, each more than once, as well as Arcachon ville, Bayonne and Saint Jean de Luz - all by train. In August, we welcomed four of Domi’s seven grandchildren, two by two for a week at a time, Domi’s eldest daughter Lucile and partner Richard, as well as my sister Julie for a few days near the end of our stay. Everyone gave Libourne the thumbs up. 👍🥰👍

We arrived back in Paris on Saturday afternoon, returning to the same delightful studio we’ve stayed in many times before, in Rue de Rendezvous in the 12th arrondissement. It’s been a lovely few days visiting family, a Sunday morning walk along the nearby Coulee Verte, a classical concert - the Ave Maria series - in the sublime La Saint Chapelle, and generally enjoying the late summer weather.

In a couple of hours we will make our way to Orly Airport for a late afternoon flight to Dubrovnik. We have three weeks and a bit to discover lots of wonderful places in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

On y va. Let’s go.

🇫🇷 👱🏻‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️ 🇭🇷 🇸🇮 🇮🇹 ❤️

PS. There is just one photo on this post. Can you guess what it is? When I first saw it, I had no idea at all. It’s a bird’s eye view of the Tour Eiffel. I read that authorisation of any sort of craft above the Tour, including drone cameras, is rarely granted. So this photo is something special.Read more