Gardens

Gardens, gardens, everywhere...One of the wonderful things about France.

 

                                                      An old man's garden being planted

                     I wish I had a picture of the old lady working in her smock, but this is her garden.

                              Some of our Baran neighbors heading out to work in their garden.


                                                      Some of the rustic gardens in Domme

Last days

Kurt checked the forecast and it was showing a 90% chance of rain for the remaining 2 days of our trip.  When it rains, there isn't much to do, so we decided to change our flights home.  Sad to leave, but we could all benefit from the extra weekend at home. 

Before the rains came, I took Mom and Kathy out for a morning excursion.  I wanted to show them one of my favorite places, Domme.  They were just as amazed at the views as I had been.  You can literally see for miles and miles.  It is not just the distance.  It is the perfectly manicured beautiful french country with the Dordogne river running through it.  So breathtaking.  We walked around the quaint hillside town and picked up a few more gifts.  What's a few more, right? 

Back at the house,we realized we had a lot of packing to do.  Unsure how we would protect our paintings and other delicate purchases, we asked our neighbor, Margot for help.  Her husband, the paintings restorer, had packing boxes and he kindly retrieved them out of his barn for us to use.  Who knows what precious paintings those very boxes may have held.

Margot took us on a little tour around their lovely home, showing us a few of their many treasures they've collected during their exciting charmed lives.  Even their house would be described as "charming".  

                 Their enchanted cottage                                      A piece of the Berlin Wall!

             Their very own backyard lily pad pond                     Walking out back of their barn

We began stuffing our luggage, rearranging and restuffing it.  We were trading things.  Will this fit here?  Will that fit there?  Finally, after throwing away purses, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoos, makeup, etc..., we got it all in there.  Every piece of baggage was bursting at the seams.

Once we had everything packed up, I took Mom and Kathy on one last excursion to the castle ruins of Commarque.  It was late when we arrived and the tours were closed. But I really wanted them to see it.  As I said before, it is a long walk down to the castle and they were a little worried about our safety since no one else was around, but they went along.  

 Sign at the head of the trail

 

It's a long walk down through this beautiful forest....

but, so worth the effort.

 Julie checking out her pictures

Once we were all packed up, we took one last look at our lovely home for the month.

Our wonderful Boyntanac a Baran

Then came the problem of getting all that luggage and the four of us into that tiny European car.  We kept rearranging things, saying "this will never work, we will have to rent another car to Paris".  But, persistence paid off, sort of.  All of us had luggage at our feet so our knees were up to our chests.  Mom and Kathy were in the back seat with luggage stacked to the ceiling between them.  It was hilarious, they could not see each other in that tiny space.

All this and 4 adults in a tiny Puegeot

                                               Where I sat holding Kurt's heavy laptop

               Kathy and Mom, so packed in the backseat that they could not see one another.

Packed in like sardines

  I also had Kurts HEAVY backpack in my lap.  My legs kept "going to sleep", and about 4 hours into the trip, it gave me restless legs syndrome.  That was fun. Not.  We arrived at the Paris airport at 2am, hoping to be able to sleep before our flight at 11.  Wrong again.  That was the only miserable part of the whole month long trip.  There was no way to get even a little comfortable.


                                               Waiting restlessly at the airport in Paris

We couldn't wait to get on the plane.  I was asleep before we took off, and was able to sleep a lot on the plane, thankfully.

For some reason, we had to pick up all our luggage in Philadelphia, and re-check it.  Ugh.  Then, a short plane ride to Nashville where Jeff was waiting, sitting on the tailgate.  So good to see his face.  Our luggage took up the entire truck bed.  He didn't know how we got all that into that little car.  Neither do we.

Ahhh, the good old USA

                                                 Home

It was the trip of my dreams and I can't believe I am so blessed to have been able to do this "once in a lifetime", if you're lucky, thing.  

Turning 50 in France - Bordeaux, beach

If you have to turn the big 5-0, you might as well soften the blow by doing it in France.  So, that is what I planned and it worked.  It really wasn't that bad. 
I have spent the majority of my last few birthdays working at Camp Neyati in Alabama.  Jeff is usually working in Bowling Green, so it has been his practice to call me about 10 times during the day to sing to me.  He knows how much I love the birthday song.  Since it cost so much to call, even with the international plan, he texted me instead every couple of hours.  So sweet, but I missed hearing his voice sing "dear Ju-ya"




        Mom took a couple of pictures of me before we headed out to the beach near Bordeaux. 

The beach was really different from any other beaches I had ever seen.  There were no high rise hotels or buildings of any kind, at all.  The beach had really fine brown sand and was very wide.  there were several huge concrete structures that looked as if they had just fallen there.  They had square openings with iron doors that resembled jail doors on them.  They were covered in grafitti.   Mom and Kurt had walked on up ahead while Kathy and I stayed back a bit so we could do something sneaky. (I'll never tell)  Mom heard us laughing hard and she said she knew what we were up to.


See how far on shore these things are?











                                   What are these things?


 We walked a long way down the beach to find a place where the waves crashed onto the shore, then we set out our towels and made ourselves comfortable.  We laid back, closed our eyes, and listening to the waves hit the shore, we soaked up the sun.  After about 10 minutes, Kathy said "I hear water!".  We all opened our eyes and saw that the ocean was upon us!  30 seconds later and we would have lost our car keys and cell phones to the ocean.  We jumped up, grabbed our water logged belongings and headed WAY back.  We wondered  if the other people on the beach had been watching us, waiting, then laughing at us, the ignorant foreigners. The waves and undertow were strong. This time, taking our cue from them, noticing that no one else was in the water, we decided not to go in too deep. 

                                             Then the ocean covered them, and nearly us.

                                                             Even deeper still...


It was fun being on the beach with my mother and sister.It reminded me of the old days, only this time, one of Mom's girls was 50! 



                                                             What posers we are

                                                           No high rises at this beach

                     

                       I wrote in the sand.......                                                  Then Kathy did.

After getting our fill of sand and sun, we packed up and drove past Bordeaux to wine country.  Most of the family owned vineyards sell their products in their elaborate barns, however, we were late and most were closed.  Kurt did buy a bottle of Chateau Julia for me for my birthday.  Don't know if I'll ever drink it, but I love it. 

We used the GPS to find an Italian restaurant for my birthday dinner and followed the directions to a questionable looking place.  While sitting there trying to decide if we should chance it, we noticed several locals stopping by to pick up take out.  Taking that as a good sign, we went in but were escorted outside to eat, which ended up being very nice.  It was really good food.  I had the vegetarian lasagna which was served in the dish right out of the oven.  It boiled in the bowl for a long time. 

It was a three hour drive back home to Baran.  All in all, a beautiful way to turn 50.

Chateau de la Herm, Sheep! Benac Creme Brule'

Another day of blue skies, but cooler temperatures.  Our day started with ham, tomato and cheese omelets, coffees and baguette.

 Kurt and I had seen Chateau Herm in our first week, but waited so we could take Kathy (Herm) there.  Of course, it is closed for the month of June.  Really?  We got an up close enough view of the formerly wonderful castle in ruins.  It had a lovely stone bridge over it's moat.  Took some pictures of Kathy in front of it for her husband, Joe.  

 Chateau de L'Herm, really!

Took a walk down a long path beside the castle and heard sheep, lots of sheep.  It was just another item on my wish list for my trip to France.  Big sheep, baby sheep, furry sheep, sheared sheep and even a black sheep.  The others seem to like him, though. They didn't judge.  There were so many sheep on both sides of the road.  Mom doesn't understand why this made me so happy.  Come to think of it, me either, but it did.  I had been talking about sheep quite a bit, always looking for a field full.  

 We found sheep, lots of sheep

There's always one black sheep of the family 

Next, we took them to see Benac Castle, which sits high up on a hill, overlooking the Dordogne River.  The sky was so blue with puffy white clouds.  Just another unbelievable day full of unexpected adventures.

 Draw bridge at Benac Castle

 Last Supper painted in Benac Chapel

 Just my sister, my Mom and my son, Oh, and a castle.

 Havin' fun at the top

 
 Indoor bathroom

 

 Leaning out over the top, very high, look at the cars!

                               Dinner at a brasserie and creme brulee (my first ever) for dessert.

                                                         Ostrich, it's whats for dinner

After dinner, cafe's

My first creme brulee.
I liked cracking it, like Amelie

Kathy's new Puegeot

Driving from one sight to another, Kurt noticed a depot vente that had old motorcycles, so we once again, made a pit stop.  We all combed through the rather large building, inside and out.  I had a small pile on the counter, when my mother asked if I had seen a couple of paintings on the floor.  The were old and in dirty condition, but they are fantastic! (sorry, Chels).  I could not believe it when he said they were only 5 Euros each.  Duh. Sold!