A Trip to France....On y va?

I am so excited!!! I have a new dress! Well, a new blog dress! A big thanks to my daughter, who is my computer consultant (OK, well, she set up my blog for me - against my screaming and whining - and changes my blog dress from time to time - all with great patience and attention to detail, I might add). I'm going to doing a Met Monday & Thrifty Treasures post showing some of her creations on Monday.

This charming village is in "les Pyrénées" in the southwestern part of France near the border with Spain. I spent 3 weeks studying here - well, actually in the city of Pau. But we took a day trip through the mountains - sigh......


Anyway, as a French teacher, one of the hazards, necessities, pleasures of the job is that from time to time one needs to go to France to work on speaking and listening skills. Oh, golly, gee, if you insist...ouch - you're twisting my arm - OK, OK, I'll go!

All of my trips were made with a 35mm camera, so in order to post, I had a few pics put on a CD, just thinking about my blog dress. It was a difficult decision, so I'll show you several of my favorite photos. (You can double click on the pics to make them REALLY big, but then, you already know that. I am the last person in Blogland with small pics. Work with me....I'll get there!)

These are the gardens at Villandry in the Loire valley area. I did a 2 week study trip there and it is gorgeous. The French people in this area claim the purest form of French spoken. I was able to stay with a family there and became great friends with them. We still write and visit (actually we go there - it's a sacrifice, what can I say?!) The funny thing about this pic is that we went with our French friends, and it was their FIRST time there, too. Crazy, huh? The natives don't visit the things right in the area....they go to Egypt or Switzerland or Italy!

This is a beautiful "château" - one of the first pleasure "châteaux" - not a fortress for defense. It is called Azay-le-Rideau.

I loved catching this view of the rooftops from the "château" in Amboise. That's the city where Leonardo Da Vinci came and brought his lovely painting the Mona Lisa. He was invited by François I. If you've seen the film "Ever After" they make mention of Amboise in the story.

Caught sight of this charming table and chairs in Honfleur. Located on the Normandy coast, seafood is their specialty. I had a teensy baby shrimp salad there, and, yes, I ate the shrimp - heads and all - way too small to do anything else with them! Argh! It's kind of like "escargots" (snails) - everything tastes better in France - even disgusting things!

That's me standing by the thingey in the port of Honfleur. Ah.....sigh......what a charming town!

This is Colmar - located in the Alsace province - very near Germany. We were there in 2001 just 2 weeks after 9/11 and the people could not have been nicer, more friendly and supportive! Check out those flowers for September!

I think this was in southwestern France in a mountain village in "les Pyréneées". This is a charming part of France - lots of very friendly, warm people - kind of like the way we pride ourselves in being here in the Southern part of the USA. Anyway, why is laundry hanging out to dry so charming in France? I am hopeless!

Look at the cute little "enfant" picking out some flowers.



Nothing like all the fresh and very colortul fruit and veggie markets!

Ah, la Belle France - I hate to leave!!!

Hope you enjoyed my little tour. I have been inspired by Debbie at Confessions of a Plate Addict. She often has French tidbits in her blog, as well as a beautiful Frenchy blog dress! à la prochaine........Linda