Back to Vienna

Where in the world is Bernie’s birthday party? (Insert Carmen San Diego theme song)

Continuing with the clues to where we are going for Bernie’s birthday, here is the next clue;

1.) This place has been inhabited since prehistoric time. Over 6,500 dwellings have been identified.
2.) This place is home to a colony of miniature albino donkeys.
3.) The language is based on Latin but still bears the influence of the ancient languages of the Nuraghic period (such as the word Nuraghe itself) as well as smatterings of Catalan, Corsican, Arabic, Phonecian and Genoese... legacies left by the many invaders.
4.) They have a toxic local herb which causes convulsive laughter in its victims. There is an English phrase that comes from this herb.

Two people so far has guessed correctly! Congratulations to Martha Fosnaugh and Irene Cleenewerck (Fosnaugh). Sorry it is not Germany, Lombardy, or Estonia.

We returned to Vienna on our way back from Prague to explore the city and visit a few more of my relatives. We were graciously invited to stay with Oscar and Rosie (my second cousins). On our first day we visited my grandparents and great grandparent’s grave as well as Oscar’s family grave.

Afterwards Regi and I headed out on the town and saw Stephansdom (St. Stephan’s Cathedral). It was a very gothic style cathedral with huge towers. During World War II the roof collapsed in one of the bombings and my mother bought one of the bricks that replaced the roof after the war. The knowledge of that was special to me.

After Stephansdom, we headed to the Haus der Musik. It was an interactive museum where we could explore all the different aspects of sound and how we react to it. In one room they recreated the sounds of being in the womb. The heart beat of the mother was quite loud and there was a gentle whooshing sound of liquid all around us. It was quite comforting actually. On another floor they had different rooms for the major composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Handle. We saw the actual spectacles that Schubert wore and the door to Beethoven’s house. A modern fung shui expert also assessed why Beethoven moved approximately every six months. She concluded that he was an earth sign with an imbalanced masculine to feminine side and for some reason that didn’t jibe with the apartments he lived in.

Today we decided to get away from the crowds and take a walk along the Danube River. It was a bright warm day out just perfect for a walk. I was excited to see a man on a high wheeled bike. Regi wanted to go for a swim. She said the water was almost just right.

Tonight I plan to photograph the city at night. It is truly my favorite way to photograph cities. They always seem to look better at night.

Tomorrow we are off again to Innsbruck were we might do a little cross-country skiing before we start our work on an Italian vineyard.

Chouse (bye)

Visiting my mother's birth place - Urspitz, Czech Republic

We met Karel (a friend of a friend of my mother) in front of the Ve Cafe where we stayed the night. He had asked the front desk man/waiter if we were there. I think he asked for a Schutz. He did not know our names. Regardless, we still met up. He was very concerned with our travels to Vienna and wanted to help us out. It was very difficult to explain to him that we bought a train pass (the Eurail Pass). He kept saying what I think was that the train was more expensive than the bus. He drove us to his house in his car that is a lot like my old Geo Metro. We met his Frau (wife) who was very nice. We tried very hard to communicate in German. It seemed like there was not a single person in the whole town who spoke any English. Not everyone spoke German and we definitely do not know Czech.

Finally, they found a college student off of the street who helped us explain to them that we do have a train ticket. He explained to us that Karel would drive us to Brno. Unfortunately, he was impatient to go somewhere and ran out the door.

We walked to the river and said, "Dobry den" to the fishermen. We went back to the house for a delicious lunch of pork meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and canned bell peppers. I showed some pictures of my family and they showed us some of their pictures.

He then drove us to the cemetery and we looked for a Schutz grave. There were a lot of new stones and a few unreadable old stones. Unfortunately, we did not find my uncle Reinfried Schutz’s grave.

We went to mass in the church that my mother attended when she was young. It was a wonderful feeling being there. We met the priest and were able to communicate to him that my mother was from here and that we were from California. He was very kind and happy to meet us.

After mass we walked over to the house that my mother was born in. The lady was very happy to show us the house and let me take photos for Mama. The house changed a bit but we found out that the kitchen where my mother was born was now the dining room. I was most touched when I saw the old well in the back yard. I could see Mama drawing water from it as a little girl.

Tomorrow we are off to Vienna to visit my second cousin and explore the city.

Dobry den.

Where in the world is Bernie’s birthday party? (Insert Carmen San Diego theme song)

Continuing with the clues to were we are going for Bernie’s birthday, here is the next clue;

1.) This place has been inhabited since prehistoric time. Over 6,500 dwellings have been identified.
2.) This place is home to a colony of miniature albino donkeys.
3.) The language is based on Latin but still bears the influence of the ancient languages of the Nuraghic period (such as the word Nuraghe itself) as well as smatterings of Catalan, Corsican, Arabic, Phonecian and Genoese... legacies left by the many invaders.

One person so far has guessed correctly! Congratulations to Martha Fosnaugh.

A Village in Moravia or southern Czech Republic

Where in the world is Bernie’s birthday party? (Insert Carmen San Diego theme song)

Continuing with the clues to were we are going for Bernie’s birthday, here is the next clue;

1.) This place has been inhabited since prehistoric time. Over 6,500 dwellings have been identified.
2.) This place is home to a colony of miniature albino donkeys.


Today we traveled to my mother’s birth place- Urspitz, Czechoslovakia. During World War II my family was forced out and they moved to Vienna. Czechoslovakians call it Cvrcovice.

This morning we said goodbye to our wonderful hostess and friend, Katie. She bought us a Czech Kombucha for the trip.

We caught the train from Praha to Brno just in time. At some point I (Regina), decided to use the toilet. Upon flushing it, I looked down into the toilet and saw the tracks racing beneath it. My guess is that is not standard hygienic practice on American rail lines. Bernie found that even the toilet at the tail end of the last rail car had a similarly designed septic system. So, the train could be going by and people could witness feces flying out of the back of it. We will think twice about crossing the tracks in the Czech Republic and we feel sorry for the people that have to work on the underside of the train.

In Brno, we had to do a little hike to the bus station. We saw the beautiful cathedral on top of a hill. In fact, the 10 Czech Crown coin has a picture of the cathedral imprinted on it. At the bus station, we found our platform and was shocked to see a huge line of young people (20 somethings) to go to the little town of Pohorelice. We didn’t think the small town would even hold this many people. We wondered what the big event would be. Playfully, we decided it was going to be a huge reggae concert in the country. In the back of my head, I thought about how Katie said most people either visit their “chatas” in the woods (small vacation houses) or the college students visit their families on the weekends. Luckily, we made it on the bus but we were packed in like sardines. Needless to say, most people did not get off in Pohorelice but continued south on the bus.

We found the Ve Café/Hotel and were checked in by a man who spoke to us with an English and German mix. I was very happy he knew the English he did. Of the places we visited, the Czech Republic seems to have the least amount of English speakers. Plus, the language is so much different from English or Spanish that it is hard to figure out. Unfortunately, I did not even bring a Czech dictionary. I hope the people we meet tomorrow speak to us in German. We can pick out words and sentences that way.

Our nice room has two single beds on either sides of the room which we found to be humorous.
We were hungry and decided to play Shopping Roulette. At least in France we could read labels and kind of figure out what we were buying. Here, we just guess by looking at pictures on the labels and the occasional word that is in English or a cognate of it. We faired pretty well. Bernie accidentally picked out a juice concentrate/syrup instead of juice. It was an intense drinking experience.

Where is Bernie Going For His Birthday?

Dobry den! Regi and I have decided on a location to visit for my 35th birthday (April 18)! I am not going to reveal the location until we get there but I am going to leave one clue about the location every time I write a new blog. Everyone can comment and leave their guesses.

So for the first clue about the location we are going to visit for my birthday is…
1. This place has been inhabited since prehistoric time. Over 6,500 dwellings have been identified.

Our time so far in Prague has been wonderful. Katie has shown us so many beautiful places. After we visited the castle the other evening, I took off on my own to photograph the city at night. Charles Bridge was the most interesting to me. It had the palace (aka the castle) and the St. Vitus church in the background and stunning statues that lined the bridge. The sky was perfect as well with deep blue sky and light broken up clouds the glowed pink with the city lights. Another interesting structure that I photographed was the T.V. towers. In former Communist times the towers were used to block signals from the west from getting into their country. There is a local artist that created huge faceless babies that are crawling up and down the towers to represent the Jewish cemetery that the Russians destroyed to build the tower.

We had a long hike today through Czesky Raj or Czech Paradise which was just that. It had beautiful rock formations and overlooks. The weather was great. We visited two beautiful castles.

Na shledanou!

A Walk Around Prague Downtown

Yesterday Bernie had the chance to photograph Maxik. He is a Prague Ratter. Similar to a Chihuahua, he is only 4lbs. and maybe 6 inches tall. He is so cute and the photo shoot produced some very humorous photos.

This morning we had crepes made from the most extravagant recipe we had ever experience. They were very delicious. It was a great brunch with toppings of orange crème, strawberries, bananas, Nutella, and spinach and cheese. Yum!

After our brunch, we headed out on the town. We walked through the park with our back to the Communist radio wave blocking tower with sculptures of black faceless babies to downtown. We were on a quest to find the Communist museum. We found a Starbucks instead. Bernie was very excited about the blue lit urinal. It was so good, Bernie used it twice. Meanwhile, I happily ate a toasted bagel with cream cheese and watched the people going by. It was a Saturday so there were many more tourists out than when we had been through downtown before.

We did successfully find the Alfonso Mucha museum. He was a Czech artist that made beautiful lithographs and paintings. He designed practical items (like chairs) and even did all the interior and exterior design on some buildings. He even made the designs for the Czech money.

We went on a journey to find St. Thomas, the church that had an English Mass. We took tourist pedestrian highway through the shops. One man standing outside of the restaurant with a menu greeted us. “Hello, my good friends. I have been waiting for you. Where were you last night?” We were completely weirded out and did not know how to respond so we avoided eye contact and kept walking. He continued, “You are missing out on your great happiness!”

So we left our best friend that we had never met and came to the Stare Mesto. There were lots of food booths and things for Bernie to photograph. We bought a delicious and large sausage in a baguette then listened to the clock and crowd celebrate that it was 5 o’clock. The trumpet player played a ditty on all four sides of the tower and waved his long red and gold belled sleeves to clapping and cheering.

Then we walked across the Charles Bridge which is lined with statues of Jesus, Mary and saints on both sides. There was a memorial to St. Nepomuk (where he was thrown over the bridge for not revealing what a person had confessed in the sacrament of confession) that people would prayerfully touch. His statue was also popular to touch and photograph.

We made it to an excellent and filled Mass in the chapel of St. Thomas. It was actually a part of a monastery. The priest was excellent and applied the challenge of Lent to people’s lives. He also offered to be very available for confession all week.

On the way back, we saw an incredibly large full moon hanging low around the beautiful towers and buildings of Prague. Tomorrow, we plan on going back and taking night time photos of the city. Hopefully the moon is as impressive and the weather as good.

Praha

Our world travels has brought us to Praha, or Prague as the U.S. knows it. The train trip was interesting getting here. You could definitely tell when Austria ended and the Czech Republic started. All of a sudden you just could tell that you were in a (what used to be) soviet occupied country. The main structures in the small villages changed from a church to a power plant and all the buildings changed from nicely painted houses to a stone cold structure. There is definitely a different feel here.

Katie, my friend from high school, has been a wonderful host. She took us on a lovely walk of the city today to give us an idea of were things are and what we can see. There are many wonderful sculptures that are in the soviet style and even some great modern sculptures of some very interesting subjects. I’m sure I will post some of these later on.

We went shopping this evening to make a lasagna. It is really weird having a 523 koruna bill at the supermarket and a 237 koruna bill at the cheese shop. I must say the cheese shop was amazing. You could taste any of their cheese and they were really friendly. I would like to go there every day and try a new cheese.

Tomorrow should be filled with more exciting adventures around Prague. Stay tuned.

Home away from Home

The instant I arrived in Austria I felt like it was my home away from home. Everything seemed familiar to me. The way the houses looked, the snow covered mountains, the way people talked to each other, everything seemed well-known to me. It was if I had grown up living in Austria.

The last couple of days have been packed with visiting my family, seeing the town of Eisenstadt and St. Georgen (the villages that my mother spent many summers), and eating amazing food. I haven’t had much time to write in the blog.

I found out that my grandfather lived in a house just a few houses down the street from Mitzy my cousin (where Regi and I have graciously been invited to stay). I saw the wine cellar that all of my family had worked in for so many generations. I felt an overwhelming feeling of connection and family ties. I so much want to work the vineyards, smell the fermenting grapes, feel the wood of the old wine barrels on my fingertips, taste the ice wine. I almost want to cry when I hear that many of the young children do not have an interest in continuing the family vineyard. It makes me want to scream “I will do it! I will continue the tradition!” I don’t want to see all of this lost because the world says “move away from home and do what you want.” We are losing so much of our “family” and who we are. Our identity is being scattered, thinned down, and lost forever. It is so frustrating.

Tonight is our last night here. My relatives decided to go out to a stodl (which is like a small wine tasting and dinner restaurant). We all walked up to the front doors and I looked up at the name of the restaurant and I stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I read it a couple of times to make sure. The name of the restaurant was “Pachinger Stodl”. My mother’s last name was Pachinger. This restaurant was my family’s restaurant. It was so beautiful. Everything was built with pride in their craftsmanship. There was intricately carved wood, solid chairs, crystal clear wine glasses, and even local art hanging on the walls (dear to my heart of course). I even found out that the young waiter was a distant cousin of mine. Sitting there in that restaurant I really felt like I could live here forever. I felt like I belonged here.

It’s 2:30 in the morning. I am sitting on the floor in my room writing this and wondering if this was were my mother slept. I know I have to leave tomorrow but I don’t want to. How can I leave so much of my history behind? I feel like if I leave this will fade away like a dream. I don’t want it to end. I don’t want Hanz to be the last of his family to make wine. I don’t want to see my mother’s wine field plowed under and houses built on top. I want to be able to open the wine cellar doors that my grandfather made and say “Welcome! I am Bernard Fosnaugh Pachinger Swester Hoffer (and on and on and on) and this is our vineyard.”

Only God can say what will happen. I just know that I have to leave when the sun rises. How can I express to these people what I feel? How can I say goodbye?

Austrian Hospitality

We found Venice to be more enjoyable at night, when the people walking were still many but not overwhelming. The lights cast on the buildings brought out a sense of ancient regality. The boats are docked and rock peacefully in the canals.

Wandering in the night, we came across a kebab/pizza shop (there must be hundreds in Venice) with the news on their television. We were shocked to see the devastation in Japan and said many prayers. We also heard about some of the effects in our area. Our prayers go out to everyone.

We took the bus and then the train into Vienna. We found the southern Limestone Alps to be gorgeous. We also found that the Eurail Pass is most easily used in Austria so far: no reservation fees or having to go to a ticket counter to get an additional ticket. That is what we thought the Eurail Pass was about.

We found the people in Austria to go out of their way to be friendly and helpful when we needed some information and help. We feel very welcome.

It is great to visit with Bernie's family. They are about to take us around Eisenstadt.

Guten Tag!

Regina

On the road again

We have been off and running down the road, immersed in trains, double-decker busses, masses of tourists (isn't March a part of the off season?) to find ourselves momentarily in the happily calm city of Vienna. Even now I only have a few minutes before we are off again. Our travels brought us to Venice, Italy for two nights. Venezia (in Italian) was a city that Regi and I have dreamed of living in. Well sort of. We have dreamed of a city that had no cars and you could walk down the middle of any road. Venice was just that. The city is a maze of tiny little alley ways and over 400 bridges.

Well time has run out but I will post more when we get a chance. I have a ton of wonderful photos to share with all of you.

Auf Wiedersehen

Bernie

Feeling French

We awoke early to the sun shining in our windows. This morning we decided we were going to live French. We headed out the door into the cool morning air. We took the trail down the hill to where it ended then pushed our way through the brush to the dirt road at the bottom. We took the road by back yards of beautiful French houses and an old, abandoned house. Our dirt road met with a residential road that was a 20% grade to the village center. Approaching the center, the odor of fresh bread walked down to meet us.

At La Roquette sur Siagne, we slipped into the small boulangerie. “Bonjour,” the woman at the counter greeted us, as did everyone we met or passed. We asked for a baguette and she gave us two. Behind her, a man (probably her husband) was removing freshly cooked loaves from the oven and replaced them with lengths of dough. He closed the oven with a cloud of steam. Bernie asked if he could photograph him. The man was flattered to have his photograph taken. Bernie photographed the man at work for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, I decided to buy a pain de raisin which turned out to be much more delicious than I expected. I also studied the stores wares. Pate, Nutella, sardines, vanilla beans, Dr. Otker’s Vanilla Sugar (but not the one that is sold in the states that is artificially flavored), herbs de provence, and a good many other things in this tiny shop seemed appealing. Meanwhile, quite a few men came in to buy bundles of bread loaves that the woman had put together. When Bernie had finished, the man baking the bread announced that he was a celebrity.

We walked back along the road and felt very French with our baguettes.

Today, Bernie weed-whacked and I prepared part of their lawn for grass seed planting. Then in the afternoon we worked together on a major tree/hedge trimming operation. Gaby is very excited that we are letting light into her yard.

We’ve been working on our German a little because soon we will need it. We found with French that we can communicate fairly effectively with “Bonjour,” “Merci,” “Au Revoir,” and if we need help, we say, “Parlevous angleis (sp?)” (which actually had not gotten us very far) so then we just say a noun in French quizzically and they reply in French with pointing and hand motions. We understand a little now. Hopefully, it will work out with the German or maybe more people will know English where we are.

Au Revoir!

Regina

The French Riviera

Saturday came around and we decided to schmooze with the rich in Cannes. Well, we were going to go to Nice but it was only one Euro each to get to Cannes on the bus and Cannes was big enough and interesting enough for a day visit. Cannes is known as a popular destination of famous film stars, especially during May when they have their famous film festival.
We visited the train station and realized that there is a reservation fee for long train rides in addition to the cost of the Eurail Pass. I guess even if we were to buy the ticket at the station, we would still need to pay a reservation fee. The travel industry gets you where they can.
So, we embarked on a quest for a restroom since there were not any at the station and it was actually quite the expedition. We were even willing to buy food in a restaurant if they had a restroom. Many of the small eateries that lined the streets had nothing of the sort. We made it to the harbor filled with yachts and saw A MCDONALDS! We noticed there were kiosks that looked like ATMs where you could make your order outside and then come in and pick it up. The McDonald’s was packed and even overflowing with people. It seemed the popular place for young lovers to eat lunch. We tried to sneak in to use the restroom (squeezing around all the people) and there was a code on the door! You had to buy something before they would give you the code. So we bought two double cheeseburgers and a frappe which tasted like they did in the States. In fact, they used American cheese but they called it “cheese fondue.”

After browsing the street market of silverware, art, and crafts, we headed to the beach. It looked like they had to import sand.

We thought we would enjoy some of the snacks we brought. Well, I had never actually cooked hard-boiled eggs myself and had only cooked them for 5 minutes. When we opened our bag, one of the soft-boiled eggs had exploded over everything! So we ate our yolk-covered tea-time snack and washed our hands in the Mediterranean. We relaxed on the beach, watching a group of teenagers feed the black-headed seagulls and some young men do flips. Once we were chilled to the bone we went for a walk.

It seemed we were walking with some of the richest people in the world by rich hotels and expensive restaurants. Ladies were wearing real furs (some with the feet still on them!!) and there were a variety of classy, expensive outfits. The view along the Mediterranean was beautiful with the irregularly shaped mountains across the harbor. As we passed the Carlton Hotel (the hotel they shot “The Thief” in, I believe) we saw paparazzi waiting outside for a star to come out. There was even a red Ferrari parked right outside the front door.

We found a quiet park where the elderly and the people with young children visited. There were many perfectly manicured pure-bred small dogs being walked in the area. One woman brought her pet rooster. The rooster asserted his dominance over the small dogs and made a game of attacking the lady’s blue bag. She would also hold the rooster in her lap for long periods of time without fear of being pooped on. I wondered if it was toilet trained.
On the way back to the bus, we found a boulangerie where we bought a baguette and an éclair. Bernie is now officially addicted to éclairs.
On Sunday, we went to Mass and the congregation was very welcoming. They recognized us from last week and the people who knew a little English all chatted with us. They even announced that they were glad to have “English visitors” (in French, of course). That was us. Generally, people guess that we are from England because it’s probably less common for people to visit from the US than England.
Unfortunately, that morning I had decided to try out a free sample of perfume from the perfumery in Grasse and put some on my clothes before going to Mass. In the middle of Mass, I started sweating profusely and felt like I was going to passed out. I had to sit down. I felt much better after I took my sweater off. It was a little embarrassing because it was about the time of the “kiss of peace” when I was really sweating and not feeling well. If I was feeling well, we probably would have walked to Mouans-Sartoux to buy éclairs before the shops closed at noon on Sunday. Oh well. Bernie will have to survive by eating Nutella straight out of the jar.

Au Revoir!

Regina

Something Smells: Our half-day trip to Grasse, France

After digging trenches and varnishing chairs, we took a trip to nearby Grasse: a leading town in the perfume industry. I confidently used the little French I knew to get around. Unfortunately, when people reply, I don’t really know what they are saying but it is getting easier to figure it out. We took the bus from Mouans-Sartoux up the steep, switch-back roads to Grasse. Grasse was founded because the people retreated to the mountains during the times of war.

Grasse is beautifully set with views over the foothills to the Mediterranean. We stepped off the bus on to a parking lot that had a great overlook. It seems we had just missed the big event because groups of children were kicking and tossing about large wads of colored streamers. As we walked away from the overlook a tumbleweed of streamers passed us by and an older man chatted with us jovially about it. We smiled, laughed and nodded appreciating his friendliness but comprehended none of his words.

There were a couple of perfume museums and we opted for the one with free admission. We browsed an extensive personal collection of ancient to more modern perfume containers. The building led us to a store of perfumes and other related items that was crowded with people. We found a saleswoman who spoke English and she informed us that there was a tour of the perfumery’s facilities in English.

We took the tour which had a demonstration of older techniques of fragrance extraction, including effleurage where the flowers are put on sheets of beef or pork fat. They were removed and replaced each day for three months or until the fat was completely saturated with the essence of the flower. Then alcohol is used to extract the essential oils. Other more modern techniques still use enormous amounts of flowers to create just a small amount of essential oil (on which perfume and eau de toilette is based). It takes 3.5 tons of roses to make one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of essential oil. The difference between eau de toilette and perfume has to do with the percentage of essential oil in the fragrant liquid. Perfume is about 30% essential oils and eau de toilette is about 10%. Also, the aluminum bottles help keep the perfume longer than the transparent glass bottles. There is also an enormous price difference between the perfumes in the glass bottles and those in the aluminum (with aluminum being much more pricy).

By the time we were done with the museum, it was about 4:30 (half four as they might say), and we thought we would stroll the town. There were steep narrow streets with intricate walkways and mysterious tunnels. We thought we would like to buy some fruit and bread and walked up a narrow way to a number of shops. We were not comfortable buying in the area because large groups of men (who appeared to be North African) were loitering around and staring at us. In fact, I felt like I was the only woman in the fairly crowded area. We pressed onward and found a group of police officers loitering next to the loiterers and staring at us in just the same way. It took me a minute to realize they had official uniforms on and were, perhaps, keeping the peace.

We came to another narrow street with another row of nicer looking shops. We were getting much hungrier now from walking uphill so much and to our dismay, every creperie and pizzeria was closing their doors. It was maybe 5:00 PM. We walked into a pizzeria who had left their doors open and he explained that pizza is only for dejuner (lunch) and not diner (dinner). We descended the hill and found we were getting away from food and the shops with only a “McDonald’s Ahead” sign to bring us any hope. We were hungry but were not interested in a large slice of brie with a burger so we ascended the hill again. We found even more loiterers in an area that had two bakeries across the street from each other. We opted for the one with the least amount of loiterers in front of it. The bakery had North African cuisine with a number of unrecognizable savory pastries and sandwiches. We had been trying to speak to people all day and most knew no or very little English. We were delighted to find that the North African man running the shop knew English quite well and made a great explanatory presentation of what he was selling. He wasn’t completely comprehensible, though, and I think we accidentally bargained him up (rather than down) and he happily sold some large “kebab filled” pastries for 5 Euro to us. Then he asked us where we were from and we said America. He then guessed LA, probably because no one had ever bought his large pastries for so much before.

It was getting dark so we made our way back to the bus stop. We ate the pastries and thought we were still hungry after finishing them. About 30 minutes later, we felt overwhelmingly full. I think they were at least 700 calories each, if not 900. They were greasy and delicious but the after-feeling was one of intense heaviness.

As we were waiting for the bus, a police car with lights floored it past two cars going up the hill. There was a third in front of the two that the police car was unable to pass because two or three cars were coming down the hill. The police car almost hit the oncoming car head on as it zoomed up the narrow street. Meanwhile, the other cars all slammed on their breaks in both lanes. The police car dodged back into its appropriate lane behind the third car to avoid the head on collision. The third car slowed down and tried pulling over to let the officer pass which almost cause the officer to rear end that car. Minutes later, the same police car (we think) drove crazily down around the next street. We were wondering if he even knew where he was going or if he just liked to drive like that for fun.

Bernie is telling me to stop writing. Bonsoir!

Regina

Work Days

In the last couple of days there hasn’t been too much to talk about. We have been working around the house, setting up pavilions, power washing the columns, weedwacking, and so on. The weather has been light rain in the afternoons but we are hoping for more sun to come.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit Gras, the perfume capital of the world. There are some perfumes that are only sold here in Gras and in Paris. You can even take a class and create your own perfume.

I will write more tomorrow of our adventures in Gras, France.

P.S. There was a problem with posting comments but I fix it and it should work now. We would love it if you would post any of your thoughts and comments you wish to share.

Trip to the Market

Today we got hungry so we stopped work early and walked to the near by town of Mouans-Sarteux. We were told to turn right at the McDonald’s and when we got to the McDonald’s we saw this sign advertising their latest deal; the cheese burger. You can get it with a huge slice of brie cheese, cantal cheese (?), or a bleu cheese. What can I say, Europe loves their cheese.

We thought that Mociute would like to see this photo. On the plane ride to France we saw this ad in a magazine to visit Vilnius, Lithuania. We didn’t know Vilnius was so popular. Quite the surprise.

After dinner Regi asked if we could use some jam for the crepes that we wanted to make. To our delight, they gave us Nutella! I really wanted to buy some at the market. Regi made me a lovely bowl of strawberry, banana, sour cream, and Nutella. At the market we really wanted yogurt but they only sold it in small individual contains. Those were way too small for the amount of yogurt that Regi and I would eat. We needed a big container. They had only a few larger containers but we couldn’t decipher what they contained. So we picked one only to discover that it was sour cream. Now we are inventing new ways to use sour cream. It fits fairly well with fruit and if you mix it into the crepe batter it makes it quite nice.

Au Revoir