Yeah, but the silver lining is just a diversion.

In other news…

The A380 flew on Wednesday. It actually made it off the runway to lots of cheering and clapping. Airbus never expressed a doubt as to whether it would fly or not. I did notice, however, that the 2 pilots and 4 technicians that made the maiden flight were wearing parachutes when they boarded the plane.

Nothing like confidence! I mean they were in possession of nothing like confidence.

…………………………

It was a gorgeous day outside on Tuesday; in fact this whole week is fabulous. 70° (Fahrenheit obviously), sunny, the back yard is green with patches of shade from all the trees… I was spending the afternoon outside on the back porch reading and sunning. It’s so relaxing, all of that green. However, several times during my private commune with nature a young man walked through the grove. He appeared to be looking around at the back of peoples houses. I found it a bit disturbing to have the human intrusion on my little piece of paradise not to mention that I had to make sure I wasn’t being too immodest in my search for maximum sun coverage.

Of course I, being the suspicious American that I am, kept staring at him when he’d pass by and was sure he was casing houses. I mean, yeah it's a grove of trees, and it's surrounded by a few houses, but it's far from being a public park or public thoroughfare. So what was he doing there? At one point after observing him in the back yard I came into the house and as I glanced out the front window I saw him coming back down the sidewalk in the other direction. It was sort of starting to creep me out.

Finally on his umpteenth pass behind the house, I made a point of sitting up and catching his eye; really trying to convey the ‘I’ve got my eye on you buddy’ message. My glare however was mistaken for an invitation and he came over to the porch.

This is the part where I felt like a complete shmuck. He and his girlfriend lost their two pet ferrets. They’d been loose since that morning. The guy seemed pretty distraught about it. I felt like a real heel for being so suspicious. I promised him that I’d keep an eye out for the two little creatures and let him know if I spotted them.

So far no sightings, it’s really put a cramp in my sunning cause every time I hear the slightest rustling I’m sure it’s a ferret; I spring up and start looking around. It’s not that I’m scared of the little creatures; I’d just like to help the guy out, especially after harboring such evil and suspicious thoughts about him. Isn’t guilt great?

…………………………

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, I’ve been throwing all the windows in the house open to air the place out and let some of the warmth into the house. One of the things about a brick house is that it definitely keeps the house cool. Sometimes the breeze carries in the scent of the nearby wisteria that’s in full bloom. All sorts of great spring smells come wafting in; clean fresh springtime air.

Unfortunately, the great spring breeze carries something else into the house…you guessed it, BUGS. God I hate bugs! The air is full of them, horse flies so big I call them elephant flies, small tiny little flies, box elder bugs, beetles in all shapes and sizes and of course the dreaded SPIDERS. It’s not fair to feel so torn about opening the windows in spring time. It’s a cruel, cruel joke and I’m preparing a letter of complaint to the almighty; she’s got some explaining to do.

…………………………

Rachel came for lunch today. I made a quiche and she brought a salad. We ate out on the ‘veranda’. It was heavenly. Good food, good company, great weather, it just doesn’t get much better than that.

What are you up to?

Coming soon to an airport near you.

On April 7th the Airbus A380 was moved from the Airbus super secret assembly hanger to the Airbus flight test facility at Toulouse-Blagnac airport.

That was enough to cause total pandemonium; yesterday however, the A380 was taken for a walk up down the test flight runway. That's all, just up and down the runway. This event filled the makeshift parking lots that Airbus created to keep people from stopping on the highway and still had people parking on the sides of the highway and eventually on the highway itself. The maiden flight is scheduled for Monday. Sometime Monday. If the weather is favorable. This means that people will be parked on every square inch of tarmac, grass and sidewalk near and around the airport that isn't guarded by railing. People will even fill the airport lots and pay for parking just to see this event. I myself may attempt to get to the centre commercial in Blagnac to park and watch the skies. Paul, my inside source at Airbus, did not however mention when the next flight date might be if, and trust me with April weather being what it's been this is highly likely, weather does not permit on Monday. I will have to try to contact him for that info so I'm not 'stalking' the A380 daily waiting for takeoff. Well anyway, if I manage to get anywhere near the airport on Monday and if the 380 flies and if I remember to bring my camera with me (photos above are stock from the Airbus website), I'll post photos of the historic event In other non-flight related news, spring is creeping toward summer here, but except for the flowering and leafing of trees you wouldn't really know it. The weather has failed to warm up much beyond the low 60's except for a day or two here and there. It's supposed to be in the 70's by now. On the bright side, the continued cold has prolonged the life of our tulips and they have been in bloom for weeks now. Here are some views from my bedroom window.

The view in early March.

The view on Monday just after the landlord mowed the 'back 40'. By the end of May there'll be cherries.

View from my office window.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I leave you with a funny. I love Non Sequitur.

I’m sorry, I can’t hear you, my shoes are too tight.

Yesterday I got pulled over. No, I was not speeding.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned the gendarmes at the roundabouts. I’ve gone past these groups of officers at the roundabouts and wondered what they were pulling people over for. Obviously if you are entering a traffic circle you can’t be going to fast, so what? Well, I suppose they can see if you’re wearing your seatbelt or not, or maybe they pull you over if you’re on your cell phone.

Being on your cell phone while driving is strictly against the law in France and using a hands free device is left up to the cops. So you may or may not be stopped and ticketed for using one, depending on how the cop feels about things on any given day.

Anyway, yesterday while going to the grocery store I came halfway around a circle to find a cop standing in the middle of the road waving me over to the side; me and the next four cars through the circle. So here was my chance to find out. I wasn’t speeding and I was wearing my seat belt (no really, I was), it wasn’t dark so he couldn’t be pulling me over cause I had a light out or anything.

(You are legally required by law in France to carry a spare light bulb for all of your vehicle lights, so if they notice one out they will pull you over to make you change it, and woa be to you if you don’t have a spare. They sell kits designed for each model at all the auto parts stores and hypermarkets.)

The nice man came over to my window and asked to see my papers. For some reason that I don’t understand, smartass Missy momentarily took over my mouth and blurted, ‘ça veut dire quoi?’. Which means, ‘what does that mean?’ or ‘what is that supposed to mean?’. I was just trying to ask ‘which papers’ or ‘what specifically do you need to see’. I didn’t mean to be snotty, it was just the first phrase that came to mind. Isn’t the nervous brain a funny thing? Luckily he didn’t seem to notice.

He asked for my carte gris, my certificate d’assurance and my permis de conduire or rather, license, registration and proof of insurance. That’s what they were checking for, pulling people over at random to check that all of their paperwork was in order.

Picture driving through your town when on any given day at any possible intersection there is a police van parked and 6 cops are standing in the middle of the road and pointing to cars and waving them over to the curb; a legal fishing expedition. Can you picture it?

Alright then ::insert trumpet fanfare or drum roll:: the long awaited book reviews!

Alright then, I apologize in advance for poor spelling and grammar, but I just couldn't go through it all with a fine tooth comb. So without further ado and in no particular order we start with…

A Short History Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – Fascinating stuff! I liked most of it, though I have to admit there were places where I skipped pages at a time. I loved the whole evolution thing and the forming of the planets and the hysterical historical stories of measuring the world, narcissistic and self centered genius scientists, inventors who got screwed by life, accidental discoveries. Too many names and dates and places, but if you read it like a novel it’s really fascinating and enjoyable.

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot, Linda Coverdale (Translator) – I read this one because it came out as a movie in France. The movie, looked great, but I wanted to read the book first since I would be forced to watch the 2+ hour movie in French. The book is wonderful. It’s a story of two young people who become engaged just before the young man is sent to war during world war one. Through a series of events he is presumed dead. The young woman refuses to believe he is dead and spends 16 years trying to track him down. The stories of the men involved in this misadventure and the savagery of war are so sad that I cried many times during the story, but each bit of every story peels away another layer and another lie. It’s a horrifically complicated story and each clue just leads to another mystery. If you can keep all the French names and places straight, you’ll love it. The movie comes out on DVD at the end of this month so I’ll see how the movie compares. After reading the book though, I’m certain the movie will be a much abridged version.

Next is a trilogy packaged as Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn, these books are set in a magical feudal Japan constantly on the edge of war and ruled by clans. A place where marriages and kidnappings forge alliances and the average peasant just keeps getting screwed.

Book one is Across the Nightingale Floor where we meet our hero and heroin. The story starts with Takeo, our hero, as he returns from the forest to his village to find that everyone has been killed. He’s about to be next when he is rescued by a Lord with many secrets. In this book Takeo learns about his secret past and discovers his very powerful talents. He also meets the love of his life Kaede.

In book two Grass for His Pillow Takeo and Kaede are separated by their duties and promises to their separate clans. Takeo is initiated into a world that is his by birth. Though he has been made Lord of his adoptive fathers clan, the family of his birth father has laid claim to his powerful and unique talents. He is torn between honoring two different promises and in the end breaks with the ‘clan’ of his birth father after they try to have him killed. He reunites with Kaede who has undertaken the role of head of her fathers’ clan and uniting it with the clan that was willed to her by her aunt (?). She has to learn to be a strong woman in a society that places the value of women below that of livestock. In the end of this book Takeo and Kaede form a vision for a peaceful and united Japan.

In book three Brilliance of the Moon Takeo and Kaede are secretly married and together they form one of the greatest and largest alliances in Japan. If they can pull it off, their dream of a peaceful and united country will be realized. However, you can imagine that treachery lies at every turn and the lovers are separated as war ensues across the country. But each one has proven their leadership and with help from allies, the words of a prophecy for Takeo begin to come true.

All three books are absolute page turners and all of the characters are very well defined. There are issues of basic human rights and dignity, loyalty, the meaning of honor and charma. I recommend them all.

Next in line are three more books by a single author, though they are not a trilogy. Cornelia Funke has written three wonderful books for young people. The thing that they all share is that, I think, the endings are not your typical ‘all tied up in a big red bow’ happy endings. Some characters have happy endings, some not and some have no closure at the end of the story whatsoever. The stories are well written though and, as in real life, people don’t always do the right thing. I like them very much, though being a kid at heart, I was a bit dissatisfied with some of the inconclusive endings.

The first book, Inkheart, is my favorite because I love the premise of the story. Meggie’s dad Mo is a book binder by trade. He loves books and is also such a wonderful reader that when he reads out loud the story literally comes to life around you. Unfortunately, one day he unintentionally reads some very frightening characters out of a book. The trouble caused by his reading seems to have no end and the lives that are disrupted in this world and the made up one are many. I thoroughly enjoyed the story all the way until the end. The end, well, some of it didn’t make sense to me and if you’ve read it, let me know ‘cause I’d love to know your take on it. Maybe you can explain the justice of the ending to me.

The second book, Dragon Rider, is (and amozon.com agrees) for a bit younger kid, just the way it’s written. It’s magical like Inkheart but far more full of fairytale type characters. About a dragon named Firedrake who embarks on a quest to find a place called The Rim of Heaven where he and other dragons will be safe from the destruction of man. However, we don’t know if this place for sure exists even though a map exists to it. They are chased by your typical evil nemesis and seem to barely stay a step ahead of him. My least favorite of the three.

The third book, The Thief Lord, is the story of two orphaned boys who run away from their mean aunt. She wants to adopt the five year old, Bo, but not his older brother, 12 year old Prosper, who she intends to send away to boarding school. The boys run away to Venice because their mother (who we never find anything out about) has told them fabulous stories about the city. There they are taken in by a street gang of orphans and runaways. This group is supported by the Thief Lord. With a private eye on their trail the two boys and their friends plot a major robbery. A bit of magic complicates things and once again you’re left with a not to satisfactory ending. A story in which thieving and counterfeiting seem to pay and kids are far wiser and stronger than adults. Good story though.

Next I highly recommend Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz. In fact I recommend his latest few books (especially The Face and Odd Thomas), I love his mix of thriller with a bit of the supernatural, unlike his earlier books which were mostly thriller. In this book a prophecy is foretold for baby Jimmy by his dying grandfather, of 5 really bad days. His first bad day turns out to be the day of his birth and the day his grandfather dies. All of the others are tied together from those first events. The book is funny and suspenseful, I read it straight through in two days. The end had a bit too much ‘deus ex machina’ for me, but still a great read. Another reason to fear clowns.

SkinnyDip by Carl Hiaasen is the story of a woman who is thrown off of a cruise ship by her stupid scheming husband. She, of course, survives the attempt and decides to stay ‘dead’ until she can find out what in the heck motivated her dumb husband. Warning, not for kids; lots of adult humor and situations. The book however is incredibly funny and although the husband deserves everything he gets, due to his complete ineptness at killing people, near the end you almost feel sorry for him, almost. She on the other hand does a lot of soul searching about her motives in life and it has a ‘wrapped up in a big red bow’ happy ending. Sort of…Two enthusiastic toes up.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie is the story of two ill fated rock ‘n rollers who live in a slightly different version of our current universe. They live in a world where our music is whispered into Ormus’s head by his dead twin and where Vina, the love of his life, breaths life into his songs, but keeps him at a distance. I will confess that I started this book 3 times and just had to slog through it to the end. The story is convoluted and full of Rusdie’s deep life lessons and twists of fate. It is a 500+ page tome that, though you may not enjoy, you’ll feel proud to have finished.

The City of Ember and its sequal The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau are two more books for young people. The first book centers around a dying town that turns out to be an apocalyptic insurance policy that was built underground over 250 years before the story starts. The people of Ember have forgotten their past and don’t know how to save their dying city. Two young people, Lina and Doon find and decipher the instructions for the cities escape to the surface. In the second book the survivors of Ember descend upon the town of Sparks where everyone needs to learn a little tolerance and need to remember the lessons of the past that got them to where they are. A bit of fluffy light reading but good stories; I liked the first one better.

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason – A book about a book. A book with a secret. The secret of the book turns out to be the location of many of the works of art saved from the famous ‘bonfire of the vanities’ but the book doesn’t give up its secret easily and people die for the secret. A young college student who’s father was obsessed with the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (which is supposed to be a real book) is dragged into his dead fathers obsession by a fellow classmate. The riddling out of the secrets is very DaVinci Code and I enjoyed it. I wish a little more effort would have gone into the end, but if you can stick through the explanations of the riddles I think you’ll like it. Though it’s another almost 500 page tome, I’d read it before the Rushdie book.

The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower- Book VII) by Stephen King – The long awaited conclusion to his long tale is in some parts pure genius because he ties together some threads from some of his other stories. However, the contrivances to manage some of those threads neatly are disappointing; a far cry from the first three masterpieces in the series. However, it’s over now and I would recommend, that if you want to sleep peacefully at night, you read it, and stop at the first ending. When you get to the page where Stephen King says, ‘here is the second ending, but don’t read it’ I would follow his advice. Don’t read that second ending, it’s not worth the loss of sleep. Got you curious now don’t I, oh well, read it at your own risk. I’m disappointed that King wrote himself into the last two books, but in this book it makes a weird kind of sense. I call this book a limping finish to a race well started. Ah well.

I bought four books of absolute fluff at Borders because they were buy three get one free. Wedding Season by Darcy Cosper, Best Friends by Marth Moody, Weekend in Paris by Robyn Sisman, and Blessings: A Novel by Anna Quindlen. They were, in order of appearance, Fluff, Dark, Cute and Sad. I have them if you want to borrow them. Don’t spend the money.

The Broker by John Grisham – Typical Grisham, but feels like it was written too fast. Not enough detail, too contrived and completely unbelievable. I think the premise of the story was good; Washington power broker sprung from jail by a US intelligence agency so he can lead them to where the ‘bodies’ are buried. I wish he’d put more effort into it though. Sadly disappointing.

There are more but I’ll stop cause this is too long now and I’m tired of rehashing and trying to remember what all these books were about. It’s like having to write a book report for school. Well except that I didn’t have to include the copyright and publisher info. Currently I’m reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton, I’ve started it several times and just can’t get past the first hundred pages. A lot happens in those pages, but it’s so boring. I’ll let you know if I get through it. (Which of course I will, since I’m usually starved for reading material, but I don’t think I’m going to like it.) It’s a shame really cause I usually love his stuff.

Also reading Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Sarah Vowell of The Partly Cloudy Patriot.

And finally also reading Alice Hoffman’s new one The Ice Queen which is holding my attention the most so far.

Enough already! I’m off to have an ice cream and much needed nap.

That is all.

Bamboo-zled or Ficus Fiasco or Derned Fern (sorry)

I know that I have a sort of a reputation as a decent gardener, but in the realm of houseplants I don’t have such a good rep. There are certain types of plants that I have managed to kill every time I’ve gotten my hands on them. If the Ficus Benjamina had a post office, my photo would be up on their ‘most wanted’ wall. The only exception would be that where it normally says ‘dead or alive’ their poster would read simply ‘dead’.

…………………………

About a year and a half ago during a trip to Ikea, I decided to buy some bamboo. I mean, how hard can it be, you put it in water and it grows. I took home two, what – sticks? Um plants? Or are they called stems? Anyway, I took home two of them and stuck them in a glass of water. From time to time I’d add more water and the two plants not only grew, they seemed to thrive.

Bolstered by this success, several months later during another visit to Ikea, I saw some Boston ferns. Another plant I kill regularly. I decided to go for it and looked for the biggest, healthiest specimen I could find. I figure that for 5 euros I can afford to try again. So I place the little thing into my basket and quietly explain to it my track record. I apologized in advance and then give it a little pep talk about how I think that if we both work together we can create some positive results. I swear that as I finished my little monologue I saw its little fronds tremble slightly and then droop.

Well, within two weeks the poor thing had lost almost all of its leaves and if you’ve ever killed a fern, you know how messy it can be. Blood…um, I mean leaves everywhere, all of those sticky up brown stems pointing straight up in the air like some sort of ill fated mohawk or something, accusation quivering in every breeze. I refused to bury it though, I trimmed up its brown sticky up stems, cleaned up its leaves and left it on the shelf. Once a week I’d dribble a little bit of water into the pot, you know, just in case and tried the old ‘if you ignore a problem long enough it will fix itself’ technique of plant care.

Sure enough in a few weeks I saw a few little green fronds starting to uncurl. I continued to ignore the plant and wouldn’t even look at or breathe on it when I watered it. In time, more fronds began to grow. After a few months, yes months, it is starting to look like a fern again. It will be several more months I think before it looks like it did when I bought it, but until then I’ll continue to ignore it.

Well, all of this success having gone straight to my head, I once again found myself at Ikea in early February, and right there prominently placed in the middle of the plant isle were these adorable little ficus trees. They stood there, hundreds of little foot tall trees. It was a little ficus forest! I sidled over to them to take a peek and I guess word must’ve gotten around about me, because they all appeared to lean away from me as soon as I approached and none of them would make eye contact.

I thought what the heck, and I picked one up and put it in my cart. I quietly gave it the same little chat I’d given to the now thriving fern and also explained my recent successes and how I felt very positive about its future. I swear the little thing whispered ‘whatever’.

I patted its little leaves and whispered back ‘there, there.’

Then as I walked away from the little ficus forest I had a brainstorm. If I get more than one tree, then the odds of my success increase. After all I couldn’t possibly kill them all could I!? So I picked up two more and set them in my cart flanking their friend, who filled them in on their imminent demise.

Well….::heavy sigh::…within three weeks they had all lost most of their leaves. First, let me say in my defense that I was in the US for two of those weeks. I gave them plenty of water so they could survive the two weeks, and apparently ficus’ are not good at rationing, and they guzzled down all the water right away and tried to commit over-hydration suicide.

HOWEVER, I followed the ‘if you ignore a problem long enough it will fix itself’ protocol. I swept up the leaf debris from the counter tops and began to systematically starve them all, and in no time at all they ALL came back to life. All three of them are now leafed out and happy. I still ignore them and limit their fluids, and they are really doing well.

In other news…the bamboo has suddenly died.

Procrastinating…

So I’m supposed to be working on my new AIT job. I’m supposed to be updating the membership database with the renewal information that has been pouring into my mailbox over the last two weeks. It’s here on my desk, a dozen or so forms waiting for my attention. So what am I actually doing, I’m doing all those other things I’ve been putting off.

Balancing the checkbooks, answering e-mails (sorry Charles I know it’s been a while), cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, re-organizing my music library on ‘The Precious’, vacuuming, making a birthday card (sorry Nance, I’m really late with that one), rummaging around in the garage to find a set of allen wrenches so I can tighten the bolts on my little utility cart that’s starting to get a bit too rickety,… I’m doing all of those jobs that I’ve been procrastinating about for weeks (okay, months).

You know I’m seriously procrastinating when I’m doing all of my other procrastinated jobs to avoid this one.

It’s not such a bad job, really, just a lot of little bits of info that have to be updated so I can do a merge document to create a new phone directory of members and then make mailing labels for the newsletter for April and then extract info to produce the list of people who are due to renew this month.

I really seriously want to go out and take a long walk but I’m waiting for the guy to come and FINALLY fix the leaks in the heating system.

Hmmm, you know since I’m stuck home anyway, this is a great opportunity to do all those things I’ve been meaning to do…Oh well, on that note…

That is all.

Speaking of hot kisses and wet fists…

Gas price update.

1 gallon = 3.78541 liters

1.25 €/liter x 3.78541 liters/gallon = 4.7317625 €/gallon

1€ = $ 1.30

so...

1.30 $/€ x 4.73 €/gallon = 6.15 $/gallon

Yessireebob!

Ouch…that’s going to leave a mark…

I have limited reasons for leaving my house during the week. Let’s face it, shopping cannot be an everyday activity (even for me…much as I hate to admit it.) and I’m basically a homebody. Besides, as you know, I enjoy my books and spend a lot of time with them. Even when I go on my walks I’m accompanied by either my music or a nice story. (Actually as a side note, I find that if I’m listening to a particularly good story, I’ll walk much longer just to keep listening.)

Anyway…where was I…Oh, yeah. So I spend a lot of time in my own little cave, my private little world. So often after spending a few days of hibernating in my easy chair, I head out into the great French unknown for provisions or a lunch date and it’s at those times that I receive quite a shock.

I’ll be in my car with music or a story being pumped into the speakers via my MP3 and the second I get out of my car it hits me, as Nick Danger would say, ‘like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist’, slam! Toto I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Someone will open their mouth and foreign words come pouring out!

It’s bizarre but even after this long in the country I still have those moments of shock. Everything looks normal and then someone speaks or I see a man standing along the side of the road peeing, and it all comes rushing back. “Wait a minute, these people are foreign!”

That is all.

Aix-en-Provence

So, ok, Easter weekend was a great time to go to Aix-en-Provence. Not too crowded and lots going on in the town. If you stop at the tourist office, near the Rotonde, you can pick up maps of the town and information about current happenings. The tourist office also has a ticket office for the touristic buses. The town has a little bit of everything and tons of food and shopping. The thing about these French towns is that the heart of town has always and is always the heart of the town. Old Aix is one of the prettiest down towns I've seen. It has a few museums and dozens of fountains. In Aix you can visit Cezanne's studio, it has none of his work in it, but it is exactly as he left it. There is also a Cezanne museum, which sadly is closed until 2006. A cool feature is these little brass markers in the sidewalks that you can follow to retrace the 'footsteps of Cezanne'. You know, from his house to the bakery he frequented, to his favorite fountain to the alley he took as a shortcut, to... yeah, it was kind of goofy.

The fountain of the Rotonde is on one end of the Cours Mirabeau of the old town and the carousel on the other.

Looking down the Cours Mirabeau, on the left are the stalls of a market. On this weekend it was an artisans market. Lots of handmade soap, leather goods, handmade made clothes, Provencal fabrics and, my favorite, a guy making renditions of peoples faces in wood using just a jigsaw. I wanted one of those really bad.

This carousel is totally awesome, no horses here. Each creature was like something out of a Jules Verne's novel.

This was my favorite, the kids could peddle the fish and make it go up and down. Behind the fish there was a man with wings that the kids could peddle and make flap. One of the creatures was a giant iguana that a kid could sit inside of and look out of its eyes. Steamship, giant beetle, building crane...

...Ostrich, mother goose...It was completely awesome, if I were a kid I would so want to ride it over and over again, until I'd ridden all of the creatures.

As you wander the streets of the old town, you come into squares where various markets are held. There was one that was nothing more than a flee market, but my favorites were the flower markets. I bought a bouquet of 50 beautiful pink ranunculus for 6 euros. This time of year the markets were full of tulips and ranunculus and daffodils and of course every conceivable color of rose.

More flowers.

Go figure that I would be drawn to the flowers.

View down one of the many narrow streets of the old town. (And the back of my head.)

The view from our 'hotel' window. We stayed at a chateau on the edge of town, it was quite lovely, unfortunately it was surrounded by a commercial center.