Sunday:  On our way to the north of France we stopped to see a gorgeous chateau in Sercy. This is Marie-Annick with me. Below Francis and I are standing in front of the cathedral in Reims. It was spectacular inside as well as outside. We also walked around the cathedral and through a beautiful garden in back.

 On Monday, April 23rd, we drove to Béthune to visit the morning market and the bell tower below.

 Later we climbed the 144 steps to the top of the tower, but first we toured the local church...not as grand as the cathedrale in Reims, but certainly impressive!

 This is a French version of Okemo...it is white plastic! When water is run over the plastic, you can ski down the hill! This area of France is flat, which is why bell towers were built to see if any enemy was approaching. But it was also a coal mining area until fairly recently and unusable coal that could not be separated from the dirt was piled up into hills as shown in the last picture so using a coal-hill for skiing is pretty ingenious.

 Below is the biggest music box I ever expect to see! This is above the 37 bells and it rolls every 15 minutes to make the bells play their different tunes. We got to hear them all, some before our tour and some while we were in the tower!

Change the colors and this could be the pyramids of Egypt...strange that dirty coal could become an interesting landmark. If we have time, we may tour one of the old mines. Tomorrow we head for Lille.

I made it! Couldn't sleep on the plane...time went very slowly, but as I stood looking around the airport in Genève, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to find Elisabeth. The picture above is the fountain in Blanot and the entrance to Elisabeth's home is on the right.

 

After an hour's nap and some nut bread that Elisabeth had made, we walked up the hill to see Anne. She has a beautiful home with tulips blooming all around...you can only see a few of them here. To the left is an old bread oven. Anne was actually next door speaking with Noel and Mireille who have the pottery and from whom I will be renting the gite. I had a tour of the gite...this is going to be delightful! 

I slept well that night. The next day Elisabeth and I drove to Cluny...about 15 minutes away...to the farmers market where we joined the silent demonstration held each Saturday to protest the treatment of immigrants. Then we did a little shopping and I got money from an ATM. On our way home we stopped for a few minutes to watch a National Championship seen in the picture below.   

 

This evening I am with Francis and Marie-Annick. We leave early in the morning to head north. Good night for now...

Okay folks, it's Monday and I'm on 2 computers at the same time. Dan from VTel is chatting with me on my laptop to guide me through this process one last time. I have the OMG it's really happening jitters! The mind is whirling about what needs to be done, what I may have forgotten... For this post I'm going to show pictures of what I am leaving behind...

including these 4 cords of wood!

Wonder if they'll stack themselves while I'm gone.

Getting ready

Hi friends and family!

If you are reading this, you have made it to my blog and can follow me as I travel around Europe. I'm leaving Vermont on April 19th and landing in Geneva, Switzerland on the 20th. Elisabeth Maillet will retrieve me from the airport and get me to her home in Blanot, France, about a 2 hour drive away. I get to relax with her for a day before meeting up with Francis and Marie-Annick who will be taking me to the north of France for 2 weeks. After that I return to Blanot and get to live in the cottage that is the background picture for this blog.

See you back here soon!