Bonjour from Marseillan!

Hope you all are well. We are leaving tomorrow for Slovakia (via Genoa, Ljubliana, Budapest) to visit with Thom. Then the three of us will probably do a little sightseeing in Poland. Anxious to see the improvements Thom has made at both the penzion and also the ancestral home.

When we left Andorra a week ago, we soon realized we had only seen the city-side of the Capitol; we drove through very cold and snowy roads in the mountains for far too long in my opinion. But then when we came out of the mountains, life was good once again. On Sat 2/13 we visited the nearby village of Pezenas on its market day. We bought some delicious rice noodles prepared by a Vietnamese man from his food wagon. The next day we walked the beach to the east of us. The weather was warm. Families were about, playing with their kids in the parks. On Mon 2/15 we visited two lovely villages near us, Meze and Agde. We walked through the old town in Agde, saw its ancient church. On Wed 2/17 we met the building owner, the handsome Monsieur Pentoux. We drove to see a UNESCO site, the abbey of Gellone in the beautiful village of St. Guilhem-le-Desert. It is also along the Walk of St. James. Then we visited the Chateau la Couvertoirade, an old charming village that looks like it was taken from a story book or movie screen. This had been a home to Knights Templar also. My photographer got some great pictures there. Yesterday we had our first restaurant dinner here in Marseillan, a restaurant called La Palachine. We enjoyed our fish and beef. We both have done some cooking since we arrived. I really thought my photographer would be cooking nice meals once we got to the apt, but she tells me she isn't interested in the job. Yesterday Anne took a bike ride along the beach to the west. When she came back, I almost didn't believe her story of seeing flamingos in the water of the Etang; she didn't have her camera with her. Sure enough, Google says flamingos come to these good safe waters during Feb and March. Today we visited Sete, where we wandered its huge cemetery on a hillside. No one was buried underground, there are crypts and big slabs of tombs and monuments and decorations and pictures. Then we walked along the beach and enjoyed the beautiful water and sky. On the way home, we saw a couple of those flamingos! Anne and I both realize we should have been doing blogs on all out trips because we can't quite remember details from previous trips. Good news, our California friend Priscilla, who we met on our Soul of India trip, will be joining us mid-March for a couple wild and crazy days in France and Italy, Aix-in Provence, Nice, Cannes, Monaco, and cinque Terre. Take care, everyone! Fondly, A & M