A magical day in Venice

Even with the tourist traps, the crowds, the endless souvenir shops and the occasional yukky smells, Venice just draws you in. we took the train from Noale into Venice and, within an hour of arriving, I was conducting all of my transactions in Italian. Never mind that all the people speak English, they do love it when you speak to them in their own language! And it's such a beautiful language. And the people are so friendly and so full of life!
 
  My absolute favorite thing about Venice is getting lost on the little small streets, going nowhere in particular. My second favorite thing is the smell of the leather stores....intoxicating! My third favorite thing is window shopping at the gourmet food shops. I love seeing all the meats and the different pastas, made from so many colors! I know the Murano glass is everywhere but it's truly beautiful and after a few stores, I start imagining that I'd wear it with everything. I also quickly imagine that I would regularly make use of a purple sparkly Carnivale mask with feathers on it. Wouldn't I use that at least once a week? Ha ha! There were three things I wanted to do while in Venice: 1. Visit Piazza San Marco 2. Go on a gondola ride 3. Eat a cannoli. We accomplished the first two, but were too full from lunch to manage the cannoli. The gondola ride was fantastic-although a bit expensive, it was worth it! We had a great gondolier - Fabio - who told us about the city, the buildings and the architecture (he is also an architect but can't make any money doing that so he primarily works as a gondolier) while he safely navigated us through the canals. We are all tired from a long day in the sun and on our feet. Soon it will be time for some pasta and maybe a drink... Posso avere un bicchiere di vino rosso per favore? Buona notte mi amici!
 

Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis oh my!

Yes, we are Italy! How did you guess? When I last posted we were in Annecy, France. We made it down to Lac du Annecy (Lake Annecy!) for a swim (remember the fountain of youth?) and a couple great pics on the walk.
 
  We left Annecy early yesterday morning to make the short trip to Chamonix. Chamonix is a beautiful town in the French Alps, not far from Geneva, Switzerland and Turin, Italy. There was plenty of snow on the mountains, but the weather was gorgeous down in the valley. We had planned to ride the gondola to the top of Mont Blanc, but decided not to since a group of about 16 people had accidentally gotten trapped in it the previous night due to some kind of malfunction. All of the people were fine, but many of them spent the night trapped above the mountain in a small cable car. I'm thankful that was not us! Anyway, our absolute favorite thing about Chamonix was the abundance of paragliders all over the sky. We found their landing place (a field that I think in winter is the kids ski school) and watched several of them come in from flight. I've added paragliding to my "must-do" list and we all left a piece of our hearts in Chamonix! We will be back someday!
 
  This morning we visited the Gorges Du Fier, one of the largest natural gorges made by River erosion. It was amazing! We are so glad we made the stop.
 
  After that, we spent about 7 hours in the car, making our way towards Eastern Italy. We drove the Autostrada the whole way, 130 kph, and went through more tunnels than I've ever seen in my life. One of them was about 5 miles long! No kidding, too, we got passed by so many race cars! Ferraris and Lambourghinis! All shiny and just whizzing by! We are staying at a bed and breakfast in Noale, Italy, a town in Veneto not far from Venice. The place is great, with comfy beds, wi-if and even a washer and dryer! Our hosts are Laura and Alberto and their 3 cats. We walked down the street to a delicious pizza place for dinner. Been thinking about an awesome quote from the last yoga class I took in Durham before leaving town... You are not the dancer.
  "Life is the dancer, you are the dance...." Ekhart Tolle

Adventures in France

We said Au Revoir to Paris on the 6th of September. We successfully rented a small car and got out of the city without incident. Todd's GPS with the Europe maps chip navigated us easily to our first stop in Provins. Not to be confused with Provence, Provins is a small commune close to Paris that became a UNESCO world heritage site in 2001. The town is known for its well-preserved medieval architecture and city walls, which date back to the early Middle Ages. The town's economy is now largely supported by cultivation of roses and products made from roses such as rose honey, rose petal jam and other candies. Josh is very interested in birds of prey, so we went specifically to see the equestrian falconry show called The Eagles of the Ramparts. Although the entire show was in French, we thoroughly enjoyed it! They had an impressive collection of birds, including falcons, hawks, owls, vultures, caracaras, raptors and eagles, all of which performed in a show describing falconry as practiced by people throughout the ages. The birds flew right past our heads, did tricks and some of them even landed on our arms! We were able to walk through the aviary and see them all after the show. It was a beautiful town and a fantastic performance! After leaving Provins, we drove another couple of hours through Northern France to our accommodation in the small town of Laubressel. Aux Colombages Champenois is a bed and breakfast (chambres d'hote) in the Champagne region of France. Our hosts were the lovely Joëlle and Didier. Joëlle cooked us a wonderful breakfast each morning (all homemade - crepes, baguette, assorted jams from her garden, brioche) and they also had beautiful gardens and (an unexpected surprise) a swimming pool! The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed taking a dip. Madame Joëlle recommended a restaurant on the nearby lake where we caught the sunset, and had a delicious dinner and some local wine from the Côte des Provence.

We spent the next day in Troyes, a medieval town, much larger than Provins, with more Gothic style churches than we could count. I like to marvel at the stained glass and Josh likes to find a seat in the middle of the church. I thought maybe he was reflecting, but he says " No, Mom, I just wanted to sit down." At the cathedral, Todd and Josh lit a candle and said a prayer for DeeDee. Some pics around Laubressel: We spent yesterday morning among the grape vines and got a tour through one of the larger champagne operations in the area. After the tour, there were champagne tastings for the grown ups (Yum!) and biscuits and local grape juice for Josh. We spent the afternoon on the road and arrived in Annecy around 6 pm. Annecy is a really pretty city on a lake not far from Switzerland. It's in the mountains, but somehow the weather is still warm and the lake water is clear and mild enough for swimming. We are staying 3 nights here in an old house on the edge of the city. Patricia is our host and she is just the best! Her laugh is like a song! She says that she swims every day in the lake and I am now convinced it is the fountain of youth, as she is lively and beautiful. She wasn't here when we woke up this morning, but left us coffee, ripe peaches and baguette to enjoy in her garden for breakfast. We all needed time to recharge, so we are staying put for the day. Josh is doing some schoolwork and Todd and I will probably each get out for a run or a bike around Lake Annecy later this afternoon. Eating out is expensive in France (especially tourist towns like this!), so we will get groceries to eat here for the next couple days. We are all enjoying ourselves, but each a little homesick... This morning while we were still in bed, Josh went to the bathroom and ran into one of the other occupants of the house. I heard 2 adult voices each say "Bonjour!" And then little Josh voice "Bonjour" back to them. Music to my ears! Hugs and kisses from France. xoxo