Home and Thoughts on France

We arrived home about 10 p.m. on Saturday night.  The house was plenty quiet throughout Sunday as Gracie Lou was still at "the spa" (Dr. Shields pad) until Monday a.m.  You can bet, though, that the first opportunity on Monday I could get to go and spring her, I took.  As always, she's pretty wound up from her stay there so it usually takes a couple days to get her relaxed again.

Today is now Wednesday and I've had time to get back into EST (Eastern Standard Time) and reflect some on this trip.  So, allow me to share some of those observations:

• France is a beautiful country, with nice people, a lovely language. and a culture second to none
• I love the pace of life in the small villages we saw (Arles, Vienne, Saint Remy) and could see  myself rising in the morning, walking to a café for a leisurely expresso (or four), reading the Columbus Dispatch on my iPad, and whiling away the day in a relaxed, charming place
• The French Riviera (Cote d'Azur) is equally beautiful, but much more urban and, for that reason, a great place to visit but wouldn't want to live there unless I was filthy rich and could have an apartment to visit a few weeks a year
• Except for a couple small snafus, the service on Viking was pretty darned good and the food was even better
• Our company - Ray and Mary Lee - was, as always, a ton of fun to travel with
• There's nothing like getting to spend time with Cheryl, away from the grind, in a relatively relaxing situation.  I enjoy being with her and she enjoys being with me.  With that said, we each still enjoy working and the challenges of that life, so it was also good to get back to work.
• And, in the end . . . there's no place like home (as the heels of my sneakers click together and I say it over and over like Dorothy).

Thanks for following along and will hopefully have other adventures to blog about in the not too distant future.   Peace and love.