Italy - France 2001 (2)

Look! I'm back in your lives, just when you thought you were rid of me!! I am so excited that I can't spell! My cheeks are rosy and my toes are numb! It's so great to have a good internet cafe, let alone the fact that it lies peacefully in a side street of Paris! Yup. I made it to Paris. But let's go back,go back, go back to where we were... Who can tell me what that's from..?? Yup, Blue's Clues. I've become a fan, due to the fact that I read a Blue's Clues book to Graham every day, at least thrice and I hear Blue's Treasure CD at least twice.. We're all lookin' for Blue's Clues, We're all looking for Blue's Clues...

Going back to the irritating internet cafe.. sorry. I was in Apt at that time which is a little town (compared to Paris, but big compared to its neighbors)in Provence, which is the region of southern France which includes Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, etc. I may have mentioned that the town we were in was so small, that the only amenities were the post office and the bar, so we got out of there every day to explore the surrounding towns. All of the towns in this area sit hgh on hill tops, ususally with the Church holding the highest spot of land on the hill/mountain. From the church, the roads spiral downward, usually only big enough for one small car at a time and often not allowing any cars. The climate was a bit oppressive with intolerable heat and very dry air. There was little green to be seen but somehow tons of olive, grape, pear and apple orchards. We just barely missed the harvest of the lavendar which is one thing that the whole area is know for. From what I saw in the postcards all over town, the lavendar just fills the fields in rows of living moving purples! On top of that they have tons of Sunflower fields too, but again, we missed that season so the only sunflowers we saw were drying. If anyone decides to come, do it just a tad sooner than I did... maybe late July. The great thing was the pool at our little house. We swam each afternoon. They didn't use chlorine in the pool, but rather salt water so it was like swimming in the ocean... uh, kinda? I had my own room there too which is a far cry from what I have now.. fill ya in later. But anyway.. one last thing about our place, we were visited twice by scorpions! I almost stepped right on one by accident.. Of course he backed into me with his tail in my face ready to pounce. I got out unscathed which is more than I can say for him after Ted got hold of him. He was about an inch long.. you were picturing a monster, weren't you? Well, if you want an adventurous monster story, stay tuned..

So there I was... jogging! God, it hurt. I thought for sure the hiking shape I was in from the Dolomites would transfer to some good running shape.. Uh, I was really wrong. I started running around 9am but the sun was already killing me! The road was mostly flat and I was barey above sea level... but my lungs were not working. Then I remembered that I had been ignoring a cough that tried to move in for the last few days, so I was just sick, right? Whatever. I've never been able to run like my dad, how come!! Anyway, I ran for a while, cursing the damn chore of it then started to do a walk run walk run thing cause I remember my friend Jason Sterner saying that was the way to get farther in your running shape without getting burned out on it all together nor killing yourself in the process. So, I'm cruising, not really, along and I decide to take a detour on a cute little street to take in the scenery while I'm flailing. Somehow over the thunderous sound of my rapid footsteps I hear something in the forest next to me and I pause for a minute.. then I hear it again. It sounds like it's some kind of large animal and I'm thinking what could it possibly be in these parts.. so I venture into the long dry grass and walk right up to the border of the woods, grasshoppers sticking to my sweaty arms, legs and face... I felt like I was going back in time to some bible story... Then I heard itagin.. it moved a step for every one of my steps, so I started to think I was the one being watched. I really felt like the crocodile hunter... I wanted so badly to see it so I could say, "esn't shay uh beeootay." I went for one last scuffle with my foot to stir up the critter and get it to move into my scant view through the scrub oak... and just as Idid... out of nowhere came this thing running at mock speed from under my feet! It was green and speedy, chubby like a gunnea pig and without a tail but it wasn't furry! I ran the other way just as fast and took off for the house! I bet you thought I was going to get attacked by some big beast of Provence, eh? Well, not so interesting, but my heart was beating a hole in my chest when I saw that green thing!

Well, you take climbing out of my adventure and may be my life isn't that exciting anymore...?? No. It's still kickin' bootay! From Provence we took a speedy double decker train to Paris. Unfortunately, there was no room for me to sit with the family, so I had to go sit all by my lonesome on another train with no way to go from my car to theirs... ok, I was elated! I got to dive into my book for a whole two hours uninterupted. Graham usually doesn't let that happen, not even at three in the morning! When we got to Paris, we hopped right into a rental car and drove most of the way to the beaches of Normandy, stopping short at our hotel to settle in for the night. The hotel was amazing. It was called the Chevotel and is both a fancy fancy hotel and a place for people to breed horses with the best of the best. I guess they called it a stud farm... and yes, our server for the dinners and breakfasts was a stud! Oh, yeah.. the hotel. So, in one pasture were ten female horses each with their little babies right by their sides. I only saw one male horse and he was indeed a beauty. The hotel was so classy. It had this great big yard with a pond, swans and some rare duckies, a playground (thank god) and of course tons of horse corrals. Breakfast each morning was spent on the patio with a classy buffet of good foods.

So, from the hotel the next day we headed for the beaches of Normandy. On the way we stopped at a museum to educate ourselves a bit on the whole WWII thing.. yes, confirmed.. WWII. The museum was an overall historical collection from all the various battles, relics from the days, imagesof the holocaust to old videos of air raids and much more. This trip from Italy to here is definitely making me a history buff which is just too ironic considering my fifteen year old mind could do nothing but chastise my hostory teachers, making fun of Mrs. Smalls for always scratching her nappy head with a pencil, etc... Now I'm craving asylum in a library for several years to catch up and learn everything I can! After the museum, we went to the American Cemetary at Omaha beach. It was very reminicent of Arlington.. Way too many white limestone crosses placed perfectly symmetrically in rows... mostly crosses with several stars of David scattered throughout.. the only names I saw that belonged to any of you were... Webb, Kraus and Smith...

Well, the family is waiting for me, having finished their lunch nearby so I have to run and I will contintue later... Basically we went to Omaha beach, saw the old barracks, the bombed earth..or were they hiding bunkers...?? looked more like bombs to me.. Then we came to Paris where we aren ow, staying in the Intercontinental, around the bend from the Ritz where Princess Di spent her last night..and right on the other side of the block from that fancy shopping street! ok.. au revoir.. or somethinglike that. Ciao is so much sleeker. love, loyaltyand friendship.. -rai