More safari pictures

Bored water buffalo and lazy lioness

Like I need another vice!

Our magical deck where we had our "anniversary" dinner
Giraffe we saw on the way in to camp

Staff dancing to greet us
After just posting our blog we reviewed other pictures and thought “how can we NOT send that one….and that one…. And that one…., etc.?
So here are just a few more to help explain our enthusiasm for our safari – to include a photo of the dancers, our private patio, and one of us sharing a hookah with two of our new best friends. Great times! Great times!

Lions and leopards and elephants and ... oh my!

New friends: baboons passing in front of our lodge, and a shy but curious baby hippo

This blog will probably be far too long and may have too many pictures, but there’s just so much to tell. For both of us, it was such a different experience that we really want to document everything so you, our beloved family & friends, can feel free to fall asleep whenever you must. We’ll wake you again when it’s time for the 3 hour slide show!!

Our safari at the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve just outside the Kruger National Park has to be the most different and exciting experience of our adventure to date. Our flight from Cape Town to Kruger National Park via Johannesburg was your everyday 1 ½ hour domestic flight. At Kruger, however, we were met by a representative who then took us to our smaller plane – a 10 seater, but we were the only two passengers on it. Mike (pilot) and Jim (co-pilot) greeted us, had our luggage put on board and off we went for a 30 minute flight to Sabi Sands. It was a fun flight, but admittedly in such a small plane each little air pocket that bumped us around chipped away a bit at my comfort zone. No worry! Arrived at the Sabi Sands airstrip and were met by Lucky, our tracker for the next 2 days. MUST attach a photo of a giraffe which was the first animal we saw just on the way from the airstrip to the Leadwood Lodge. This guy was at least 12 feet tall and when he walked so close to our Land Rover I had to take a photo of the top half and then the bottom half. This was the introduction to an incredible safari!!

When we reached the lodge which, by the way, only handles 8 guests a night in 4 bungalows, we were met by the manager and another staff member who greeted us by name and offered cool face towels and cold lemonade. After sitting together and chatting about our schedule for the next couple of days, and explaining that we could have any meal either on the patio of our bungalow which was by our private pool; at a table in the main outside area, or in the “tree house”, she also said that we would have tea at 4:00 p.m. and our first drive from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. And then she took us to our bungalow which is probably half the size of our home in Phoenix. All rooms – living area, bedroom, and bath (bigger than either of ours in Phoenix) looked out directly to the reserve, as did the private swimming pool (what else would one expect??) We decided that we could be happy there !

At 4:00 we met with our ranger, Keri-Ann, Lucky, the tracker, and the one other couple that was ready for the drive that afternoon. Keri-Ann not only knows her animals, but knows where to find them. Everyone is supposed to see the “Big Five” – elephant, lion, leopard, hippo and water buffalo, and yes, we checked those blocks. But there was so much else to see besides them that we had trouble keeping track of them all. She would say, “OK, lions were spotted here, so let’s go look at them.” Then in coordination with 2 vehicles from other nearby lodges we would go find them – Lucky would read the signs and tracks; Keri would use a combination of intuition and area knowledge; and by gosh we would come upon them. Lions were easy – apparently they were used to non-threatening people in land rovers and would just yawn or ignore us as they ambled by almost in arms reach.

The leopards in the area were young males and were more skittish. They were still getting used to observers and didn’t enjoy being around us, so headed off for a less beaten track, only after again coming very closely by us. We can tell you that we saw them all, and learned to appreciate their beauty in the wild, natural environment in which they belong.

We returned to our digs that night to learn the dinner location decision had been made for us – it would be in our bungalow. Turns out that this staff, too, had been told of our anniversary and were going to continue the celebration. Champagne and dinner by candlelight was set up on our deck overlooking the preserve and our “private butler”, Aarone, came at the appropriate time bearing appetizer, then entrée (Rance had a filet and I had duck breast), and finally sumptuous desert. Truly unforgettable and NOT what we had expected from “the bush”. Must mention that the staff had also filled the big tub with warm water and oils and had surrounded it with tea lights on the floor. Unfortunately, I didn’t even notice that the tub had been filled until I had removed all make-up, brushed teeth, and was in nightie for bed. During that process I also stepped into one on the tea lights and covered my foot with wax.

Next day we were awakened at 0515 for coffee and rolls and then off on our morning drive as described above, followed by a full breakfast.

Afterwards we returned to our room to shower (using one of 2 - inside and out – as well, of course, as the big tub), followed by a quiet read on our deck …. Ah, but what was that noise off to the right? Within a few minutes we saw the cause – an elephant moving and munching its way within stone’s throw of where we stood. We decided to follow it as it moved toward the main lodge, and we sat in the tree house to watch it go by, as well as the troop of baboons that came across just beneath us, some ampala (antelope family) and any number of colorful birds. Not much reading went on as we just sat there in quiet bliss and watched the show. Without any prompting from us Aarone set us up there for lunch. And this may shock you, but their wine list was so good that I was forced to forsake the complimentary house wine for a gorgeous shiraz from the same cellar that had swept the awards I had mentioned in the last blog. In case you are concerned for my liver, I saved the rest for dinner, a barbecue with the other two couples in residence under the stars following our afternoon drive.

Before that, however, we had also taken a break during our drive and Lucky and Keri-Ann set up a table in the middle of somewhere – complete with wine, cocktails, snacks, etc. Perish forbid we should be deprived! When we arrived back from our drive, the entire staff greeted uswith traditional song and dance - and a delicious mulligatawny soup to begin the evening meal. We have never been so pampered and cosseted in our lives, with our every wish anticipated and met before we could utter it. Still, as wonderful as the environment and staff were, the stars of the show were the animals, who were kind enough to show themselves to us.

Wine, wine everywhere – and lots of drops to drink!

View towards Franzchhoek, over the wine

We’ve received several rather critical (in a nice way) comments that some (ok, much) of our blog overloads on descriptions of great wine and meals – in fact, daughter Wendy has tried to prohibit any more such talk. If those things are part of this exciting adventure, how can we possibly not give you the details of all – like the leather in the wine for the dinner of road kill? In any case, our next stop after Capetown was Franschhoek, the justly named wine and gourmet dining capital of South Africa, where we spent our anniversary. So you know now what’s coming up. Tough it out, Wink!

We stayed at a beautiful boutique hotel called Le Quartier Français. A note about the French influence here – a group of Huguenots fled here from France and brought with them their wine making skills. Thus this whole area has a heavy French accent, although the language spoken is predominately the S. African version of Dutch as in the rest of the country. English is also spoken by everyone we met, except for a few workers in a vineyard whom we asked to take our picture. But we digress from ………………. wine, food and accommodations!

Our room was beautiful, spacious and with a fireplace that warmed both body and soul. The hotel also has a restaurant with a tasting menu that we tried on our second night there – our anniversary. They had been tipped to that happy event by our tour agent so they started us out with a coupe of champagne. The tasting menu allowed us to choose 4 courses (we could have opted for the 8 course version) and each was magnificent. One of the best meals of our lives, although we hadn’t heard of some of the unique ingredients and we still managed to be hungry again the next morning.

Beauty everywhere!

When we came back from dinner the fire had been lit for us and the room just looked so warm with fire and a big bouquet of beautiful flowers (if the giver is allowed to say so) for my even more beautiful wife. My missing bag had also been delivered earlier in the day so I could get out of three day old clothes for our special evening.

I’ll pass gently over the other meals we had while there by simply mentioning they were all great, even the charcuterie and cheese plate we had while sampling wines at a wine tasting.

By this time I had gotten heavily into the red wines, since we toured several vineyards and had many happy discoveries along the way. The do some great shiraz, cabs and pinotages, but what really appealed to me was their Bordeaux-style blends. Huge bouquet and flavors, which as much as I appreciated, am unable to describe.

At Moreson trying their Bordeau blend

Maybe the best of these is the one I choose our anniversary night, produced by Rupert and Rothschild, another example of Rothschild working with local vintners to produce outstanding blends (Opus One is the US version). Just outstanding! There was also a wine competition the weekend we were there, and a Shiraz named Stork won best wine over all – I was able to convince Susan that we still had room in our luggage for a bottle. By the way, this “best bottle available” was still under $50 – try to do that in Napa Valley! My (guess who’s adding a note here!) white wines – pretty uncomplicated, but crisp and smooth - only ran about $9.00. Rance tried to convince me that his was five times better, but I’m not buying that.

The terrain was very hilly – almost mountainous, and uniformly lovely. It was also quite a bit greener than the rest of the country we saw – made for great crops and particularly the aforementioned wine. It also made for great hiking, although for some reason you have to pay a hiking fee (nominal, but nonetheless…).

Chardonney - what else?

Our favorite hike took us through a vineyard, with vines just beginning to get buds since it’s just now Spring here, and lots of wildlife. One of the birds touted in the write-up was a raptor, and it took all my powers of persuasion to convince Susan that it was probably not the duck we saw along the way. Another entry for her “Baby Book”! (She won't let me post that pic!)

South Africa is such a diverse country. The countryside was so different from Cape Town – Franschhoek being in a valley - and the people, still friendly and kind, were now speaking either French or a French Africans. All in all, a great experience, and a great way to celebrate our 28 wonderful years together.

South Africa, so…………………where’s the luggage?

We knew this would eventually happen and, for whatever reason, Rance’s bag never made it onto the flight from Zurich via Amsterdam to Cape Town. As with many stories, there’s the bad news/good news thing. The bad news is that he didn’t get it for three days. The good news aspect is obvious. It was HIS bag, not mine !!! We did buy him a nice Cape Town golf shirt and some new socks (remember he’s learned how to wash his underwear in the shower!), but the staff at the very beautiful Cape Grace hotel where we stayed did certainly come to recognize him in his travel gear.

View from our balcony

The Cape Grace Hotel – magnificent!! We forgot to take pictures of the cozy library with deep leather chairs and fireplace, with decanters of port and sherry set out for the guests in the afternoon; of the elegant dining room; and of our room fit for royalty, but we are attaching a photo of the view of the Victoria and Albert Harbor and Table Mountain taken from our balcony.

1st day out we ambled around the harbor enjoying the scenery, the yachts, the oil tankers in dry-dock. In several different squares around the harbor, there were local men playing guitars; groups singing and dancing; and lots of every day folk in colorful dress, although Cape Town is a very cosmopolitan city.

5Winners (4 Nobel). Our hotel red bldg in the background

We passed by Nobel Square, and saw from afar Robben Island, where Mandela was held captive for so long. We saw no vestiges of apartheid and were very impressed with the friendliness of everyone we met.

Needless to say, there were also lots of shops, although I stuck pretty much to browsing in the local craft ones. Sorry, kids! Can’t buy anything. Flight regulations are much different here than in the states and since we’ll be on a very small plane going into Kroger National Park for our safari, we’re already being charged overweight. But luckily the files on our computer don’t weigh much, so each holiday we’ll just take out the blog and share it with you all over again! Fish and Chips for lunch on the wharf, with the seagulls and terns launching kamikaze attacks if you turned your back on your food. The seafood is excellent, and for dinner the shellfish platter of grilled jumbo shrimp, langoustines and baby lobster tails was marvelous – we do write about food and wine a lot, don’t we? We are also busy exploring the S. African wines which are also great and relatively inexpensive – in fact our dollar is doing well here, especially after Europe, so we are pleasantly surprised how little things cost.

Susan and Stinky on Signal Hill

Next day, on our way to Franschhoek in the wine country we traveled south out of Cape Town along some of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen. We made a quick stop first at the top of Signal Hill to get an appreciation of the view. Just south of CT, on the western side of the cape, there is an area called Camp Bay, which they say is the Côte d’Azur of South Africa. I can’t compare since I’ve not been to that part of the French coast yet, but I can say it is absolutely magnificent. The road, in some parts went right along the water and then climbed so we were driving on a cliff road high above the splashing waves. And although the water was really cold, there were a number of surfers in wet suits having a great time.

Back across Camp Bay

We drove quite a way down on the west side and then crossed the cape to Simon’s Town on the east side. Simon’s Town also has a large harbor and a naval museum, but what we headed for was the colony of African Penguins just south of the town. Because of their donkey-like braying they are called Jackass Penguin. They’re not particularly big like those many of us saw in March of the Penguins, but they do mate for life. It was fun to watch them waddling about, in and out of the water……. and the mating thing? We felt like voyeurs as we also got to watch one “couple” do that, after which the male put his fin gently on the females back and they just stared at each other. Sweet! Then the male lit a cigarette….. We'll save those shots for later - our kids read this blog too, so we have to keep it clean.

Penguins on the move
We then drove all along the east coast – not as majestic as the west coast, but beautiful still – until we had to head inland and exchange the oceans for the vineyards. Not a bad exchange! More on that later.

P.S. from Switzerland! Cows, guns and views!

Our Friends in front of their house

How could we finish our news from Switzerland without telling of our last day there – a very special day with Annemarie and Fred Aeberhardt, our friends who own a farm on the northern border of Switzerland with Germany, not far from the Rhine. These dear friends plied us with wine and a delicious meal of Coq au Vin – and we brought them our laundry to wash! The chicken had been marinated in wine, herbs and vegetables for 24 hours, and was absolutely delicious.

The farm, named Morgensonne (morning sun), has been in Annemarie’s family for over 400 years. It’s now being run by their son and will eventually go to the little guy in this photo with the cows. Training starts early in a family of farmers! The accompanying wine - and schnapps following our lunch - came from their vineyards, complete with their own house label.

Wishing to entertain us even more grandly, they also invited their friend Theo who collects weapons and offered to show them to us after the feast. Theo started collecting when he was 7 and is now well into his 80’s. His collection is simply unbelievable. It would take too long to describe all the amazing pieces he had, all in working condition, so I’ll just mention two parts: an actual full breast plate and helmet from Napoleon’s Imperial Guard and 6 Nazi Marshalls’ Batons, including the one from Rommel I’m shown holding. I’ve never seen such a collection, especially in private hands, and could have stayed there for hours. He offered to take a picture of me wearing a Nazi cap, but that’s not for me.

Theo and Ami, with the Desert Fox's Baton

Nicht Schlecht!

Since we had an early departure from Zurich the next day, we had to finally take our leave. Switzerland is SO VERY expensive that you can imagine how pleased we were to stay on the top floor of the Marriott in Zurich (view from room included) COMPLIMENTS OF MARRIOTT POINTS! In Europe they frequently post the price of the room on the door and this one read the equivalent of $850 per night. Should have stayed longer!

But, as we now write, we are in flight to Cape Town, a 10 ½ hour flight, settling in to a Bloody Mary and deciding what to order for lunch. Hopefully, we’re not becoming boorish, but this adventure is so cool!!! (Actually, Susan is having the Bloody Mary, and Rance is sipping on some 12 year old Highland Park, and will switch to Armanac after the meal.) Life is good!

Switzerland II - ho hum...more wine and mountains

Friends' old house on the Aare with daughter in the rear looking for her cat!

Rance and I spent the next day with special Swiss friends who took us to the new Paul Klee museum here in Bern. Klee was from Bern, and they have a special center dedicated to his work and for the other art forms influencing him. He died in 1940, and you can see his concern for the times reflected in his very allegorical work, but also his fundamental optimism, despite the wasting disease that took his life prematurely – if you get a chance, check out his “Ad Parnassum” on line. Our friends then took us to their lovely old family home for a lovely lunch of vitello thunello – cold veal slices covered in a tuna fish sauce - delicious. The weather was perfect, their home and garden are equally beautiful, and the alps were very much in attendance.

In front of the Alphorn player

That evening we piled again into a bus and were taken back up into the Grindelwald area for an apero (drinks and appetizers) outside and then an incredible dinner. We were greeted by a man in full “Berner Oberland” dress playing an alpenhorn while we watched the sun set behind the Alps. Dinner was to the accompaniment of a yodelers’ chorus, a truly marvelous sound in those settings – 10 men and two women entwining their voices from bass to soprano together – watch out or we’ll play the video for you. It was just so incredible to once again enjoy all those things we loved so many years ago, it certainly brought more than one tear to my eye.

Susan next to Israel Baharev - Israeli ace!

It really felt as if nothing had changed – many of the same friends were there, both Swiss and foreign; we traveled like we did before in style, and heard interesting briefings on the state of the Swiss military (I had to resist the temptation to write a report afterwards!), and enjoyed the fantastic Swiss countryside and scenery. Walking around Bern the next day was more of the same – we wandered by our favorite haunts, met other friends, enjoyed great meals (and yes, the occasional drop of wine, like the Gigondas I’m enjoying now as I write this), walked by the Embassy (now a bit more barricaded than before), through the Tierpark where Susan and our dog Punkie would walk me to work, by our old house in Dufour Strasse and its tree in the backyard where JoAnne and her friend Jenny demolished 3 bottles of my best Morgon, into town along the Aare to a little lunch in the shadow of the Munster (Cathedral) and back to the hotel. Switzerland seems to be an unchanging oasis of calm and beauty, always ready to welcome us back (if we bring enough Swiss Franken – boy is it expensive!), and always giving us joy.

Tonight we will go to our favorite restaurant, the Brasserie Bärengraben, where the menu will, I promise you, be identical to that we knew by heart so long ago. We will have our favorite steak pommes frîtes, washed down by another bottle of Gigondas, a wine we introduced Christien to here when we made our European vacation in ’03. It's also the wine we served at our 25th Anniversary, so it's sort of special to us all. It’s not that the wine is the best on the menu, but I enjoy the thought of Christien biting his finger as he reads this.

As we said in the beginning, this may be a 2nd home. First in our hearts is always the USA!

You can go (at least to Switzerland) home again!

You CAN go home again……………..


……….at least to a second home, which we consider Switzerland! We took the fast train from Montpellier in France to Bern, caught a cab and arrived at a familiar restaurant, Burgenziel, with our three big suitcases in tow. We arrived just in time for kisses, hugs and enthusiastic greetings from attaché friends – 13 couples from 8 different countries - followed by a delicious typical Swiss meal.

It truly seemed like we’d never been away from one another. We all assured each other that 14 years hadn’t made any difference. None of us changed a bit!!! Needless to say, that part was a bit of baloney, but it was just so easy to chat with one another again and quickly catch up with one another’s lives, as if we had not been apart for 14 years.

Looking good in the Alps!

Early the next a.m., some of the hardier ones (including the Farrells!) took to the mountains. We took a gondola high up above Grindelwald into the alps and then hiked a fairly even ridgeline for a couple of hours until we reached Grosse Scheidegg – our goal for wine and beer. A bus down the very narrow and winding mountain got us back to our car and a bit of looking around Grindelwald – a lovely, but busy tourist town.

Super Puma taking us to the Alps

We were delighted the next morning to rise even earlier (and it’s not even Peru), load into busses to the local airport, and then be transported by helicopter to a military establishment in the Valais – the Rhone valley running from the high alps down into the Lake of Geneva. Rance and other former attaches were heard to say “God, it’s nice to feel so important again”. And the Swiss did, indeed, make us all feel that way. First, we were a bit surprised even to visit this fortress – it had been built over the years into a very formidable and secret bastion, bristling with hidden guns and cannons. With the end of the Cold War it had been opened up and converted into a training facility for the military and civilian police, stressing their cooperation in a way that Posse Comitatis would never allow. I talked to several of them about how my son Thorsten was coping with military support in his job in the Border Patrol in NM – different rules for different folks. We were also given a tour of the underground defensive facilities, dug deep – and I mean deep – into the mountain blocking the pass – in fact the whole mountain was a well concealed, seemingly impregnable stronghold, at least until the development of laser guided bombs. Now it seems more like a museum piece, but as an artillery officer I still enjoyed the mechanics of it. And we all enjoyed the spectacular views we got from its top! (Great fields of fire)

View from the helicopter up the Rhone
In typical attaché fashion, we returned in time to clean up quickly and get back to the Burgenziel, where the attaché group entertained about 15 couples from the Swiss military with whom various attaches had worked when they were assigned here. Again, 14 years had changed no one even a little bit (liar! liar! pants on fire!)! Disregarding the invisible years, it was just so comfortable to be with these friends.

France III - Avignon

The very old aquaduct behind the relatively young travellers

On our next to the last day we went to Avignon, stopping along the way at Pont du Gard. The Romans had wanted to bring in fresh water to Nîmes to cool and water the homes of the aristocracy, so in 48 AD they build an aqueduct from Uzès to Nîmes. Along the way they had to cross the Gardon, a major stream, so they build a three tiered bridge 48 meters over it. This bridge is still miraculously intact, and truly impressive.

From there to Avignon and its walled inner city surrounding the Palace of the Popes. We quickly found out that trying to drive inside the walls was not a good idea, and found a parking lot along the Rhone, within easy reach of the center. After a quick stop at the tourist office it was, you guessed it, lunch time, where Susan had brochettes of maigret du canard and I had moules pommes frîtes – both great. We then spent about 2 hours taking an audio tour of the palace, learning more than even I wanted to know about the period of their “captivity” there in the 14th Century. It was interesting and impressive, but we were both happy to leave for a cool drink in the square in front.

View from the Pont back to the Popes' Castle

Our last stop was the famous Pont d’Avignon” which was built in the 12th Century as the first bridge coming up the Rhone. It had been broken by flood waters in the 16th Century and never repaired completely, so it only spanned about a fifth of the river now, but still is a must, even if we didn’t dance there! Today is our last day, and as I write Susan is preparing us for tomorrow’s trip to Switzerland and monitoring the street traffic. We’ll walk around a bit more (one more local museum to visit), divide our meals as usual, and send off our blog. What a wonderful stay! We must STILL agree with Dorothy, however: there is no place like home!

Lunch with our tower apartment in the back

France II - out and about

Dinner at Le Bec a Vin - the tower in the back

After just chilling out in and around town, we reclaimed the car to explore the surrounding area towards the Côte du Rhone, specifically to the villages of Chateau Neuf du Pape and Gigondas. Both wines are very well known, and hold a special place for us. Gigandas is Rance’s favorite and we served it at our 25th Blended Family Reunion, to our boys’ delight, and Chateau Neuf du Pape is the favorite of our dear friend, Frank. These boys have either excellent, or just plain expensive, taste. But, admittedly, the wine was really good, and the wine tasting fun with the sommelier mixing information with humor. I particularly liked a white desert wine – the last we were to taste during a visit at the most impressive Cave. For this particular wine we were asked to name in order of appearance, 6 fruits, 1 flower, and 1 pepper. Even working as a team with a young Irish couple we had begun to chat with, it was impossible! To identify the first of the fruit tastes, we were to sniff for 2 seconds, for the 2nd 4 seconds, etc. After 4 or 5 sniffs, taking the appropriate amount of time, the 4 of us recognized GRAPE and took a sip. In fact, grape was not one of the fruits, so we failed – but still got to sip our wine. Our sommelier then offered what he said was really the best that Chateau Neuf du Pape had to offer – a red which was quite expensive! He followed that by saying we should be able to taste, among other things, old leather and sweaty horses. He also said it went really well with pigeon, roadkill and the best cut of beef. I sipped and, although quite tasty, couldn’t get past the whole visual thing. Rance sipped – and bought.

Gigondas was a delightful little village on a hill. On the way into town, the vineyards were so laden with grapes that one of us had to check them out to prove that the wine was worthy of the name. Good grapes! Good wine! There was a little fair going on in the tiny town center, with a local band, merry-go-round etc. We climbed above it to the Vielle Ville to enjoy the panoramic view of the countryside. When we went to the wine tasting, we discovered that Gigondas likes to grow on hillsides, sort of like a Pinot Noir. The wine was excellent, and luckily we didn’t have to pass another test to enjoy it, or buy the three bottles we hope to enjoy before we leave – that will call for some heavy drinking!

And now a word about the food – we enjoyed it all, and particularly the atmosphere in the delightful restaurants we found both in Uzès and its surroundings. We made an early decision not to seek out the finest starred restaurants, but eat at the local favorites, a decision that let us walk where we wanted and return with heavier wallets. We had many good meals, and our favorite dishes were breast of duck, which we both had several times. I was disappointed in my steak pommes frîtes , because the steak on two occasions was a very poor sirloin, fatty and gristly. But at another restaurant the pave de boeuf was outstanding, so it depends. We would have breakfast in our apartment, after I had gone out to buy some fresh croissants and perhaps a sacristan almondes and the International Herald Tribune. Then we would normally go out for one of the other two meals, and eat the third chez nous, with a fresh baguette, some paté , cold cuts, tapenade, olives, and yes, JoAnne, some of those wonderful marinated onions I described. And oh yes, we’d try to drain our wine lake, while listening to some wonderful music and seeing the rhythms of our town outside our window.

View from Chateau neuf du Pape's old castle over the Rhone river towards Avignon

Vive la France!!

IF IT’S FRANCE……………………

Ransaville is in his element!!!

The train from Barcelona to Montpelier was apparently run by a combination of the Spanish and French and as such, was not nearly as elegant as those trips we took in Spain. We held off breakfast expecting the warm cloth to wash our hands before being served some sumptuous for travel food. No such luck! By mid-morning we found our way to the snack bar - three cars up. Rance had a baguette with 3 scrawny slices of ham and I settled for a bag of bar-be-cue cheetos in the form of little soccer balls! Needless to say, the beverage of choice was wine.

In Montpellier, we rented a car and after spending a “certain amount of time” finding our way out of the city, drove to our little city of Uzès. Once here, we met our landlady in front of La Poste and she led us (50 second drive) to our new home for 8 days!

The Princess in her tower!

It’s hard to tell you how delighted we were to walk up one flight on a winding staircase in an 18th century tower and enter an incredibly charming apartment which overlooks one of the city squares. If we can we’ll try to attach a video of our apartment, but in any case we will definitely attach the view from our window of the Saturday market as well as a view of little entry door and window – which we keep open all the time we’re “in residence”. Since we’re so happy to be in this lovely apartment, let us begin by describing it: in addition to the natural delight we found on entering it, we quickly discovered that it is mildly famous in its own right. On our second day here we took a self guided tour of the old town and found that our building is #2 on the official city tour – so other tours stop and stare up at our window (or maybe they know it is us!). The apartment belonged to the Mayor of Uzès in the 1700’s – is now one of just three apartments in the building - and belongs to us for a week! It is located at the base of the Duché walls, and just outside the Bishop’s tower. As I write this, the bells are sounding the hour – the only other noises are the walkers going by on the street below and Jacqueline Du Pré playing the cello on my computer, which I love playing in these surroundings (or anywhere else, for that matter!). No sounds of traffic, since there is nothing but a walking area all around us.

Just chillin out in our apt

It is hard to capture what a wonderful oasis of calm and joy we have found here – everything we had hoped, and more!! HOWEVER, regarding the hourly bells – although they only ring from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., they do ring the hours with a strange constancy; i.e. 7:00 a.m. or p.m. is announced by 7 rings. Then about 3 minutes later, they ring that same number again. We finally questioned our waitress about it last night as we ate outside at about 8:00 p.m. and heard them ring – and then ring again! She told us what we had suspected all along. They ring once – and then again for those who may not have paid attention. Easy as that! OH! And there is another noise we have come to recognize – just before the 7:00 a.m. bells, some old guy goes up the cobblestone street by our bedroom with a wheelbarrow carting something to one of the stores on the square. Kind of a fun way to be awakened!

Since I speak no more French than “un vin blanc, s’il vous plâit” and “merci”, Rance has taken charge of all our adventures – from restaurant ordering (naturally) to getting information on drives to Côte du Rhone from the Tourist Bureau to all the hunting and gathering involved with in-house food and drink to getting our laundry done by the sister-in-law of the lady who owns the shoe shop just down the street. We’ve also acquired tickets to hear The Messiah in the Cathedral and bought toenail clippers in the local pharmacy.

As usual, Rance will give you more of the in-depth historical information on the city and the buildings here. I will say that we have both enjoyed tremendously being in Uzès. We have poked in hidden alleyways, hidden little gardens, lots of wonderful shops full of potpourri, soaps, ceramics, linens, and took a long walk down and out of the city along the Alzon river, a stream the Romans used to provide water for the aqueduct they built to supply Nîmes around 70 BC – very cool. Well, I poked in the shops; Rance has enjoyed the walks and going each morning for the International Herald Tribune and the fresh croissants. This has been absolutely the right place at the right time for our adventures.

We really didn’t want to do very much here, certainly no “4 AM Peruvian tours”, or having to change hotels etc. We just wanted to chill out in a delightful quaint little town, filled with beauty, charm, restaurants, hikes and no American tourists – in fact, most French people were amazed that we found this place. So for the first three days we never even went near the car but just hiked all around. There is a lot of history, here, too, which pleases me – the original three towers in the town were built in the 12th Century, and over the years with the religious wars, revolutions against the king, etc. they became known as the towers of the King, the Bishop and the Duché . The family of the original Duke of Uzès still owns this Duché - his tower and its many times renovated beautiful residence. We hiked to the top of the tower for a wonderful and windy view of the manor, town and surrounding area – called the Uzege - and then toured the manor. It is a wonderful castle/manor home, used by the family when in residence and open to tourists like us when not – and to think the owner can trace his roots back to the 11th Century!

Susan hangin' on for dear life atop the tower!