Rainy days and Mondays

Like my son John, my first trip to France was when I was 14 years old and I was utterly charmed. Thus began my lifelong love affair with France, and Europe, and the wider world. If you keep up with teen culture, you know about My Space. Yesterday John let me take a peek at his page. One of the features of the homepage is that there is a place to write where you currently are and your "mood". John as you know is in France. His mood is "impressed". France really is impressive and I am reminded each time I visit how much I feel that way.

How can a country the size of Texas be a major world power? How could a culture with a 35 hour work week and guaranteed 5 weeks of vacation pull this off? This is a place where their fast food would be sold as gourmet fare and where the rest stops on the motorway are nicer than most fancy gift shops in the U.S. And how can a food obsessed country have such thin people? I know that Americans have stereotypes about the French, but honestly I think they are truly some of the most gracious people as a culture that I have encountered anywhere and nowhere is politeness and general civility more valued and practiced. Yes, it helps to speak the language, but I think that you will hear many positive things about the French from your children and that is a good thing!

This is my first time in the Perigord region of France. It is off the beaten path and it is such a wonderful part of the country. For a start it is beautiful and dramatic. It also is the place of confit de canard and foie gras - delicacies sought after all over the world. Sarlat is as quaint as it gets full of winding cobblestone streets, cafes and boutiques. Rocamadour is a pilgrimage town with the reknown black virgin and stations of the cross set up a hill to which the town clings. We have sampled both today as well as the local delicacies for lunch.

Today, a Monday, brought our first real rainy day, but as many of us were expecting much rain on this trip, it seemed incidental. We toured Rocamadour in the morning and then have had a free afternoon to explore Sarlat this afternoon. I think shopping has been a big part of most of our afternoons. We had another swimming pool here at this hotel, but the rain brought cool temperatures and so most likely no one will be swimming today. I cannot complain about the weather. I have never experienced temperatures this cool in Europe in the summer, even in Sweden, so I think we are so fortunate.

This evening we pack up and leave early tomorrow to drive to Bordeaux and then board the TGV at lunchtime bound for Paris. Spirits are high and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and testing out their French more and more as the days go by. I am fairly certain that many have caught the "travel bug" which can be an incurable chronic illness. I apologize if I was the one who exposed them, but I just couldn't keep it to myself...