Well then...

To you, my dear reader, I would apologize for my unforseen absence. Perhaps I will write one of these days a more detailed report of my activities, but for now, a summary must suffice.

When last I wrote I had arrived in Paris. Mum and I had a day to ourselves to explore the city, and we cimbed the Eiffel Tower before most of the tourists arrived, and spent most of the rest of the day wandering around, looking at old buildings, enjoying Paris and each other, cruising bookstores and the like. I had an extra day to repeat the experience, as mom went to Belgium to visit a man she had never met and will probably never see again. So I did Paris tout seule, which resulted in various unforseen and entertaining--if odd--conversations, in French, with random people who started talking to me in the street or in the gardens. As I went to collect mom from Gare du Nord I was informed by loudspeaker that the metro was not stopping at that station due to security concerns, so I exited at Gare de l'est and walked, fearing bomb threats or worse. There were no visible problems that we could see, only police cars, and we managed to miss the later--or previous--riots.

Wednesday we went to Honfleur, first meeting our hostess in Beauvais, all of which required navigating our rented car on the French motorway. Honfleur is an absolutergeous city on the Norman coast, and we spent our time there taking walks, more walks, walks on the beach and through the town, getting rained on, eating bread, and taking it easy. Our host, a loquatious and friendly tiny frenchwoman, lent us her vacation appartment in Honfleur for the week, and we took a day to drive along the coast to see the tapestry in Bayeux.

Yesterday we flew from Paris Orly to Antibes, on the Med, which we just toured this morning. Southern flair and palm trees, turquoise waters, luxury yachts and warm weather have greeted us, and I am eagerly anticipating the rest of the week. Our hosts are a lovely couple who raise roses for a living, live in a huge house with their daughter and her companion, and have a separate house where interns live which is, for our stay, entirely at our disposal. The young couple speaks excellent English, the woman speaks better or similar English to my French, and her husband speaks only French and is just an absolutly lovly person with a smile to light up a room.

So there you have it, that's what we did.