Our friend, Judy, from Hunting Beach in California came over to visit us. She is staying at a Hotel in the center of town. It’s fun to have her join us on our adventures. One of which was a drive 60 miles out of town to have lunch with a friend. Karin rented a car, it was a Porsche sedan, five-speed stick shift.  She said it had been 20 years since she had driven a stick shift. How could anything go wrong, we had over 300 years of experience in the car.

Those of you that have not been to Europe and seen how they drive in the crowded, narrow, one-way streets, with many round-abouts, won’t appreciate what a monumental, gutsy, thing it is to drive here. There were four of us going on this trip. We held a communal prayer and got in the car. With Susan, a local friend, navigating, and Karin shifting the car, Judy and I in the back seat singing all the religious songs we knew under our breath, we had a wonderful drive, and visit with our friends. We only got lost three times for short periods. Karin was our hero, and she used all five gears.

As I write this we have five days left, tonight we have a talk with a man about translating Karin’s book into French, then we go to the poetry club to hear some readings, then into the unknown, which generally means food some place, with somebody. Life is good.

Today, Karin took us all to the fanciest place I have ever been for lunch. There is a family here that has taken us under their caring protection. They brought me a yoga mat to workout on to keep me off the tile floor, have driven us around when we needed it, hosted Karin’s party after the book signing, and lots of other help. They are the Campiston family. The lunch was a thank you to them. The food was good, and the gardens were exquisite. I had a chance to try Goose liver. No comment.

It’s Monday, and a holy day in France; everything is closed so we took a tour to the national park, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was on my bucket list, I wanted to look at the water and be able to say, “Of course I’ve been to the Mediterranean.” We were only there for an hour, and had lunch, but I have been there.

We had a driver and just the three of us for the entire day. We took a tram ride through a salt mine, saw the white horses the region is famous for, photographed some flamingoes, visited the Roman Theater built before Jesus was born, and the stadium built just after. We covered over a hundred miles, it was a great day, and finished it off with beer and wine at an Irish Pub, in Aix.

Tonight, we have dinner at a friend’s house. Tomorrow we start home with a one-and-a-half-hour flight to Madrid, then a 13-hour flight to LAX.

I have a diving conference to go to the day after we get home on the Queen Marry ship. More on that in a later blog. In June, I will be in Iceland with my granddaughter, Melissa, taking pictures.

I love my second childhood. I didn’t realize how young 82 was – if you allow it to be.

A note on our trip home. It was time to leave France and start home. Our friend Mary Paule took us to the bus station, and with tearful good buys, we were off to the Marseille airport.

Our flight out was at 7pm to Madrid, where we landed at 8:45 pm. We were prepared for the four hour layover until our flight out to LAX at 12:45 pm.

Now look carefully at that schedule, we hadn’t.

It wasn’t a four hour layover it was a 16 hour one.  We took a shuttle to a hotel, had lunch the next day and then took the 13 hour flight to LAX, and a four hour shuttle ride home. We were the last people to be dropped off.

I don’t know what I would do if life wasn’t such an adventure…..but I know one thing, I’d get more sleep.