Saumur slides are uploaded!

Click on the Saumur (via London & Paris) for pictures of our trip so far. I still have to add some to the album from Emma's and Abbey's cameras, but these should give you a good idea of what we are seeing. Will post a longer entry tomorrow. Lis and Beck -- you are too much, and I do suspect some wine (or beer) of any variety played a part in your post!!!!

Viva La York

OMG I forgot my login name and password.

The guys are At the US Open. Viva La NYC.

Lise and I are are in Royersford. Viva la RoyFro

I'm going home today through the scenic, senuious serene purely perfect pastural happy hippy hills of lovely lucious luxuious Lancaster County. I will drive the wandering, wornderful, wistful back byways among the quaint, feint, taint, indian paint, Amish who say ain't. Upon arrival to my domain in Paradise, I plan a candle light riperion respite ripe with rippling resounding lapping chirping croaking toking waterside wildlife and friendly fish and foul.

Viva La York! All roads lead to York, PA, United States of America

Viva La France

Okay family, you are away! Tripping through some of the most elegant and exciting places I can only read about. It sounds as though your attempts at the language has brought out the very best in our French friends, happily. But then, much the same has been said of New Yorkers . . . and I found it exactly opposite when I was dragging my young son back and forth by train, bus and taxi at age 5. Almost all lent a hand, smiled and offered warm help.

So hugs, and keep the blog updated with pictures please.

Abbey, I visited your blog too! Risque pix of table dancing? or was that part of the singin debut?

Hugs
Bev

bonjour ! ! ! or... Bon Jovi

Se reposer sur le sofa Bugs Bunny de observation Pas sure comment cela compare au ballet de cheval

Écouter Bon Jovi Ce qui est a près de " français ; anything" ; comme I' ; le ll obtiennent n'importe quand bientôt

A mangé à un restaurant français la nuit dernière A eu les pommes frites et la moutarde de Frenches Demandé un vin français et obtenu un gémissement américain

Keep having fun! This is your "quest".... enjoy the adventure!

Abbey... I've been meaning to talk to you about the poem you wrote about your father.... were you talking about my brother????? If so... I'm sure you're not getting enough rest. :)

MUCH MUCH LOVE
Lise


PS - I put my balloon photos on Facebook... take a look!

We made it!

Greetings from Saumur, France. As many of you know via a hurriedly written e-mail from London, we safely arrived at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, about 1 1/2 hours early. Once we left the baggage carrier and had to deal with all the bags, we began to rethink our packing! I had checked out sending stuff to Italy, but it seemed too expensive. Should have just done it!!! However, we managed. The Heathrow Connect, a train linking the airport with downtown London, Paddington station, was quick and easy. The hotel was only a few blocks away; still, hands were tired and muscles ached from pulling and carrying.

We enjoyed a nice fish & chips dinner, a lovely walk through Kensington Gardens, and good night's sleep. A taxi (VW Eurovan), took us to St. Pancras Station to catch the Eurostar to Paris -- wonderfully smooth ride -- 2 1/2 hours long is all!! Paris was crazy as we had to connect from Gare du Nord train station to Montparnasse in order to get our train to Saumur. The metro was not a good choice; for some reason it was crowded, and we had soooo much luggage. A wonderful woman on the metro stayed with us and helped us with the luggage to Montparnasse, missing her stop to do so. Exhausted, we got on the TGV train and enjoyed a very scenic trip to the Loire Valley and Saumur. We did have a train change at Angers; again, several of the SNCF (French national train) staff helped us take the bags from one track to another. Then when we arrived in Saumur, the taxi stands were empty as all the cars were occupied. BUT, along comes a very nice man who sees us, asks us if we need a taxi, and then proceeds to call one for us. Our very nice taxi driver, who graciously put up with my bad French, made a quick trip to our hotel, not far away. He slammed on the brakes when a cat ran across the road -- as did all the other drivers. (I suspect the cat did it on purpose as it smiled from the other side.) I told him that we had several cats and 2 dogs; he has 2 cats and said he always watches out for them!! Last night, all I could think of was how many people I have heard say the French are rude. I wonder if those people would have helped us so graciously and unquestioningly as the French did yesterday!!

Lovely dinner last night -- even lovelier Saumur wine. The family sitting next to us was from Manchester, England; they had a boy about Emma's age and a girl a few years younger. We talked, ate, and drank together until midnight!!!

This morning after a wonderful baguette and croissant breakfast, we enjoyed a performance at the French National equestrian school. The Cadre Noir (black riders, not of the Tolkien variety) are also there. We saw dressage, show jumping, and "horse ballet" much like the Lipizzaners of Austria. Marvellous.

Cloudy but comfortable temperatures -- off to explore the old city. I'll upload pictures in a couple of days.

Abbey's Blog

http://correspondenceviaabbey.blogspot.com/

This is my blog you are welcome to comment, and enjoy the correspondence with me... ;)

2 Days, and yes, we are counting at this point!

Well, we are almost ready (please note the almost). Nearly all the errands have been run, though a few will have to wait until Monday, the day we leave. Packing is almost complete (again, note the almost). I have to sort through the travel materials to decide which books/materials to bring. Emma's, Abbey's, and my suitcases are packed, with just last-minute items for the carry-on. Tim's, however, continues to stand empty; I'm beginning to wonder if he plans to leave with no suitcase and simply buy a new wardrobe in France and Italy!

Yesterday, Donna (aka Nurse Ratchett) stopped by and helped Abbey reduce her 66 pound bag to a more do-able 53 pounds. Their conversation was entertaining. Donna: "Abbey, do you really need 3 pairs of black shoes?" Abbey: "No, but . . ." Donna: "Right, toss out those two and take this pair." Donna: "Do you REALLY need 55 panties?" Abbey: "No, but . . ." Donna: "Okay, start sorting and cut out 30." Meanwhile, I'm working with Emma as she agonizes over the American Girl dolls (Lindsey and Marisol were chosen) and the clothes they would need for their first European trip. Thankfully, Emma decided that Bo and Gigi were all the stuffed animals she would take.

Here's to hoping that we can successfully manage this luggage on/off trains and metros in France -- I'm sure we will get some looks. I have my reply ready: nous habitons en Italie pendant un an, et c'est pourquoi nous avons tant de bagages (we are living for a year in Italy and that is why we have so much luggage!)

I'm here!

Ok. I am finally registered. I'll be hoping/praying for you to have a great flight. I'm sure you will enjoy. Keep us updated and post lots of pictures!!

9 Days!

The days pass with tornadic speed- -- did I just invent a new adjective? Packing and general preparation are proceeding quite orderly -- from packing school materials for all of us to finalizing travel arrangements. We did have a slight "mishap" at AAA yesterday. Abbey and I went in to change her, Emma's, and my return flight to 9 May, since we didn't know when we booked the flight that we'd be staying for the spring semester. Fortunately, airfares have decreased; unfortunately, the airlines won't recognize the lower rate. Very unfriendly policy on the part of British Air, I must say. The "mishap" occurred when the computer system decided to change Tim's ticket as opposed to mine -- keep in mind that Tim is not changing his ticket. The British Air system put me in complete limbo; AAA's system had Tim returning on 9 May; Abbey's ticket was changed properly to 9 May; Emma was suddenly flying back by herself on 5 Jan. Three hours later, we come home with correct tickets and with a mental note to keep a sharp eye on the credit card to make sure that neither AAA nor British Air double-billed us.

Once again, we are without house/pet sitters, as the people who committed in June, sort of uncommitted and then recommitted with warm assurances in July, have now decided that they can't keep their promise. Whatever happened to ethics, integrity, and responsibility? We find this news out 10 days before leaving. At this point our only option is to take the dogs to the farm; I just had not wanted to burden Jonathan (my brother) with them. We are asking neighbors who had earlier volunteered to take care of the cats. Less than ideal for our people-oriented pets, but not much we can do at this late date. The best laid plans . . .

Our last Book Nook was last Friday; I will be uploading pictures from it to practice the slide show feature of the blog, whose name I corrected to Bell'Italia, as the "a" in bella gets dropped since Italia begins with a vowel. Hey, I'm learning something!

blog virgin

OMG getting into this blog was mind bloggaling!!

Tim in Italy....a frightful thought! He will need his 3 female escorts to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Mark the date on your calendars!! This will be a historic change in Italy's economy....because after Tim is there for a few months he will have talked (and talked and talked)to 1/2 of the population about the wonders of beer and I suspect the vintners will start growing hops instead of grapes.

I suggest to Char that she introduce cheese into every conversation that starts on the beer topic. Then Tim will get distracted from Beer and get into the cheese mode.....and perhaps something will come of it. Tim will become an Italian cheesehead and bring back useful cheesemaking skills to the US of A.

Should Char not take my suggestion.....or if Tim wanders away from her significantly long....it will be beer,beer,beer and the Italians will start converting longstanding wineries into many new breweries with label names such as DogPizzaHead 60 minute IPA, or TuscanBuskin Doublebach. We shall see.

45 minutes! And I should be counting!

Well.... just thought I'd update you on my exciting morning.... got up late.... now I'm checking e-mail (making me later).... signed up for a blog (yours) and now I'm running late for work (but who's counting!!!)

Now that I've wet your appetite with that very exciting news.... I'll bore you with other news....

This weekend I'll be in Indiana for Dan's DCI finals. Check out the Cavaliers website for updates. cavaliers.org

I might be moving closer to work..... found an awesome house.... if it comes to fruition... I will be asking my sister-in-law to cancel her dull trip to Italy to help me move. (Just like her to find a lame excuse when there is WORK to be done!)

19 days but who's counting . . .

Slowly, all the pieces are coming together: online bill pay; house/animal sitting (now resolved thankfully); medications; absentee ballots; arrangements for my mom; Abbey's textbooks; checking and double-checking, etc. Mind you, not all of these are completely checked off, but most are near to being so. Still waiting for the word on visas.

We're still very excited but some nerves are setting in -- general apprehension about leaving for so long a time. I'm trying to think "short term" -- our vacation in Saumur, for example, before school begins. However, the planning that needs to be done now keeps taking me all the way to 9 May when we fly home!! Short post -- a lot to do!!!