Trip Update

 My travel companion Melanie and I  enjoyed Paris heart and soul. We love the energy of the city, the architecture,  the liveliness, and of course the food.  We spent each day doing whatever we wanted. Melanie invited me on a chocolate crawl with her friends Parish and Josh.  What a wonderful experience! We went to three chocolatiers and made a stop at La Duree, the famous macaron boutique.  At each stop along the way, I would buy  just one chocolate. The sales people treated me graciously and respectfully as if I were buying much more. At la Duree, my one pistachio macaron almost merited a bow.

At lunch, salads to compensate for all the sugar, I met Simone, an 18 month French bull dog. She sat at the counter. I kid you not. Simone belongs to the restaurant owner with whom I discussed dogs in general and Simone in particular. What a well behaved dog! I told her about my Maggy who just turned 13.  She responded by saying  "C'est honorable."  Yes, senior dogs  do deserve respect.

Speaking of respect,  the universe seems to be taking care of me on this trip. Could it be my age? My demeanor? Whatever it is, I really appreciate the kindness and helpfulness of everyone I encountered. My room at my hotel in Brussels even came with a two chairs and a little table on a balcony.

Brussels:  Easy to get to from Paris; hard to find our hotel.  We asked so many people for directions including the tourist center. Nobody gave us accurate directions. Finally we realized that there exists two hotels with the same name. Curses!  We spent over two hours wandering around downtown Brussels. My luggage which somehow kept getting heavier and heavier  contributed  quite negatively to this experience.  It took at least two hours, longer than the train ride from Paris to Brussels to find our hotel.  After we got settled, we did not feel like doing much.  We explored the centre ville, totally pedestrian friendly, and collapsed back at our hotel. Melanie did not feel like going out to dinner.  I got hungry and decided to go out alone like a big girl. I chose the nearest pub which served small plates. The waiter thought my order of an omelette with the world's  longest piece of bread would be too much. He suggested seeing how I felt afterwards. I could always order more. Again, I felt taken care of.  My raspberry beer made the meal a hit. And the waiter was correct. The omelette satisfied my hunger.

The next evening we dined with my Portland friend Carolyn who lives in Brussels with her husband and two darling daughters.  What a magical evening!  We feasted on some specialities of the Liegeois region. Chloe age 8 taught us a new word.  "Quoit"  a clever combination of the French word Quoi and the English word What.  I enjoyed reading a book in French  and another in English. Little Emily age 5 put her head on my shoulder. Bliss.

The next morning we left for Monflanquin in south western France. The journey  went  smoothly.  Tim picked up my car from the garage and picked us up in Villeneuve-sur lot.  Only the weather is not cooperating. Yesterday it was 98 degrees, and we have no air conditioning in our house. Nobody does. I do have a dorky free standing sort of air conditioner which will be used tonight.  We hope the weather will start to cool off soon.

Below are some photo highlights  of the trip as of today:

L a duree macaron boutique

Cafe Creme, croissant, and travel journal. Heaven!

Raspberry Beer

World's longest piece of bread

My wonderful travel partner Melanie

Amazingly wonderful vegan Belgium waffle

Charming Brussels architecture

Unusual and delicious malt bread from our bakery in Monflanquin

Dog among onions in the market

Lebanese salad . It 's 98 degrees but we always enjoy lunch.