Quel marveilleux voyage que nous avions a travers la belle France !! We hired the car, as planned, but it was without a GPS,- not as planned,- so our first priority was to buy and learn to take orders from 'Tommie', our new best friend !Thanks to Tommie, we travelled to Versailles mainly to see the Palace,-mind-boggling-, then through Chartres and Orleans to the Loire Valley with its magnificent chateaux, each grander than the last ! We
followed the river west, into troglodyte country, which we hadn't heard of before. In many places, stone had been quarried out of cliffs and hills, say for the nearest castle or chateau, and people had over the centuries, lived and worked in the resulting caves. 
We had coffee in a cave restaurant, wine tasting in another cave, visited an underground village, complete with community centre and farms. All quite fascinating!! We were told that in France it is still legal to 'build' your own home, without any planning or similar approval, simply by digging a hole in your property!
At Angers we saw the famous Apocalypse tapestry, a 100m long tapestry finished in 1375, before we turned south through La Rochelle and stopped in Rochefort on our way down the Atlantic coast. Interestingly, we stumbled upon Brouage, the birthplace of Samuel de Champlain, of such Canadian significance; large numbers of people from this particular area were influenced by him to migrate to Canada,- even one entire village closed up and migrated en masse!
Along this part of the trip we stayed at two different travel club members homes; this was great as we got to see slices of real life, as well as to exercise our halting French!We headed inland again through the Cognac area, to Angouleme, where we stopped with Michele, a friend we'd met while travelling in
Australia. She and her son hosted a gathering of friends for us, and again the conversation flowed in French and English, a delightful challenge! The next day she took us to Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, where we saw the most amazing monolithic fully proportioned underground Church of St Jean! The degree of sophistication and planning for that era is so impressive; they 
had to find a suitable cliff/ridge, and dig down from above/in essence the ceiling, providing for removal of the rock, water runoff, etc. as they went down !Heading further inland, the Dordogne area was outstanding ! We got to visit Lascaux and marvel at the 17000 year old paleolithic cave paintings, then stayed at Rocamadour, a village clinging to the side of a mountain. The shop fronts were constructed, but the rear of the shops were excavated; likewise the 7 or 8 churches were partially cut into the mountain. We also went boating a km or so on an underground river at Padirac and then explored an exceptionally large and beautiful cave, before heading south again.
We then had a holiday from our holiday with Carol and Terry, Aussie friends who have a second home in France !! By this time
we were well and truly ready to relax with friends, and speak only English for awhile, while just wandering around their local villages! We were also witness to a victory in Terry's perpetual battle with the mighty mole kingdom!After leaving another delightful Travel Club home in the foothills of the Pyrenees, we went to the Grotte de Niaux, a cave fairly high in the mountains that had been recommended along the way. Our informant had been long on enthusiasm and short on detail; unknown to us (all signs being in French) we joined a tour of the cave, which turned out to be about 2 km long, fairly rough and totally unlit, each of us carrying torches! Anne and I were chronically behind the group, which meant we had even less light to move by, but we made it!!!! And didn't pay too badly the next day either!! The cave paintings were of roughly the same era as those of Lascaux, but with different emphasis and some style differences. Whereas what we saw at Lascaux was an exact facsimile of both cave and paintings, which is remarkable in itself, the ones at Niaux were the real deal !They are so vulnerable that only 20 people are allowed in the chamber at one time, and at the very end, even our torches had to be turned off and we all relied solely on our guides light!!!
Andorra was delightful, and is on our 'must return' list; we wished we had allowed more than one night there. But by that time we were on our way to the Costa Brava to stay with Tanya and Cristina for 3 nights and have a 'baby fix'! :) :) They had rented a small flat with a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean!! Life is rough!!
Barcelona was a magical city with whimsical architecture and street entertainment (but beware of pickpockets). It also made our 'must return' list despite its security shortcomings. Mauree
n and John had been on a cycling holiday in the Dordogne and in Provence; they met up with us in Barcelona, and Maureen stayed on while he flew home. Mary Ellen brought Alex, this year's eleven-year old, to join us. The five us had a great day touring Barcelona, and the next day visiting Gaudis Sagrada 
Familia Cathedral before Mary Ellen left to meet her daughters in Paris, and the rest of us boarded our cruise ship, The Liberty of the Seas!!
The cruise was 7 days of jam-packed activity, fun and touring. We made two shore trips in France and three in Italy before a sea day on the Mediterranean back to Barcelona! The ship was 'humungous', with a central street/shopping mall, ice rink, climbing wall, flow waves, theatres,- the lot !! The entertainment was first class and it's a treat to get dolled up for dinner, a show and a wander 'downtown' and never have to drive. Alex had an amazing week, and of course having 
Maureen along for a playmate didn't hurt! His highlights were probably climbing Vesuvious and touring Pompeii with Maureen,
and performing in a talent show, where he put on an impressive juggling act!!Back to Canada where we found everything in good order, with very little 'creature feature'. Got our place opened and cleaned and got into the rhythm of life here, with Mum spending half of 
most weeks with us. She's so glad to see us each year, but it's a toss-up which she loves more:- us or the lake !! Maureen has her holiday place just down the lane, and the whole family come to us most Sundays. It's like we hadn't left! July has had beautiful weather, by our standards,- a heat wave to the Canadians! We've really enjoyed the boat and just getting out and about.
Our boating adventure this year was to take the boat on a camping adventure for 5 days. We went downstream to Kingston then turned east into the St Lawrence River to Gananoque in the 
most weeks with us. She's so glad to see us each year, but it's a toss-up which she loves more:- us or the lake !! Maureen has her holiday place just down the lane, and the whole family come to us most Sundays. It's like we hadn't left! July has had beautiful weather, by our standards,- a heat wave to the Canadians! We've really enjoyed the boat and just getting out and about. 
Thousand Islands! That is an amazingly beautiful area, with in fact around 1800 islands I'm told. We have the boat rigged for camping, and stayed at 2 lockstations, an island and on the jetty of the live theatre in Ganaoque. Maureen and John brought Chinese that night; we all sat and ate on the jetty, then went in to a show. Very civilized!However the boat started playing up a bit, so we headed home a day early. Then on our last lock before home, the boat stalled (yet again) and I lost steering/braking control. Anne had the hook on a
cable already as the boat started to drift, and before she could let go, got a nasty wrench to her shoulder :( It got increasingly worse over a few days until she ended up in emergency in total spasm and extreme pain. They shot some 'good stuff' into her and she's been medicating and exercising since; she's coming good now but still being careful. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be actual damage done, just soft tissue. I'll put this nice picture of Jamie here, because he spent two day with us here and she wasn't able to get her fair share of the cuddles !
That's us about up to date. As I sit here at the computer there's a Bluejay at our feeder, and two chipmonks squabbling over the seeds on the ground. There don't seem to be as many squirrels this year, and we've heard nothing of the bear who used to wander through or by. We had a revisit from the huge mother snapping turtle we saw last year; she goes up on the hill somewhere to lay her eggs, then directly to the water, regardless of who or what is in her path.
Hope you are all well and happy
The Happy Wanderers
Annie and Kathie
