Back to Brioude for Cooking with Soline!!

November 20th

Alors! I have arrived at the Nice Airport to go to Paris and then to Clermont Ferrand where Soline is going to pick me up to go to her home in Brioude.
Last night I did not sleep all that well for two reasons. First, the long-awaited (but then, aren't they ALL long-awaited, as nine months of pregnancy IS an eternity) arrival of Oliver Robin Flynn was pending with Facebook messages from Newton Wellesley Hospital Birthing Suite. Happily he arrived before I fell asleep. His maternal grandparetns are my good friends Pat and Rich Zirpolo. Second, I sometimes am afraid that I will not hear my alarm and oversleep. But, WELCOME, Oliver Robin! And I awoke in plenty of time! I am all checked in with an hour before they start boarding.
It was dark, when I boarded the bus at 7AM. At about the tenth stop, two men strangely enough got on at the side door, which is usually the exit door. Well, they went passenger to passenger to check that we had purchased tickets and composted them (had them stamped in one of the machines on the bus). And then I saw that two other men had gotten on at the front door. They only took one young woman off. This was the first time I had experienced this on public transportation here in Nice . (Now in Budapest with my brother Clough and his wife Peggy is another story!) It appears that the fine is about 42 euros or $50+/-
Soline greeted me at the airport. On our way to her home, we stopped to see one of the many grand Roman churches in this area in Issidore, Abbey Saint Austremoine.

Unique for painted columns

Soline's plan was to have endive and ham with bechamel sauce for dinner. So we prepared the endive by slicing them in half, and then Soline braised them with some butter (olive oil optional choice) in bottom of her pressure cooker. (She was the first person I saw her using one. She has three of them!)  Then she cooked the endives for ten minutes in the pressure cooker. She made the sauce ( I would call it a white sauce) without  a recipe, but here is one which Giada posted had on-line.

1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces)
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 quart whole milk, at room temperature
Pinch fresh nutmeg
Sea salt and white pepper

Melt the butter, then add flour, which will form a ball. Then add the milk, and stir until the sauce thickens. Add sliced mushrooms to the finished sauce. Then she wrapped the endive with a piece of sliced ham, poured the sauce over it, and baked it in the oven. This was delicious, and you have a myriad of vegetable options to use in place of the endive!

Soline had made a pear tart (at least I helped peel the pears!) with a crust she had made. She will have me make one before I leave!

However, her brother and sister-in-law were here, so we ended up not having time to eat this casserole, as we were off to her choral practice. (Shades of my Community Chorus days!) This was interesting as the Peruvian director wrote the songs they were practicing and they were all in Spanish! Someone gave me a copy of the music, so I could follow along-but no singing!

November 22nd

This morning we were off to gym class! Soline loaned me clothes, and we went; it was good-not at all hard! Since I had taken my camera (EVERYWHERE!), Soline snapped a few pictures of me, which made me laugh when I saw her!

Then for lunch we got to have the delicious ham and endive casserole with bread and cheese and fruit. First she served beets with parsley and vinaigrette dressing. Her husband Jean Jacques,who is the mayor of Brioude, came home for lunch, as is customary. Her son Julian who is presently working between here and Barcelona was also here for lunch.       

Our afternoon tea with bakery cookies!

Tomorrow there is a horse fair and the market and the new Beaujolais is out! Tomorrow night her friend Martine, who introduced herself to me at the choral practice, is coming to dinner.

Do come back to see what meals are in my future! Actually her brother brought her four pheasants, and I watched her (sort of) clean one of them, as she plucked every feather, etc. She was brought up on a farm, so this is very familiar to her. So pheasant is on the menu for dinner tomorrow night. And I AM HAVING SO MANY NEW EXPERIENCES!!!!!!!!!!

...Do you Remember Carol in "Paris, Je t'aime"?

Now, if you did not see this movie, you can look at the clip....But before you do, let me say that I think I am like Carol, the Denver letter carrier, only in my wandering around....I don't think much else relates...and actually my "wandering" is really more focused (ie. I know where I am going),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJG0lqukJTQ

However, that being said, I do think of her as I walk around Nice. Like her, I AM DELIGHTED TO BE HERE!! 
Yesterday I walked to the Palais de Mediteranee to met Kim Defforge. On my way, I, as I always do, when I can, walked through the Pavillion. They have some wonderful old pictures of Nice on display which showed the BEFORE! 

How grand this must have been in its day. Now in its place, we only have this...

I had "found" Kim on-line through her blog. www.twentyfourseveninfrance.com She is now married to a French man, so she is both French and American. I read her book, Solitary Desire-One Woman's Journey to France, and was intrigued to hear more! Of course, she knows so many great spots around Nice, so we had lunch at a great little Lebanese  restaurant nearby. She lives in Cagne-sur-Mer, so hopefully I will see her again there and also visit the Renoir museum! (Gosh! My time is getting short here!)
On my way home, I wanted to see how the Peace Statement was holding up! I also wanted to see if I could talk with the man behind it! His name is Dahmane-Zitouni. (This was how he wrote it, but I think that he is called Zitouni, as he explained it.) Unfortunately he doesn't speak much French, but he appreciated my "stopping by". (He was fishing when I stopped.) I am hoping that maybe someone will go with me who speaks more than Pidgin French!! He now has a small pup tent up against the seawall; hopefully it will be able to last a long time! He did say, "Only peace, no war."

Tomorrow morning I am flying to Clermont Ferrand to spend the week with Soline and Jean Jacques, whom I had met in August. They are (my tenant) Aline's parents. When I met Soline in August, she had suggested I return so she could teach me French cooking, and I could help her with her (very good) English!
So I will have a private tutorial! I am looking forward to see what recipes I will add to my small collections of French foods; they are crepes (duh!), daub, and gougeres!
Thank you again for traveling along. I'll share my cooking lessons with you!

Sunday in the Parc, Phoenix, That Is!

November 17th

It was the usual spectacular day in Nice-did I tell you how many people have told me they stay here for the weather? For the first time I walked (the four + miles) along the Promenade to Parc Phoenix with flora and fauna and even minerals (this Saturday and Sunday only). It was quite warm as I walked along and enjoyed the activity along the Promenade-cyclists, skate-boarders, etc.
I met Andy and his wife Rosemary and Whit. Rosemary has recently arrived from the US, where she had been working as a costume seamstress at Renaissance faires (including King Richard's in Carver, MA). Andy had organized our walk to Puget-Theniers several weeks ago.
http://www.parc-phoenix.org/ is seven hectares (17.297 acres to be EXACT!!) It is right next door to an Asian museum for another time! It features water fountains with interesting sculptures as well as displays of birds, fish, some animals, turtles, and plants.

Grue Royales

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grue_royale&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgrue%2Broyale%26biw%3D1195%26bih%3D624

We wondered if this were real-but figured it had to be!

I just googled Red Starfish and got this https://www.google.com/search?q=red+starfish&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=a5CLUvuLMKa27Qb69ID4Cg&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1195&bih=624
So it was a real starfish!

It was an interesting visit, and I look forward to returning to visit both the Parc and the Asian museum!

A Typical Day in My Ever-changing Life in Nice

Well, now it is back to the day to day life here at the Cote d'Azur.... What do I do?
Well, I am trying to do some sort of a decent walk
daily. And each time I go out, I see some totally
different things from the day before!

Yesterday I walked through the wonderful park just as the fountains went off. It was delightful choreography; they alternated high and low and was fun to watch!

Farther on towards the sea, they were watering the plants in the brilliant day. While it cools off at night, the days still can get up into the high 60's.
People watching, of course, is wonderful here with so many tourists as well as the many people who live here!

One day last week I spotted a man writing on the
beach using rocks an inan incredibly elaborate
message about peace in French and English!
I have revisited it several times, and it remains as

Part of his display....

of yesterday, November 16th.

Walking through the town and the Old Town also gives me ever-changing fun things to see, such as this musical decoration!

Of course, the Christmas decorations are starting to go up...They are not lit yet, but look promising.

Speaking of Christmas, I thought it would be fun to go to Paris before December 25th to see what Paris looks like for the holidays! En route to the train station the other day to buy my ticket, I finally went into the Theatre de la Photographie et de l'image http://www.tpi-nice.org/

There was a show featuring the photography of Marie-Laure de Decker, which included her time in Vietnam and South Africa. It was very interesting, and I was glad that I finally visited it!




Now you have an idea of what I am doing here in Nice! Thanks for traveling with me!

The Nice Chocolat Extravaganza in Nice at the Sea!!!

Today through Sunday this gala is being held. I went today and hopefully avoided some of the mob scene! This is the same place where the Sailing event was based as well as last week's Marathon tents.
While it was primarily chocolate vendors, they also had vintners, cookies, teas, and plenty of free   samples! (You could probably eat the $5 admission charge quite quickly!  It was interesting to see the different shapes and decorations they made with the chocolate! The vendors appeared to be only local Nice shops, so I could not try any Madagascar chocolates, Joan!

Neglected to get the price of this great edible shirt!

 When I left the tent area, I walked down the lovely sunny windy Promenade to see if the Peace display I had seen in rocks, written in French and English, was still in place, and it was! I wished I had talked with the man when he was doing it, to learn the story behind the story. Maybe I will see him another day!

 Thanks for coming along!

More Adventures with Another Visitor or Marcia Tours the Cote d'Azur

Wednesday November 6
My friend Marcia arrived right on time, and I was there to meet her! (Marcia lives in the first house I bought in Weston.) While she had not had much sleep on the plane, she was game to stay awake as long as possible, so I introduced her to Nice via walk along the Promenade and the Old Town and over to the Port.

Thursday November 7
The next morning (Marcia had had great night's sleep!) we got an early start to go up to Vence so we could enjoy Matisse's Rosaire Chapel in the morning sunlight! It was a delightfully sunny morning, so we fully enjoyed the chapel with the light singing brilliantly through the stained glass windows. We could even see the green and blue hues reflected on the floor, but only because it was pointed out to us! (Why didn't the yellow in the stained glass show up?) The same nun was there there, but there were only three of us, so she only talked with Marcia. Our timing was perfect, as a busload of German tourists arrived just as it was time for us to leave.
The seven minute bus trip took us to St. Paul de Vence, where Marcia could enjoy the small Chagall

museum over the TI. We had a leisurely walk up to the top of the town for a panoramic view of the country, and down to the sea! We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant overlooking the country side from another direction to end a very pleasant stop in this 12th century town.
The well-known, small modern art Fondation Maeght "one of the world's finest" museums is just down the hill from St. Paul de Vence, and that was our next stop. However, the signage was confusing, so we asked a woman from Syracuse, NY, exactly where it was, and she was kind enough to drive us up there! The Maeghts had been Cannes art dealers and knew Chagall, Matisse, Miro, etc. as both clients and friends. There was only a temporary display, "Les aventures de la verite: Peinture et philosophie"(freetranslation.com translated this as "The Adventures of the truth: Painting and philosophy". It was curated by Bernard-Henri Levy, a prominent French philosopher, wrote American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville in 2006. The show was really a mixed bag, divided into seven sections, all focused on-quite esoterically-the relationship between art and philosophy-Plato and the cave. Levy wrote the exhibition guide, which was quite really ALL over the place!!! Some bizarre commentary!

Sculpture outside Maeght

Sculpture at Guy Pieters Gallery

Another Guy Pieters Sculpture

Looking up at St. Paul de Vence from the bus stop

For example, this painting is Joan Miro's "Les Philosophes II", 1956. Levy's comment was "Scenes of daily life in the bowels of the cave."????????????


WHEW! THEN it was time to leave!

Michael and Tim were coming for wine and cheese before we went out to dinner. After drinks on the balcony, we had a delicious dinner at L'Ecurie-again just around the corner in the Old Town! It was great fun to hear about their eight years living in Paris and the interesting lives they have had traveling everywhere, as Michael had been in the Peace Corps. They were off to Paris for a photography show where Michael will be meeting with many different people-publishers, other photographers, etc.

Friday November 8th
Before we started out, I wanted to buy the beef for the daube (Provencale beef stew) I was going to make for dinner Sunday night when Regine and Caroline came. So I made my first meat purchase in the market in the Old Town! Luckily Mary had told me about the butcher, so I knew where to go and what to buy! (I like to think that I could have figured out what to buy....)
At the top of Marcia's list was the Matisse Museum, so that was our first stop on our Around Nice day! There were several school groups around, so they were learning about Matisse too! We stopped for a light lunch of onion tart in the park before we headed up to the Monastery. This was closed until three, so we walked through the gardens-the roses still looked lovely!-and down at Nice. We visited the cemetery and walked down to Matisse's Sepulchre/tomb.

We took the bus to visit St. Nicolas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the largest outside of Russia. Built in the early 1900's for the many Russians coming to Nice, it is a fascinating building, although very dark, so it was very difficult to see much inside! (No wonder the girl at the desk had her head down-napping?)
We walked down to the Promenade with the thought of perhaps having a cup of tea or glass of wine at the high-end Negresco, a two Michelin star hotel whose top restaurant has meals of 90 euros. It was very grand, and we enjoyed our tour there, but opted out of the tea or wine! We enjoyed the walk along the promenade and through the Old Town to the flat.
The City of Nice sponsored a full weekend schedule of  concerts with the title of "It's Not Classical". Caroline, Marcia, and I went to one Friday night. We tried to get into one based on the Four Seasons, but it was full. The only other concert was four violinists who were "clowning". It was certainly nothing Marcia or I understood, and it was Caroline who suggested we leave. Good try!


Saturday November 9th
We had talked about going to Grasse, where perfume had been made long ago. (Now it is more about the history of the process.) Luckily Tim had told Marcia about Antibes, which is west of Nice on the way to Cannes. Roughly an hour from here by bus, it was longer with all the Saturday traffic! However, it was a pleasant trip with many new sights along the coast. It was not like a trip Melissa and I had once taken to Cannes in an August past (!) when the traffic was terrible, and the bus' air-conditioning was broken! Unfortunately we did not have the name of the bus stop, and the helpful lady on the bus had us get off maybe four stops past Antibes center, where we could have walked to see the Picasso museum!
But everything works for the best-usually! In this case, a dad and his eleven year old son were parking their car, when I asked them where the Picasso museum was. He told us where it was-clearly far away, but then said if we could wait forty-five minutes, he would give us a ride. He said they were going to have lunch at Coco's Fritterie, a Belgian restaurant, which his son Matthew really liked! That sounded good to us, as we were very hungry by then! I had never eaten Belgian food before, so it was a new experience! I don't know the name of what I had, but it was hamburg, tomato, onions wrapped in dough and fried. Marcia had chicken, which looked to be four chicken wings. All the food-except for the fries- was in the display case, ready to be fried. She had pre-fried the potatoes, and they were ready to be re-fried. Delicious! Christian, the dad, also told us she had very good Belgian beer, so that went well with this interesting eating experience! (Later that night when we told Caroline and Regine, they both exclaimed how "awful" they thought Belgian food is!)
Christian showed us a very good place to walk in Antibes (probably Cap d'Antibes) and even offered to pick us up when were through, but we really just wanted to see the Picasso Museum, situated in the 14th century Chateau Grimaldi. Picasso had worked there from July-December 1946. His Joie de vivre painting (Joy of Life) is displayed there.


 It is as you can imagine a spectacular location!

No pictures inside, but some of his sculptures were outside.

That night Marcia treated us to dinner at Le Comptoir de la Marche, touted in Lonely Planet. We both had scallops(St. Jacques on the menu) with small filet of pork. It was their version of "surf and turf" I guess. It was delicious!

...and desserts to die for!

 



























Sunday November 10th
Marcia loves music and has been playing the piano since she was young, so I really thought she would like the instrument display at the Lascaris Palace, our first stop Sunday morning. Then we stopped in to the Meetups coffee, which was busy as usual! We walked around the flower market in Cours Saleya, before we went up to the Castle Rock for probably the best view of Nice!
I had been working on the daube for dinner that night. It is slightly labor-intensive, and was I presumptuous to be serving two Nicoise women one of their native regional dishes? There is no oven here-only three burners on stove-top and a microwave, so I thought this would be as close as I can get to my favortie crockpot cooking!:)) (Some of you might remember that when I returned from my last trip, I realized that I missed having friends for dinner!)
Ingredients for the daube include pound of beef, carrots, bouquet garni (I substituted Herbes de Provence), 1 liter of "full-bodied wine", 5 tomatoes (I substituted a can of chopped up tomatoes and 2 fresh tomatoes), black olives, 3 garlic cloves. I did add about a can of water. I had gotten the recipe at the Marseille Pavillion. Everyone said they liked it! Regine and Caroline said they never make it, because it takes too long!
They arrived at 7:30; Regine brought a dessert, and Caroline brought wine and cheese. (That was good, as I didn't have much cheese for a cheese course!) I had bought two loaves of bread, so we had plenty to go with the daube and the cheese! Plus I served brussel sprouts in lieu of a salad. (I served them al dente,which didn't work for Caroline, but the microwave took care of that!)
Regine's dessert was delicious! It was not too different from our brownies, but much richer, as it called for eight eggs! (She actually added a ninth!) We had a nice visit, as always, and I was glad that Marcia could meet them!

Monday November 11th

Nautilius

November 11th is called Remembrance Day and a national holiday in France, but not in Monaco, so we headed there. The Palace is closed now until April. It was another sun-sparkly day, so perfect to be out along the sea! We went to Musee Oceanographique de Monaco, founded by Prince Albert I. Opened in 1910, it has 450 different Mediterranean and tropical species. Because it was a holiday in France, more and more families were arriving as it was time for us to leave!

After we got home, we walked around the Promenade and then to the Port, where we came upon the end of a big Remembrance Day celebration with veterans and civilians alike. Unfortunately we could not see too well to know who all was participating.








And in a flash, Marcia's time in Nice was over, and she headed back to the US Tuesday morning. Thanks for coming!

And, if you got this far in this post-probably my second longest- I want to share an interesting article about how travel makes you healthier! But for many of you, it is a bit like "preaching to the choir"! Or maybe it just validates the lure of travel?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/09/travel-makes-you-healthier_n_4233742.html

PS. That family who was in court lost the case, so ultimately they may be sent back to Chechnya. So now they are living with family.

Thanks again for coming along with me on this journey!

Living in Nice Included a Visit to a Courtroom!

Well, remember that I had said when I was here, I wanted to live here. After Joan left, I did the usual-wash, grocery store! Walking has become my exercise of choice to date. Unfortunately I just learned that the pool (just around the corner in the Old Town) I had planned to use is unheated, so I need to see if there is a heated one anywhere! That is too bad, as it is !
Earlier I had mentioned Caroline, whom I met through Regine. She lives just across the park, so we are "neighbors"! On Wednesday nights she takes an English class, and she asked me to meet her and some of her classmates in Place Garibaldi, where they were meeting for a glass of wine. So at 7:30 I met for a glass wine at Pepino's. There were only seven of us to include Richard, the teacher who is from the UK. Most are French, except Renarde, a woman from Austria and a young man from Iran.
Previously I had shared how I had wrecked my Capri pants...so I have been on a search for dye "tincture" to see if I could make them look any better. Highly unlikely I figured! I finally found a big huge Carrefour about 15 minutes away which did have dye! I also wanted to dye white v-neck sweater. (Limited as my wardrobe is, it was not going to have to endure a white (!) sweater through the winter!) Mission accomplished! I have gotten many compliments on my "new" sweater!

Thursday night Meetups had a Halloween party in the Old Town. Caroline came for healthy dinner of veggie soup and salad! The party was fun, but, the music was deafening! There was a couple (Nonie and Ed) who had retired to Scottsdale 15 years ago, who had lived in Lexington for 30 years before that! She had fallen on the plane when they came to France 4 months ago, and her foot was still bad, so she just sat and we chatted. (She did say several times she needed to lose 100 pounds.) She said, "Would it be rude if I asked them to turn the music down?" It was FINE with me! She did ask, but it never seemed any softer!
Last Saturday a hike in Puget-Theniers, a very scenic, 1.5 hour bus ride north of Nice was scheduled. I met the other four hikers (two Brits and three Americans) at the bus at 9:30.   http://www.frenchriviera-mountain.com/VALLEYS-VILLAGES-RESORTS/puget-theniers-puget-theniers-N4fiche_VEVPAC0060000118-rub_81.html

When we got off-and had coffee-we tried to figure out the directions. Well, really, they tried...I would just go along. How many cooks did we need? The directions-NOT too clear-sent us up behind the church and the cemetery. Well, that was perfect timing, as it was the day after All Saints' Day,

when everything was closed, and most people would have visited graves of family members and left pots and pots and pots of chrysanthemums. Eventually three of us were on a trail; Mary and Whit were still wandering about the cemetery. We later learned that Mary is very knowledgeable about plants, so they spent time looking at the plants which were NOT mums! Linda, Andy, and I got to a point and turned around. The path that we were on was narrow and looked to be heading up a pretty steep incline. PLUS we didn't want to miss the bus and spend the night in Puget-Theniers! It was fun and a lovely day with definite signs of fall coming to France! On the bus ride up I had noticed some very interesting rock formations,

and I wanted to try to get some pictures on the way home. They looked striated; apparently I learned later that there is alot of limestone. Pictures aren't too good from a moving bus....
Thanks to Facebook, I met a friend of Joan McKniff's (Snagglepuss' next of kin!). Michael Honneger had posted some pictures on Facebook of the newly completed Promenade, so I learned that he and his partner had just moved to Nice after eight years in Paris. http://www.michaelhoneggerphotos.com/  Saturday night we were to meet for a drink at Place Garibaldi at 7:30 and then go someplace for dinner. Unfortunately Tim was sick, but Mike came; we had a glass of wine, then decided on Le Local, great Italian food!

There are so many restaurant choices here! We exchanged notes, as they arrived the day after me. They are renovating a flat with a placard saying Nietzche had lived there from He had learned some about Meetups, but I did tell him about the Sunday morning coffee meetups. It was a very delightful evening!
Sunday was VERY busy. It started with the Meetup coffee. Michael was there, and Ian was there from South Africa/UK. Then Caroline came along; they were all there for the first time. Afterwards Michael had agreed to show me his new flat; Ian and Caroline came along too. This will be wonderful when it is completed; some of the rooms overlook the port. It has painted fresco ceilings on two of the three sections in the large room which we entered. Ultimately this will be open floor plan with kitchen/living room/dining room. There is a plaque on the outside that Nietzche had lived there; I will need to go back to get the EXACT dates (late 1800's)!! Now it was time for lunch; Michael knew a restaurant around the corner which had good "moules and frites"/ mussels and fries, so we had a very nice lunch before we went off in our separate directions. I listened to part of the concert in the bandstand with same band which played last week in the park. I was, however, sad to see that the huge wooden whale in the park was closed, and learned that there had been an accident. Hopefully it will be re-opened; it had been mobbed with kids and parents....
Monday I was supposed to go for another hike up to Ezes with Andy, but it had started to rain just as we were to meet. However, Caroline, a German teacher, called minutes before I was to meet Andy to say that she was going to a hearing for a family whose city housing was been challenged. They ask teachers to go to be in the courtroom to show support for the family. She said it was an interesting building, and asked me if I wanted to go! Of course! Both Andy and I followed her to the Tribunal Administration Building.

Well, of course, there was not much I understood! It maybe lasted thirty minutes with the judgment to be returned at a later date-even Caroline was confused! The young Chechnyian couple has four children (one handicapped) and speak no French. Their sneaker-wearing attorney introduced himself to us beforehand in his robes; afterwards, he quickly took off the robe to show his jeans and Izod jersey. EAch side presented their case; apparently the prosecution had not followed the date guidelines they had been given
It was a spectacular building, overlooking the sea! The President (judge) wore business attire; when he came in and started talking, his wide Cheshire grin took over his face. Unfortunately my camera could not really capture his eyes!

From window in courtroom

I was not supposed to take his picture, but I took this at the end with no repercussions. (One is poor, and the other is worse, but his was such a very expressive face!) It was a great opportunity to witness the French judicial system! Thanks, Caroline for thinking of asking me!
Last night I saw a movie in France for the first time, as Caroline and I went to see "Blue Jasmine" in English with French sub-titles. Afterwards we had a filling risotto dinner (followed by lemon meringue tart) at Scuderia, a block back from Promenade des Anglais.
This morning I met Mary, whom I had met on the hike last Saturday.

She has lived her for six years. She lives about five minutes away around the corner and is a fund of information! After we had coffee, we walked around, and she showed me some of the shops-butcher, florist, hairdresser-she uses. VERY helpful!!
Now I am looking forward to having my friend Marcia come for a visit, as she arrives tomorrow morning!
Thank you again for traveling with me. I am so happy to have you all along-even if you are not here in person, except when we Skype!! Feel free to comment too....