May 1, 2008. Today is Labor Day all over Europe or in any case in both Spain and France. We left this morning for France since we have a four-day week-end, more or less. That is, Thursday is a holiday and everyone takes the Friday following as a holiday too. It’s a bit early to go to the beach, and I had this idea that we could meet a friend from Washington D.C. who is French and lives relatively nearby. I met Christophe when I traded English for French lessons with him — he was writing a biography of Jean Bertrand Aristide, the then President of Haiti (in exile). Haiti and Christophe were tenants of my commercial real estate shared office suite in Washington, D.C.
Off we went for a five hour drive in the Midi-Pyrenees. Although we were invited to stay with Christophe, he had a pregnant cat, we have a lightly trained dog, and Anne may be allergic to cats so the idea was not immediately appealing. Instead we rented a house, which is one of the houses they rent here called “Gites”. It actually turned out to be relatively nice (except the beds), not plush, but very French country basic, in a town called Varaire.
We arrived, were checked in by the very nice French couple that owns the place, and called Christophe who we met an hour later at his place in Limogne-en-Quercy. This is all in the Dordogne Region and is called Le Lot, which is also the name of the river. There were lots of animals, in addition to the newborn horse, a hedgehog, rabbits and sheep, etc…
Anyhow, we were very welcomed at Christophe’s house, where his wife Elaine and two grandkids, Simon, age 9, and Léa, age 12 were all welcoming. The pregnant cat, and Rocket, as expected, hit it off with the cat hitting the roof and Rocket barking away. We had a wonderful time culminating in a very nice meal typical of the region. It was really nice and very special.
As for the Gite, it’s unfortunately not clean and the beds are horrible. We have had pretty terrible luck in France for hotels and places to stay. The structure itself and the surroundings are nice. There are snails the size of mice roaming around and birds that sound like alarm systems that were improperly set.
May 2, 2008. After some very nice croissants this morning we went off to meet our friends Christophe and along with his grandkids the seven of us went off to see the poorly named St. Cinq Lapopie. It has what we think are some of the most beautiful vistas in Europe.
After exploring around, we returned to lunch at Christophe’s house. Every meal, pretty much, has been outside since the weather is very nice. Then it was time for us to cook an “American meal” which meant I put on a barbecue (hamburger, of course). This was a bit of a challenge without my easy lighting gas powered Turbo Grill, but we managed to pull it off. We had a wonderful time with some really nice people who we are proud to call friends.
May 3, 2008. Having accomplished our main goal of saying hello to Christophe and his family and feeling like we didn’t want to delay a long drive back (we tried to split it, but couldn’t find room at the half-way point with one call), and not wanting another night in terrible beds provided at the Gite (I suspect they date from the original renovation 25 years ago), we decided to make our way back to Barcelona. Of course, we couldn’t leave the Lot region without seeing what is perhaps one of the most famous caves around, the Grottes du Pech Merle, with drawings dating from 25,000 years ago (really!). They are similar to the Fairy Caves in Glenwood Springs. We made our way there, taking beautiful roads and getting lost only for 10 minutes or so, and got our tickets (which we reserved the day before since only 700 people can see the cave on any one day and for no more than one hour to preserve them), went through the cave with a French tour guide (who also added a few English explanations here and there but we had a written translation). The cave is full of your usual stalactites (facing downward) and stalagmites but also these man-made drawings that are made with charcoal and iron oxide and while they were no Michelangelos, the drawing are remarkable if for no other reason than their age and the size of the breasts on the women in their representations. May 4, 2008. This morning, first thing, I received a call from the Aspen Valley Hospital that my mother had her appendix out and everything went fine — it was midnight there. This is, of course, cause for concern since she’s alone, 88, won’t accept or agree to any help, and is beyond stubborn. I emailed my Annette, my sister, and a few hours later she was on a flight from New York. On arrival everything was fine, and I spoke to my mother and everything was good. Long story short, she went home and my sister is there.May 5, 2008. Elyssa Edgerly from Aspen, who is here studying, and her boyfriend Josh joined us for dinner and we had a nice time. I’ve been on the phone a few times with my sister, trying to support here. She’s doing an amazing job taking care of my mother, no easy task.
May 6, 2008. I’m dealing long-distance with my mother’s situation and my sister who is there trying to manage things. It’s basically impossible, but my sister is doing her best. It’s a terrible situation.
