Little bit of Europe, part UNE (that's French for one)

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Yes, this is a post about the summer and I realize it is now fall. Or, at least it's fall for those of you in the states. Sadly, we don't really get much of that season here. I think last year I realized that I miss fall and early spring (more specifically, Royals baseball games in the spring) as far as seasons go. But definitely miss fall the most. However, that's not what this post is about, so I'll leave that little tangent right here.

As most everyone knows, I spent 2 months of my summer back stateside. Which was amazing. I was able to get my heart filled up with love from family and friends and everything inbetween. Life is good, and I'm one lucky gal to have the people in my life that I do. Without question.

That also includes new friends I have made over here...two of which I was lucky enough to spend about nine days with traveling down through part of Europe. Jim and LuAnn make every day here fun. I say that with complete honesty and sincerity (and because they often invite me down to their place for meals...so it never hurts to butter 'em up just a bit). With that said, when I had the opportunity to fly into Frankfurt and travel down to Morocco with them, I pounced on it! Jim and LuAnn are veteran travelers, as they spent most of last summer traveling through Europe, and again this summer doing the same thing. I was just happy to be with them, and their trusty Honda CRV named "Sterling", venturing from city to city and campground to campground. After we somehow found each other at the Frankfurt airport (my communication on flight arrival was admittedly not very clear), the adventure began as we made our way for a stop to see Casablanca teacher friends who are now living in Frankfurt. It was great to catch up with Brian, Marlo, and Auggie over some German food (schnitzel and goulash) and beers.

We then started our journey south, with a destination of Cordes, France and our wonderful hosts Randy and Anne. After a hotel stay in northern France that evening, we spent the next day driving south (and by 'we', I really mean Jim....as he did all of the driving and would give me a hard time for trying to take credit for it). As evening approached, and we were almost to Cordes, we drove through a brief rainstorm that produced an amazing sky and landscape.



This is a little 'grainy', but the fields of sunflowers under this sky were just beautiful!



We spent three days in Cordes, France with "The G's". It was fabulous. Their town is just a beautiful little place up on a hill in southern France. We ate, drank, laughed, and toured around the area. I'm not sure it's possible to have better hosts than Randy and Anne. They even had a postcard and jars of homemade jam to welcome me to their home. We miss them at CAS, but are happy for them and their life of retirement...  The following are pics from time spent in the surrounding area of France.



I was allowed to hang out with the men while they worked the bbq.



We visited a winery outside of Guillac.





Cool city square with a typical French cafe.

Jim walking down a street in Cordes, and this is LuAnn and I amidst a crowded market in France. I didn't write down the names of any of the little towns around them that we went to, so I can't tell you where we actually were.  :-) 



Jugs of table wine for sale, and as we were walking, we saw an actual flower bed. :-)

The Sunday market was fun to stroll through. Crazy crowded, but still a fun little adventure. Lots of colors with all of the different flowers, vegetables, anddifferent sausages too!

This is Cordes. High on a hill. Picturesque.

France...with friends...was fantastic! Thanks to the G's for being
such wonderful hosts!!