Bonjour de France!

Bonjour from France!  Eric and I have hopped over the pond for a much needed vacation.  I'm going to take a few minutes to blog from time to time to avoid photo overload when we return, and this way, you all can travel along with us!

We started out with a minor mishap. We were supposed to fly into Munich, and then have a small flight from Munich to Lyon, France. Well. The German airline employees planned a strike. A one day strike, that just happened to be on the day we needed to fly to France. Flight canceled.  You know, just a major itinerary change less than 4 hours before we were supposed to leave.  So, we ended up flying direct to Paris instead, and then took a train into Avignon, where we picked up our rental car and headed into Gordes to our adorable little B&B.

Tartinne lunch in Avignon

Sandra and Pierre, who own Mas Galinalle,  have been so amazing. Right now, we're the only guests here, so we have roam of the whole place to ourselves.  Their home is nothing short of gorgeous.

There is a 15 minute walk up into the village of Gordes from Mas Galinelle down a windy little private lane.  When Sandra told us to "just follow the stone wall" until we saw the town, we knew it was going to be good.   As you can probably tell from the photos, the "walk" into town is no leisurely stroll - it's legit climbing a mountain.  But it's kind of nice because we feel like we really earn our dinner every night, you know?  Thank goodness we're in shape, that's all I have to say!

We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, and then got somewhat of an early dinner.  We were exhausted and I was running on zero sleep - I can never sleep on planes.  Sandra told us about a little restaurant that she and Pierre liked called La Trinquette and said that there was a tiny balcony with a table just for two that we should ask about. We did, and it was incredible - in views, service, food, and wine.  The owner was our waiter (love a good small business), and he could not have been more friendly.

After dinner, we snapped a few photos at dusk and walked back to our room, where I think I fell asleep mid-conversation with Eric. A good 12 hours of rest, and I was ready to roll the next morning.

Of course, we miss our sweet Pierre (who is vacationing with his grandparents), but there is one added bonus of staying at Mas Galinelle...

That would be Toby, the St. Bernard. He's at least 2 inches taller and  20 pounds heavier than I am, but he is such a doll.  He tried to follow us into town the first day we were here, and we had to return him home, but at least we're getting our share of dog love!