If only we could yodel!

To see our photos set to music - I know a bit much but so much fun to create. Click on the link below and you will have a trip to the Dolomites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLdGjFkHYVA
Enjoy!

Italy and Switzerland

We took a leave of absence from Oldtimer this past week and drove (in our car) to Italy and Switzerland. What a treat.


We spent our first night in Annecy France which is a most beautiful place. We were lucky enough to have gone there in June to visit our friends from Vail, Jane and Joel Gros. We were anxious to return again- the swimming is great. Our second night was on Lago di Garda in Italy. Another beautiful lake and also great swimming. Our destination the next day was to stay in the Dolomites for 3 days and hike.


The Dolomites are extraordinary. The hiking and views are fabulous - it often seems like a Hollywood movie back drop. The people in the Dolomites , although Italian, mostly speak German. This portion of Italy was once in Germany. It is bounded on the North by Austria and on the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein. We arrived in the Dolomites to a small valley called the Val di Funes. It is a little off the beaten path and as a result as Americans we were definitely odd man out. The majority - perhaps even all - the guests at the hotel where we stayed were German. It was one of the first times we did Half Board with a Hotel and this turned into a nice experience as we did not have to think about breakfast or dinner just hiking. Lunch each day was available in one of the many Refugios in the mountains. As you will see in the photos lunch one day came with music by the "Blues Brothers." We would really recommend if you have the chance to go to the Dolomites - do so!


We went onto Switzerland after 3 days. We have apologized to our children for spending their entire inheritance in Switzerland. A wonderful country and so beautiful but also so expensive. We drove over at least 6 passes to get there as we were determined to SEE the mountains. We stayed for 2 nights in a small town outside of Interlaken - Winderswill. Our intention was to ride the train and cog railway to Klein Scheidegg just below the Junfrau and hike from there. Unfortunately it was raining so it provided another eating opportunity and a small amount of hiking. While we were there the Switzerland national wrestling championship was taking place in Interlaken. The participants are local farmers and the event is over a weekend. The grand prize for this event is a huge Bull. As outsiders we found this a hoot to watch but realized this is a national sport and great fun for the Swiss.
We are now back in St Leger sur Dheune. A great experience and lovely biking. Yesterday we rode through the vineyards, on a Voie Romaine, visited several tiny villages, saw chateaux, spent the evening with some French friends ( all speaking French - exhausting) and today it is back to painting and cleaning and doing laundry. Lest you think this is all fun and games.
We are planning on leaving for the USA September 28th. We have several buyers "humming " around the boat but no commitments yet. We shall see.
We are back home on Oldtimer and prepping for our return to the USA. We are planning on leaving the 28th of September.

"The time has come," the Walrus said to talk of many things:
of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings,why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings."

We have decided that it is time for us to move on to another adventure. We have put our lovely ship "Oldtimer" up for sale. When we started this adventure it was for a year or two and now find we have been living this lovely life in France for 6 years. Time has flown. Please if you are interested or even just curious or know someone who is interested or just curious go to our link :

http://www.apolloduck.net/205461

As you will see the barge is quite wonderful and very liveable. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to make a rendevous to see "Oldtimer."

Eric and Sudi Berg bergbarge@gmail.com

France is a country in which religion has deep roots. The country was founded and built around monasteries, churches, chapels, basilicas and many monuments with religious orientation. Each village has a church - some in excellent condition cared for by the towns people and some which are barely standing and are severly neglected. Although the primary religion is Catholic the Catholic Church in Rome no longer supports most of the churches. The number of priests has diminished so much that Mass is said usually in only one of the churches of the region. Often a priest may travel during a month from church to church. Each church and chapel is unique and quite lovely.



We met our friends Mary and Jim in Anzy le Duc for lunch . This really tiny village has a very lovely church and monastery as well as a wonderful place for lunch. We rode our bikes from Artaix and met Mary and Jim who drove from Paray la Monial. A delicious lunch.

The Church at Semur en Brionais.

The old door of a Church at Semur en Brionais.

On the way home from our bike ride to Anzy le Duc we discovered this small chapel set in the woods. It was called the Chapel of Notre Dame. It is obviously well cared for by someone and they have trustingly left it open for all visitors to enter. Another very wonderful French tradition.

The Chapel of Notre Dame.

We have seen so many beautiful churches. Often it is the smallest structure which is the most beautiful and elegant. Many of the churches date back to 900AD. They have sometimes been added on to and repaired numerous times but are still standing. When we are riding through the countryside it is often the Church spire which lets us know we are nearing the next village.

Arriving back in Roanne

Incredible sunsets in France. Worth the trip . This is in the Port of Roanne directly across from our mooring.

Spring is the time for the arrival of many new and adorable ducks in the Port.

Ater coming back from the States it is good to be in our own home. There is cleaning, planting, touching up, new carpet, oil changes and many opportunities to put all our skills to work. All is ready on June 12th as we finally leave Port for destinations unknown.

THE REST OF THE WINTER

A Day in Denver. Who would have thought that this might be Mother's Day. That was our 40 something year old son hanging from the "Bull" sculpture outside the Denver Art Museum and our delightful and delicious grandaughter Emily encouraging Thom. Emily was just about to graduate from High School in a couple of weeks. A seriously fun fun day. Oh then there was the motel we were staying in........Just never mind.



The day before we managed a wonderful hike to the "cabins" on the ranch in Minturn. These are cabins that were built in the 1800s and are about at 9000 ft altitude. The dogs - all 4 of them - agreed to be photographed.

The Roaring Fork river in Aspen. Fabulous fishing and quite beautiful.

The view from the deck of our rental house in Aspen. To also be the same place we will live next year. Look carefully this is so beautiful. We can see all 4 ski areas from there. What more could you wish for.

There were herds and herds of Elk everywhere this spring. What a treat. Incredible animals.

February in Aspen - so wonderful.

We are still thrilled and excited to be in the mountains of Colorado. That is despite bone chilling -25 degrees last week and several weeks ago. It went from the -25 one week to +45 the next. Only in Colorado could that happen. Today we have snow , snow, snow. It started this morning and we already have about 6 inches of new "freshies" ( the local word for powder).
We have had visits this month from Heather and Kent a couple we met in France who live in Washington DC area and are spending the winter in Beaver Creek near Vail , Colorado as well as Tracy and Thom and their two dogs Bear and Petey. Unfortunately Tracy fell while we were skiing a double black diamond on Highlands Ski Area and tore her ACL. She was a trooper and used her good leg to traverse and side slip down to the road - as luck would have it a Ski Patroller arrived just as we got to the road. She then road down the mountain in a sled.
Life is Good - we are skiing about 4-5 days a week , hiking, swimming, running and doing all those annoying other real life things like cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, shopping for food, getting haircuts, grooming our needy dog who is distressed by all the avalanche control (bombing) that goes on on a snowy day.

Colorado At Last !!!!!!!

We are in seventh heaven - blue skies, sunshine, great skiing, glorious mountains, clean clear air, and so much to do and so little time.

We have been lucky enough to visit with friends, have friends come visit ( Tricia and Tom), visit with family and have family come visit. Aspen is an incredible and beautiful place and that encourages visits. Lucky us.

Okay so it was -20 degrees farenheit for 2 days but that was only 2 days. We are back in the sun and there will be powder skiing this week. The snow in Colorado is so dry that it is light and fluffy. Often called Lux Flakes. Beautiful crystalized snow that sparkles.

The skies of France

Sometimes the photos I take simply drive the BLOG. There is no real story with this BLOG - just an obsession with the sky and clouds of France. Partially this is due to the openess of the geography so that we see the sunsets from the barge. The light in Europe is different - soft and often with a slight haze so that it is diffused. This of course leads to my poor attitude during the winter when this haziness becomes an overall grey because the sun is so weak. The latitude is very far north so the summer days are long - till 10:00pm and conversely the winters are really really short with the days ending at 5:00pm.

So enjoy the photos. You can click on this address http://jalbum.net/a/822455/ or you can click on the Jalbum widget on the right side of the page.

Sancerre Vendage

On the right side of the BLOG is a place labeled "Jalbums". Just click on the space and it will take you to a wonderful site that does justice to the photos. I am still working with it and will have more photos of the vendange. As you click through be sure to see all the photos by clicking on the arrow on the right of the photos at the top.
The vendange is the French word for grape picking and the beginning of the process of making wine. It is a special time. When we arrived in Sancerre this fall it was about a week before the beginning of the vendange. The grape vines were resting and doing the best they could to be the best grapes ever. There were no workers, no trucks/vans - nothing was happening . There was stillness, a serenity in the vineyard that was just magical.
The second week we were there the vendange started on a monday and the energy level changed dramatically. People were working in the fields both by hand and machine. The smell of the crushed grapes perfumed the air in the village. Life was good!
Some of the photos I took were early in the morning before the sun came up. At the base of the village of Sancerre is the Loire Lateral Canal and the River Loire. In the fall the cool nights produce heavy fog over the areas of water. As the sun rises this becomes an unusual sight. Tulah and I were running through the vineyards and as we turned around at the top we were able to see this fabulous vision.
It is our favorite place to be in the fall. So very special.

Two days of life in France.

Ancient cross hidden in a hedgerow next to the road where we were biking.

The gate to the chateau in the following picture

Of course - Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party".

A rare picture of the two of us - taken courtesy of Olivier.

"Monsieur Renoir" getting ready for the grand luncheon.

A photo of the back of our barge this summer. The flowers were trailing in the water and the Rooster has been repainted and is crowing.

We have just had two great days - riding our bikes and visiting with friends. We have been lucky enough to ride our bikes each day we have been in St. Leger sur Dheune - now going onto our 4th week being moored in the Port. Fortunately we have a great friend in Philippe who is the captain du port and he has not only not thrown us out but has taken us on a "field trip" to Savigny les Beaune with his "amazing" wife Michelle. Another story for another time. We have ridden just about all of the Cote d'Or/Bourgogne and have discovered many wonderful, secret places. Our biking is really just a version of "slow biking" perhaps doing 20 - 60K per day. This has also been a good summer to go very slowly with our barge. We are loving the connection with the country and the people that we miss when we move more frequently.

Yesterday we decided to leave for a ride after lunch - we were in search of sand paper so that Eric could continue his painting career. We needed to ride 15k on the path along the canal to Chagny to get to a Brico ( equivalent to a Home Depot). We decided that on the way home we would go a different way through a lovely small valley called the Chassey valley. This valley has about 3 tiny tiny villages in it and stretches for only about 10k or so. It has white cliffs on one side and vineyards on the other. The first village is Remigny which is an old 15th -17th century village with lovely old homes. Afterward we came to the village of Chassey le Camp. We turned in here - lucky for us as we found a farm with vegetables and fruit for sale. We stopped and the farmer who was engaging and great fun picked lettuce for us and tomatoes as well as zuchini and eggplant. We resisted the potatoes, leeks and carrots until next time. We can order raspberries and strawberries but we will need to call the farmer the day before we want them as he picks them fresh. After we filled our bike paniers we continued onto where there is a large Auberge ( the auberge was actually bigger than the whole village) and a road sign to a neolithic site in the next very small tiny village. We decided to lock up our bikes and hike to the top of the mountain behind the village where there is indeed an archeological site where people lived dating back to 1000 years BC. Amazing amazing amazing.

As we rode on we passed up several wineries - one in particular which was a large chateau and looked really interesting. We went on to Chamilly and there was a sign directing us toward a place called Amarantha where they make bread. Amarantha was hidden behind another old building and we could see inside that it had an old wood burning oven in which they cook the bread. As this was Monday they were closed and they would be open on Tuesday through Saturday from 5:00pm to 7:00pm - as the only time they sell their bread. An interesting change in France from the normal Boulangerie where they start selling bread at 6:30 am. We will have to return to taste this bread which has to be wonderful. A true artisanal bread. We then rode up to the ridge which was about 2k where we discovered a very old cross hidden in the hedge row.
The ride down the other side to the canal was spectacular and we returned home to our barge in St. Leger.

Tuesday was another unusual and special day in France. We are lucky enough to have some great friends Mary and Jim who have arrived in St Leger with their barge this week. They have a number of visiting guests during the summer and Tuesday the guests were Olivier and Veronique and their two children from Villerest which is a village near our home port of Roanne. At about 11:00am we went, altogether, to a wine tasting in Mercurey. This was a special place - okay so all the wineries are special in this region. The wine was great and although we bought a few bottles we think the Olivier and Veronique bought several hundred for their restaurant Chateau Champlong. We then returned to Mary and Jim's boat - Festina Tarde - for lunch prepared by Jim and Olivier. What fun and delightful. It was truly reminiscent of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". Starting with Champagne and foie gras. The foie gras was home made by the Olivier and served spread on bread with ground course salt on top. The main course was Cote de Boeuf ( prime rib cut of Charolais beef ) cooked on the barbeque and served with girolle mushrooms. We all decided to skip the cheese course in favor of vanilla ice cream with fresh blueberries (delicious). There was a beautiful magnum bottle of red wine that was rich and smooth. All followed by naps as by this time it was 5:00pm. The French seem to do this quite often and it is amazing that they are not all dead by 30 years old. So wonderful and so much cholesterol- so it must be the red wine???????
We have had many magical days like these - we are so lucky.

Swans swans swans......

We seem to see a lot of swans mostly on the rivers . They are such beautiful birds with an elegant shape and gracefullness. Their feathers form a thick an beautiful protection from the water. As you can see by their necks they spend a great deal of time with their heads underwater feeding. This action unfortunately discolors their feathers.

The swans are aggressive birds and often demanding. They know what a boat/barge is and will come up to our boat "begging" for food handouts - then start hissing and pecking toward us if we move toward them. Tulah in her inimitable style will bark endlessly at them and is furious when we feed them and not her. They then start hissing at her which only makes her more furious so we all retreat and call a halt to the proceedings for the time being.

Swans make the most wonderful sound when they are airborne. They seem to only fly a few feet off the water but the "swish" sound of their huge wings is unique to them and you can tell by the sound when a swan has taken flight. We were in a mooring in Verdun sur Doubs and heard them flying at night. Not sure what that was about and it seemed so very unusual.

Enjoy the photos.

Taking our barge to St Jean de Losne.

The Alp Horn concert in St Jean de Losne

Fabulous sunset on the Saone River.

The Painter! No not Picaso but close. He is standing next to the working barge from hell.

Oldtimer in all her glory on the skids in the slipway.

We had only one "deadline to meet" this year and it was for June 1st on the slipway at Atelier Fluvial. When you own a barge it is necessary, approximately every 5 years, to take the ship out of the water to have the bottom cleaned, checked for thickness of the plating on the bottom and then have the bottom repainted with antifouling paint. Now if you talk to any one who has done this you will hear so many many stories both good and bad about this experience. In fact we were feeling a little left out as we did not have any boatyard stories to tell. The boat had been taken out and surveyed when we bought her but to be honest we did not have a clue as to what we were looking at - really not a clue. So we made our way to St Jean de Losne after we left Seurre on May 25th this year.

We arrived early - 5 days early - so we parked on the "steps" in the town of St Jean de Losne. The weather was good and we waited till we could go into the yard. We arrived at the yard at the designated time and day and were immediately put onto the "skids" that are on a cog rail and hauled out of the water. Such a strange sensation and the barge felt very strange being out of water. Tulah was totally dumbfounded by the whole thing. As is normal with the French there was no declaration of the pending schedule so after several requests for information we were told they would clean the bottom the next morning, then measure the thickness the next day, then paint the first coat the next day and the final and 2nd coat Friday morning - then we were to "rest" in the yard till Monday when they would put us back in the water. What we had failed to remember was that the French are done with work at noon on Friday so there was no question we were to stay in the yard till Monday, suprise suprise. As it was this worked well for us - painting of the remainder of the bottom up to the "rub rail" with our great Dutch Blue color - courtesy of Eric happened over the weekend. So you want to know- what did we do about brushing our teeth and other personal hygiene issues - for us the answer was a local Auberge. Some people stay on their barge and use the bathrooms in the ship yard. My "princess" attitude dictated a bed and shower in the Auberge after spending each day getting filthy in the yard doing chores on Oldtimer. Dining out was a must for dinner and our favorite place was at the campground. Les Harlequins which is run by Claire and Jean-Michele was a delight and delicious. We have also decided that the Boulangerie Bazzali has the best croissant in France.

We only came away with one shipyard story - but now we have our very own story. The first day we were there we were brought out of the water and placed next to a 70 meter working barge. This barge is the work of a demented handy man - we think. The wheelhouse is an old truck cab. At any rate they decided after taking us out of the water to pressure wash this old barge. Yes you got it - we ended up covered in slime and muck and anything else that came off the bottom of this other barge. It was pretty disgusting. We then spent from 5:30pm, when they finally finished spraying, until 8:00pm washing and scrubbing Oldtimer. A huge mess.

We left the yard on time the following Monday, very pleased with Atelier Fluvial and moved Oldtimer back onto the "steps" in town. At lunch time that day a rental boat moored onto us and out came an Alp Horn which was such a treat. A lovely Swiss concert.

After a few days we left and went to the Bourgogne Canal through only 2 locks to a very quiet mooring . After about 2 days (without services at this particular mooring) we discovered that we really are in need of new batteries - so back to St Jean de Losne we went. We arrived to find a carnival on the Quai and everyone gearing up for a big weekend of partying. So we moored up the Saone under the trees while we decided what to do about our batteries.

A few days later we decided to move on to Seurre again. We left the morning of the blessing of the ships. It was to be a busy day in St Jean and we were ready for some peace and quiet. The wind was blowing a lot - perhaps 25-30k. We were excited to be on the Saone going with the current and with the wind at our rear. This would be a fast trip. In fact too fast. We arrived at the first and only lock that we needed to do that day and the green light was on for us to enter. What a treat. We moved up just as the eclusier changed the light and began shutting the doors. There was plenty of room in the ecluse for us - we have heard from others this is an elusier who often does this-shuts the doors in your face. All that was fine and doable except that we had anticipated getting into the lock, when we saw the green light, so we were quite close. The ecluses on the Saone and other rivers are quite large and as they fill or empty they create a great current/draw on the uphill side which we were on. So after a frantic few minutes that felt like a lifetime as we moved closer and closer to the ecluse with not enough power to back up and away because of the pull of the water we finally were able to get onto what is called a dolphin. A dolphin is just a large post in the water with some tie off points. We were only able to get one rope on and hang there to wait out the emptying and filling of the ecluse. Not an easy task and stressful to say the least. Finally the ecluse stopped draining and filling and we were able to enter. I think we were so done in by the stress that we did not have the energy , after mooring, to walk back to the ecluse and give our two cents worth to the eclusier. Probably better anyway.

Seurre was again a treat so we decided to stay for another week with the swans. Okay, I do have fun pictures of the swans - for another blog at another time.

On the "canals" again!

We are back on the "road" again - actually the water. It is a wonderful feeling and quite different to be free of land and for us it is freedom of another kind as well. We leave our 10 year old Ford (fix or repair daily) parked in a garage during the summer. We are reliant on only our bicycles and our feet to get us to the store and on trips through the country side. It is quite suprising how different that feels. We quite like the idea of being self reliant. Riding our bikes also provides us with more contact with people and the countryside to say nothing of the much needed exercise. We also tend to see the world we are in through a microscope rather than just whizzing by it. One of these suprises was in Seurre on the river Saone. We happened to stop there because there was a large commercial - I mean large- ship comming toward us out of the ecluse we thought we wanted to enter and another large (double pusher charge) bearing down on us from behind. Needless to say these ships, which are longer than 100 meters and about 12 meters wide, have the right of way. The better part of valor and the only thing we could do was to pull over and let both of them pass us and each other. Fortunately there was a mooring just at that point - actually we knew it was there but could not see it from the place we were on the river. We were just hoping there was a space for us to moor - there was and we did!!!!!!! Well we ended up staying for 2 nights. The photo below is the 13th and 14th century church in the village of Seurre. We went to see it because of the barge that hangs inside. To our delight and suprise we met in the church a man named Rene Vila - 90 years old with very imparied vision but a large and generous spirit. He proceeded to tell us how the church, which is his passion, survived during WWII when all else around it was devastated by German bombs. He toured parts of the church with us and explained the different places - all from memory as he cannot see it now. Rene took from his plastic shopping bag a wooden flute and began to play the most astounding music. The Star Spangle Banner , the Canadian national anthem, Amazing Grace and on the harmonica he played Ave Maria. While I wept of course. Rene went on to explain that he was in Berlin at the end of WWII with what he described as his compatriats the Americans, Canadians and the English. What a gift to us.

These are old vines in the area of Pouligny-Montrachet. We spent the day riding

our bikes through the beautiful beautiful vineyards of the Cote d'Or.

John and Jack's birthdays aboard Deja Vu in Melay.

A welcome home party for Karen and Barry

John - Eric - Jack - Nigel

My - how did all that white hair come to be??????

Sitting on the fence waiting to leave for a wine tasting event. One of our favorite parts of boating has become the friends and people we have met. As you can see we are all of a "certain age" and barges large and small are the common denominator.

We have traveled from Roanne to St Jean de Losne on the Roanne - Digoin Canal, the Centre Canal and the Saone River. All of 240 kilometers and 73 ecluses in an astounding 30 days. We did spend one week on the Slipway getting the bottom of the boat cleaned and repainted. Even with that included this is slow , slow , slow. What a way of life. We tend to go very slowly as biking is our real goal but there are others that do extraordinary amounts of travel each year - 2000 to 3000 kilometers.

Rocky Mountain High and points west.........

Moab Utah

I am having some trouble with the BLOG website from Google. So the photos in this posting are out of sequence and I was not able to move them around to make sense. So just endure! I am sorry.Sierra Nevada Mountains on the way to Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, California.

Fairly entertaining door repair at Pete and Michele's home !!!!!!!The boys at work.

Lisa and Tom and Eric with the new Buddhist bell that has an extraordinary sound........

No place quite like it - Mendecino California - The county is the largest producer of "pot"!

This King Seal was on the beach in Cambria, California along with hundreds of others - March is the end of their winter "hibernation". Only the babies and older males were still there. The mothers had left some weeks before.

Oil wells in Nevada - some sight to see.

Las Vegas

Utah desert.

It is hard to imagine that the last BLOG we posted was in January 2010. By that time we were in Aspen having a wonderful time. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Aspen - so much so that we are returning next winter - same house for January , February and March.

In March we packed our skiis and boots and "Yak Trax" away in our storage and left for a trip through the Western USA. Our plan was to see family and friends for the entire month. We did just that. What a trip. We went from Aspen to Minturn to Green River,Utah to Las Vegas to Paso Robles to Carmel to San Jose to the coast of Northern California and Oregon to Seattle, to Bend Oregon, to Dublin ( San Francisco - again) to Southern California, Newport Beach/Costa Mesa to Bishop California, to Mammoth Lakes then across the desert of Nevada to Ely, to Moab Utah, to Grand Junction to Palisades ( a whole peach story to follow) and back to Minturn, Colorado. As you may or may not remember we started driving (around December 15th,2009) from Virginia after we bought a car. When we finally stored the car in Colorado on April 6th we had driven 10,000 miles.

We are now back in France - we arrived about 3 days before the volcano. We have a number of friends who were not so lucky but fortunately they were only delayed about a week. It is both good and not so good being back. We have to work hard again to talk and be understood- it was far too easy in the USA and we must say sometimes it was not a blessing understanding everything you heard. This is also true in France. We often just get the gist of something and that is just fine. After all the hiking, running, swimming and skiing in Aspen we have gained weight both traveling for the month in the car but also returning to France and the bread, cheese and wine. As the French say we are now on a "regime." We (that is the royal "we") are getting the boat ready to cruise. We hope to leave the Port of Roanne next week (May 10th or so) and we will return around the beginning of November. Sounds like a long way away - stay tuned for Postings from the canals. Hopefully I will be able to produce a more coherent BLOG by then. Not sure what the problem is with the photos. Any ideas???????

Beautiful Colorado

We made it to Colorado in 4 days with our 2 night stop in St Louis to visit Tricia and Tom. The weather was cooperative and the drive was easy if not boring at times. We listened to "Stones into Schools" Greg Mortenson's new book ( "Three Cups of Tea"). Greg Mortenson is an incredibly dedicated human being - read his books - he has shown what a difference one individual's effort can create. Christmas was with our daughter Mandy and her two beautiful daughters Emily and Carly. It was a delicious and wonderful treat with a "brined Turkey." The best !

Then on to Vail and Minturn to stay with our son Thom and his wife Tracy. So sorry just pictures of their dogs - actually just Petey and Tulah on the Gore Creek Trail.

Then on to Aspen and a sunset looking toward Snowmass from Woody Creek.
The view up Maroon Creek from the top of Snowmass.
Our 1st day of skiing after 5 years with our good friends Bonnie and Phil.
This photo is of the Aspen Grove Cemetary. We are lucky enough to be renting a charming house with a spectacular view, just east of Aspen. The cemetary, dating back to the 1800's is just beautiful and runs up and through the middle of the neighborhood. We are so enjoying being here and back in the mountains. There is nothing like the clear, crisp, blue skies of Colorado.

The mountains of Colorado and the Canals of France are like apples and oranges. Both juicy, tasty, colorful and beautiful but so very, very different. We are so lucky , actually beyond lucky , to be able to experience both of these worlds and lifestyles. For us having this adventure in our lives is as necessary as breathing.