Visitors from home

The advent of spring has brought the first visitors of 2010.  None are staying with me full-time; they are managing short excursions to Paris or to the ski stations that are doing a booming business this season for the most part.  One friend will spend a couple days here later in the week and we'll take a trip together to nearby Annecy, in France.  But meeting people at the airport, helping out with extra luggage and making sure that they are able to get where they planned to go are all great fun, especially now that I'm not working full-time and have to squeeze such doings into an already-crowded schedule.

So far, this year has been light insofar as visitors are concerned, although the calendar is fairly full for June, if everyone who has indicated that they plan to come then actually does.  But the recent signs of Spring have reminded me of last year when Healer Sis and her long-time Friend L stayed with me for most of April.  Their friendship dates from their high-school days at boarding school in North Dakota.

They arrived shortly before Easter here and we visited a few nearby sights, like the site of the Old Roman Forum in Nyon, where Healer Sis spent a moment measuring up to Julius, the original Caesar.

Most of our time was spent in visiting, playing cribbage and relaxing, including watching, among others, the 14 original Sharpe episodes in DVD.  And oh, how we laughed and enjoyed ourselves! 

Our most ambitious excursion involved travelling to Provence, where we spent harrowing moments literally inching around the center of Aix-en-Provence because we had, unfortunately, arrived during rush hour.  I didn't have a GPS in my car so we kept missing the turn to our hotel until the third endless circle.   I literally do not know how any of us ever managed to navigate without a GPS, one of the most wonderful inventions, IMO, of the last century! 

We did finally find our hotel, more by accident than by design.  I had booked the room on-line and one of its attractions, other than price, was that it had a parking garage.  The "garage" was barely that, because only about five cars could be parked there, with very careful navigating.  It required all three of us to get the car actually parked correctly.  I had convinced my visitors that staying in a two-star hotel could be quite funky ... and funky it definitely was.  But at least we had a two-room "suite" although I use the term loosely.

From Aix, we visited Les Baux-de-Provence and enjoyed wandering around the very picturesque village, since 1642 the property of the Grimaldi family of Monaco even though it is located in France.

Then we headed further south to Nice, where it was unseasonably cold during our stay.  But we did have a view of the Mediterranean from our hotel window.  Of course, our visit also happened to be timed during a major marathon that was being run in the city.  The loud speakers were located right below our hotel window and announcements started blaring at 7 am.

So we spent some time at the market, which is always fun. 

Then, we wandered around to some of the museums, ate lots of ice cream, and ended up watching the ferries come into the port from Corsica.

Their visit was much too short ... there is too much to see and do.  But just being with those we love is the most fun of all.