We are back in France and loving it! Once again living on baguettes and pain au chocolat. Wine is cheap and good. The little archipelago of Les Saintes is beautiful, and Bourg des Saintes is a charming town with its own unique architecture. Because this is a favorite French vacation spot, it is a little more upscale and expensive than we usually experience, but not too glitzy. One morning we awoke to three small cruise ships in this tiny harbor! We are on a mooring ball next to Aquarelle and across the little bay from Scherzo. Cutter Loose was here for one night, so we visited over pastry in the morning before they left.

Our typical routine is a slow start about 7, listening to weather on SSB or wifi, checking in on the SSB cruiser's net while eating breakfast, then typical boat chores - charge batteries, make water, tidy up. But here, if we are not in town before 11:30, everything shuts down until 3. The streets go from bustling with tourists to completely empty and shops are closed. One day was a bad one to be a shop owner... the internet was down for the whole island: no ATM, no credit card purchases and no phones!

One afternoon we walked with Paula and Scott from Scherzo about a mile and a half over to the pretty beach at Baie de Pompierre to snorkel. Another afternoon Paula and Roberta had "girls day out" with a lovely lunch and then poking into every shop along the main street. R loves that French clothing... We have shared a couple of dinners back and forth with Scherzo and one afternoon we all walked up a steep hill to Fort Napoleon to find that it is only open in the morning.

Friends on Lady Amelie showed up and we had a fun evening on their catamaran accompanied by guitar music from Jim on Sweet Chariot.

A lovely, relaxing stay for a week.

We crossed to Guadeloupe (a huge 20 mile day! HA!) and anchored by Pigeon Island and the Jacques Cousteau Marine Park. Ron and Kathleen on Lady Amelie joined us and we all went snorkeling with more parrotfish than we have ever seen (big, gorgeous ones!), and schools of Creole Wrasse and Horse-eyed Jacks. Lots and lots and lots of fish. We had to time our visit during the tour boat's lunch hour so we could miss the schools of tourists diving and snorkeling, and even so, nearly got run over by a glass-bottom boat!

Our next hop was only 9 miles up to Deshaies, where we staged for crossing to Antigua. While we wait for our window, we are stocking up on lots of baguette, pastry and cheese before leaving France! We also hiked up the hill to the beautiful botanical garden - one of the nicest we have ever seen anywhere. Everything was labeled, and for flowering plants there was also a small explanatory sign with a photo of the plant's blossom, just in case it wasn't blooming during one's visit. It was beautifully kept as well, with nary a leaf out of place. We had perfect weather for our visit, a lovely lunch overlooking the garden and waterfall, and managed to get back to the boat before a deluge - different for us - we usually get soaked!