Dearest Friends and Family,

Gosh, was my last ChaliGram REALLY August 20th from beautiful Cannes? That seems so long ago and far away!

Well….. after Cannes, we spent the next two weeks at various anchorages and marinas primarily staying protected from the weather more than enjoying any particular towns… that is, until we arrived in La Ciotat -- just east of Marseille -- where we've been 4 times now. Still as lovely as ever. Unfortunately, there was a huge thunderstorm before the Sunday market, so only about half of the vendors showed up. I just love that market… it wraps around the whole old port and has such yummy veggies & fruit and cheeses, salamis and pâtés, and homemade pastas and the ever-present intoxicating aroma of roasting chickens. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Not to mention clothes, bags, shoes, cookware, etc. We enjoyed La Ciotat for 10 days, waiting and waiting for a weather window so we could continue our sail into the heart of the Golfe of Lion. Sailing west into west winds and rough seas is never something that we would do voluntarily!!! 'specially if those west winds are barrelling through the corridor between between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central mountain chains! Finally, the forecast showed that we *might* have about 36-40 hours of relative calm. Given those conditions, we decided to just get it done in one 22 hour passage instead of harbour hopping our way to Gruissan -- ChaliVentures' winter quarters -- over in the Languedoc-Roussillon Region. For once, the forecast was right, and we actually had a pleasant sail for part of the trip. Gruissan has a nice little old village besides being a modern holiday destination, but it's certainly not a place where we would enjoy spending the winter on the boat. In fact, this is the first time we've ever had to winterize the boat with anti-freeze. It gets that cold! So, ChaliVentures is spending the winter perched up in her cradle on land at the Nautilland boat yard, and we're hoping she doesn't get blown away.

It was now time to start our land-adventures through France with our long-time cruising friends, Martin and Sandy. We picked up our car in Narbonne and drove 5 hours to Cannes where they were arriving by train from Italy. The rendez vous occurred successfully, and we spent our first night just outside of Cannes and had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my appeal for recommendations and advice. We saw some spectacular sights, especially through the Gorge du Verdun and the incredible Alps. We stayed in some wonderful B&B's. We really enjoyed discovering the towns of Castellane, Chambery, Annecy, Strasbourg, Metz and Reims. We were disappointed that there were NO (reasonably priced) hotels or B&B or ANYTHING in Dijon, thanks to an Accountants Convention, however we stayed in a wonderful place that was a re-constructed vineyard workers' accommodations in itty bitty Ferryville, in the Burgundy countryside about 40kms west of Dijon. It was a real unexpected treat. While there, we went to Alesia, the site where Julius Caesar defeated the Gauls, led by Vercingetorix, in 52 BC. Some of us had read Colleen McCullough's wonderful "Masters of Rome" series, so it was fun to see in person, one of the major battles described in her books. All of Burgundy was beautiful rolling countryside… covered with vines of course and lots of ancient little towns. Speaking of battles, later on, we spent a day in and near Verdun exploring old forts and the large battleground area. It was really quite extraordinary…. the land is STILL bumpy and very irregular from all the bombardments…..almost a hundred years later!!! There are very few ancient little towns in the area since EVERYTHING was destroyed. We've all seen movies or documentaries about the horrors of WWI, but to actually see the trenches and forts and photographs and read all the horrendous statistics was really quite staggering. The idiocy! The waste!. ….only to have it repeated a little over 20 years later in WWII! No progress at all since Caesar's time in the development of humanity. And using drones is hardly a step forward!

Now for pretty stuff, besides the spectacular countryside in the Alps….. we conducted an informal Gothic cathedral 'contest'. From the one in beautiful Strasbourg on the border with Germany in Alsace to the Metz cathedral in Lorraine, which features more square footage of stained glass windows than any cathedral in the world, and is also one of the highest cathedrals ever built. I'm still on the fence between the Metz and Reims cathedral, but Reims IS considered to be …. THE quintessential 13th c. Gothic cathedral. You decide. (Thegodsknow, I've included a lot of photos for you to review!) Clovis, the very first king of what would eventually become France, converted to Christianity and was baptised here by St. Remy in 496AD. Almost a thousand years later, Jeanne d'Arc got the dauphin crowned king -- Charles VII -- here in 1429 during the 100 Years War with England. In fact, almost all the kings of France were crowned in this staggeringly beautiful cathedral. SO much history!! And of course, like most other buildings in that part of France, it suffered really serious damage from fire and bombardments in the opening days of WWI. But…. it's restored, and sooooo beautiful. I'm proud that John D. Rockefeller offered significant financial support for the restoration. For those of you who enjoyed the book and/or TV movie, "Pillars of the Earth," the cathedrals of Metz and Reims really put that story into perspective!

Food-wise, we almost always opted for the Plat du Jour, in the little brasseries and restaurants and were NEVER disappointed. Chuck LOVED his magret de canard (duck) in Castellane; We ate fondue in Annecy (near Switzerland), Choucroute Garnie (sauerkraut with various pork meats and potatoes) and tartes flambés in Alsace (near Germany). In one of the B&B's in the Hautes Alpes department, we enjoyed a family-style meal of the most divine chicken broth, and chicken, carrots and potatoes, and then some cheeses to die for! so simple. so delicious. That little B&B, "Le Combe Fleurie" in Saint Bonnet en Champsaur, set against the Alps, was definitely a highlight of the whole 2 weeks, and a bargain to boot! If you're ever travelling in that region, we strongly recommend it. Just as we would highly recommend Le Verger Sous les Vignes in Burgundy, west of Dijon. They also offered a wonderful meal of -- what else -- boeuf bourguignon! mmmmmmm.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Delicious food, spectacular nature-made and man-made scenery, some wonderful lodging places in the countryside, and we're happy to report that even after two weeks in a car, we are still friends with our pals, Sandy and Martin. (As you may know, travelling can really put friendships to the test, so we were lucky to all be so compatible.)

We flew out of Paris on Saturday, and I finally managed to see "Les Miserables," on the plane -- one that I'd been wanting to see since last winter. Gorgeous Hugh Jackman! Who woulda thought he could sing, too! Arrived back to our condo in Alexandria without incident.

We'll be back in the states and away from ChaliVentures for 6.5 months -- the longest we've been away from our floating home since we moved aboard 10 years ago. It's kinda nice to be experiencing Autumn in Virginia….it's been a while! Living in our modest 2 bedroom apartment here in Alexandria is always like moving back to the Taj Mahal. Relatively speaking, it's enormous! Zoey keeps following us around. She's not used to not being in the same room with us and within eye-shot at all times. And since she's stone deaf, she can't hear us in another room. So, she keeps getting out of her bed to come looking for us. Awwwwww. She spotted her first squirrel yesterday and reacted like a 5 year old….. instead of the 15 year old she'll be on Oct. 30th!

Now that we're back stateside, we're looking forward to seeing many of you.

LINK TO PHOTOS:
https://picasaweb.google.com/chaliventures/TravelsThroughEasternFrance02?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNj_u4C7ltyC1AE&feat=directlink

Love, Alison, Chuck and Madamoiselle Zoey