Woke up to more rain this AM, but with a promise of partly sunny skies, but windy. We took off for the Hill country, Luberon, in the South of France.

First stop L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which is a very photogenic city at the start of the hill country. Mainly for tourists, with more than it’s share of quaint cafes, we had a quick trip walking around town and headed off to more historic areas.

Gordes is a small city in the hills that has become a tourist meca. It’s quite lovely and still a working artist commune, but very touristy! Views from outside the city better than inside. tThen a quick stop at Abbey Notre Dame de Senanque one of the few still functioning Abbeys in the area. Very peaceful and quiet.

The area has very unusual rock walls, several feet thick with sharp rocks pointed up for additional defense. Must be an earlier version of Mexican walls with broken glass on top😳

Next, the small village of St. Pantaleon, very quite and peaceful!

Ok, a couple of wine tasting spots, we are in France 🍷😎, and then, home for dinner!

Fun day, tomorrow Aix-En-Provence for a walking tour, then a picnic at one of the wineries 🍷😎

Cheers👍

My doesn’t that sound lovely. However, our day yesterday was forecast to be wet and wild. Being northwesterners, we hopped in the trusty Peugeot and Cindy and the GPS directed us to the city of Cassis on the French seaside.

Cassis is not technically on the French Rivera, that starts at St. Tropez, but it is a large tourist destination, particularly with the French.

Cassis was founded in 600 BC by the Greeks as a shipping and fishing port. The Romans took over around 200 BC as it’s importance grew. It became a major wine growing area with the Romans and stone for fireplaces was mined here.

As you can imagine, the area was invaded many, many times over the centuries as it was a valuable port and agricultural area, (everyone loves wine). The fort/palace was built to protect the port.Today it’s main economy is tourism, with the French the main visitors. The area is famous for its cliffs and fjords which are reached by hiking or by boat.Yesterday being Sunday, is flea market day in France and the French love flea markets!So the town was full and a Bocce ball tournament make it even livelier!Quite a lovely town and highly recommend for a visit. We managed to avoid the rain, so off we go down the French coast towards St. Tropez and the French Rivera!

We drove through La Ciotat which has a huge flea market/farmers market, but we were flea marketed out. So on through to St. Tropez.

About a 1/2 hour outside of St. Tropez it started to rain and when we reached the city it started to pour, Portland style. Needless to say the beautiful people were all under cover and the city was basically closed. What a shame, I’m sure the people watching here is awesome. We waited for the worst to pass outside a Dior store. They didn’t seem to mind we didn’t stop in😁

GPS home and a lovely dinner in our Airbnb.Today we are headed back to the hill country to visit L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Gordes. More rain and wind forecast. That’s basically a month of rain, cold and wind 😳

FYI, we paid €30 in tolls yesterday, the French love to toll roads🇺🇸

Au revoir !

Wow! Yesterday we drove into the hill country of Southern France The countryside is staggeringly beautiful, there’s no other way to describe it!

Hills that led into canyons as you climb two lane winding roads that are, what we call one lane roads. Och, don’t forget, it’s Saturday so all the local bike clubs are on the road, playing Tour de France.

Cindy, our tour guide, and the trusty GPS takes us to the Luberon region of France. First city, Cadenet. It’s Saturday in the spring, so, all the villages and city’s have Farmers markets in full spring glory.

Then on to Lourmarin, a lovely little village where we saw a painting class in session over looking a castle and olive grove.

Then we stumbled into Saignon, a village built into rocks on a hillside over looking Apt. We were but a handful of people visiting the village. Talked with a guy who visits the area every year for a month 😳 Made us think 😋After a picnic lunch in the park in Apt, than on to the regions largest farmers market and flea market, over 300 venders

!Roussillon was next. It’s famous for its red soil, used as paint and dye back in the day, full of tour buses, we left quickly!Turning for home, we stopped at Chateau la Canorgue Winery for a tasting. I’m not much of a French wine fan, I like big reds, and this area is famous for Rose😏We drove past the Pont Julien bridge, one of the few Roman bridges still intact, in fact it was used by autos until 2004. Unbelievable! This was built around the birth of Christ, without concrete, unbelievable!Last stop, Paul our favorite Boulangerie for baguette. The neighbor stopped by with his new 300k Lamborghini, oui, oui😎

Off today to the beach, Cassis on the French coast, east of Marseille, unfortunately the rain showers continue.

Au revoir 🍷🥖😎

We decided to visit Marseille today as it was forecast to shower. We drove the trusty Peugeot to the main train station in Marseille using the GPS. We had a little more adventure than we wanted, however, we were able to find safe parking in the train station parking garage. Street parking in France is quite the adventure, it’s as crazy as it gets.

Marseille is a very, very old city, founded by the Greeks in 400 BC. It became a Roman city around 400 AD, as it is the main port in the area and Frances largest port. It’s had lots of different leaders and many a battle was fought for the harbor.

The Black plague was a total disaster here and a large part of the population died in the 1400s.

Marseille is a melting pot of culture as it is the shipping port for Frances connection with its former colony’s in Africa and its former colony Vietnam.

The city is transitioning, but once you leave the tourists areas it’s pretty gritty 😳 You ain’t in Idaho here bro!

We took the metro from the train station to Vieux Port, or Old Port and did the 5 hour Rick Steves walking tour. We saw some wonderful sights and walked 10 miles. This is a big cruise ship stop so lots of cruise customers. Five hours was plenty, so we hopped on the metro and picked up the Peugeot and returned to lovely Aix-en-Provence. Ahhh space and quiet and vino 😎👍

Tomorrow, we are off for a driving trip through the Luberon region, small hill towns in the area, with hope of some winery’s on the way. We will pack a picnic and a bottle of Rose, just in case. This is the Rose wine area of France.

P.S. The French Connection with my old buddy Gene Hackman was filmed here in the 70s. It’s much cleaner now. Man, I loved Genes acting 👍

Showers are in the forecast. Good thing we are from the Northwest🍷🥖👍

Au voir!

We left beautiful Merligen Switzerland and drove down the Swiss Alps and crossed into France (no customs again). We then skirted around the French Alps, down the countryside to the Mediterranean climate of Aix-en-Provence. It was a 7 hour drive with €50 in road tolls.

Aix-en-Provence was founded by the Romans in 175 BC and was in Spain’s control until the 1400’s when it became part of France. It’s quite a lovely spot!

We arrived in lovely Aix-en-Provence and checked into out Airbnb. It’s outside of town and definitely has a Tuscan feel to it. The outdoor space is wonderful, so we enjoyed a salad on the patio. Quite nice weather!

Today we visited the historic city center and Several farmers markets. The neighboring shops are quite upscale. The Patisseries, Boulangeries, Boucheries and Bistros are without compare. I’ll say this about that, the French know food!

After the trip to the historic city center we ate lunch Al Fresco on the patio and walked the backroads through the vineyards and olive groves. Great walking area, so peaceful and quiet!

On to Marseilles tomorrow,

Au revoir

On to

We had some sunny weather finally so off we went to Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, both world class destinations for views and outdoor action sports. Wow, they did not disappoint!

Lots of movies filmed in this area, including, several James Bond movies, also The Girl With The Green Dragon Tattoo was filmed, in part, here. For us old people, Clint Eastwood’s Eiger Sanction was filmed here in the 70s with my old buddy George Kennedy!

Enough of the movies, the scenery’s unbelievable and truly world class. This is where the wild people jump of the rock walls in chipmunk outfits and “fly” to the bottom. Insanity!

We very much enjoyed Switzerland and the people. Our Airbnb was our best yet.

The Swiss people are just as we had expected, high and tight. Everything is clean, everything is on time and the views unbelievable!

We would highly recommend Switzerland if you’re in the area!

Tomorrow, a long drive across the Alps and passing by Lake Geneva into France with the final destination Aix-en-Provence. Should be 7 hours or so. Hoping for some warmer weather !

PS That’s a slice of Swiss apple torte, delicious Also, the chocolate yogurt is unbelievable, chocolate yogurt stop it 😎

Below are are hosts, Gabby and Adrian, great people!

Auf Wiedersehen !

Saturday, May 11th with a forecast of heavy rain in the afternoon led us to hike the lake trails of beautiful Thun lake in the AM. The views were obstructed by heavy clouds, but the walk was still beautiful. There is a walking/biking trail around the entire lake over 40 kilometers. Awesome!

After a quick lunch in our Airbnb, not, al fresco 😳 We drove the trusty Peugeot around both Lake Thun and neighboring Lake Brienz and the neighboring areas. Beautiful waterfalls all around!

The drive took about 3 hours as both lakes are large, lots of parks and scenic views!

Sunday,the weather was predicted to be cold and snowy😳 however, we awoke to partly sunny skies and some straight sunshine! We took the opportunity and hopped on the local bus and visited Thun and it’s sights, lovely.

After a quick lunch al fresco on the patio of our Airbnb we were back on the bus to the very top of the mountain for a hike and beer. Truly unbelievable views and actually flat in the huge rolling meadows. Unbelievable vistas, our phone camera does not do it justice. It was a much quicker ride down the hill than up😳

We walked back to our Airbnb and joined our hosts, Gabby and Adrian for a glass of wine to celebrate Mother’s Day!

Fun and busy days. The hills are getting easier to walk, so we must becoming Swiss😎 They climb the hills like mountain goats, unbelievable at any age.

Taking a drive into the mountains today. The forecast is a balmy 46 and partly cloudy 👍

Cheers , Mike and Cindy

A bright and sunny day found us ready to do some hiking in the lovely lakeside city of Merligen, so we walked along Thun (pronounced “tune”) Lake and into the mountains! Trails and paths are everywhere so we just wandered along. Twelve miles later we were done, so we cleaned up, had lunch al fresco on the patio and went to Interlaken to buy groceries at the Aldi . Aldi is the largest grocery chain in the world and also owns Trader Joes in the USA. Same selection, low prices, my kind of store!

On the way home, we stopped and watched people BASE jumping, that’s where you jump off a cliff and parachute down. They ski jump in the winter. Don’t want to get bored.😳

The road is filled with hard core cyclists on the lake. It’s a famous bike trip and the cyclists are daring to say the least.

We have enclosed a picture of our Airbnb, it’s three stories high, as are lots of Swiss homes in this area. If you look closely you’ll see it’s actually 3 different spaces, the bottom is where we are. The second level is an apartment and the top is where the owners live. This is a common theme when you look at Swiss homes, most are multi family homes. The homes are worth about 2 million. As we said, things are expensive in Switzerland.

Nice long walk this AM on the lake, with rain moving into the area for the next day or so. We will visit the neighboring city’s this afternoon.

PS Don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but on the blog home page if you hit the media button you’ll see additional pictures.

Cheers, Mike and Cindy

Wow, what a day yesterday was! Let’s call it the tunnels, vistas and white knuckles driving day.

We left Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and drove through the Alps on a partly sunny, rainy, stormy day. After Germany came Austria, then Liechtenstein, then Switzerland. Cindy is so disappointed. We have only had our passports checked once, when we arrived in Germany, at the start of the adventure.

The drive was 7 hours long and we saw unbelievable vistas on the drive and enjoying a picnic over looking a lake in Switzerland. We drove through amazing tunnels on the drive, well over 60 in total. Several were over 5 km long, one was over 10 km long. Unbelievable engineering. Only one had a toll which surprised us.

The drive through the winding Alps was a bit hairy at times. Semi trucks and unbelievably aggressive drivers made for quite the experience. They love to drive aggressively here😳

We arrived in lovely Merligen on Lake Thun in Switzerland. Below you can see the view from our front patio. Cindy particularly loves the cows grazing on the land below us with cow bells on and the church bells from the neighboring church.

The weather the next few days is cloudy with showers. We will make the best of it with hikes and day trips in the Alps. Lots of stuff still snowed in 😳

Don’t miss the enclosed video with the Swiss cows in our yard😎

We did enjoy an extra glass of vino on the patio last night and enjoying our salads dining al fresco. Pinch us 👍

We drove down the hill from Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany to Innsbruck which is in Austria. When I say down the hill, I mean down the hill, 13% grade down the Alps!

We visited Innsbruck in 86 and weren’t impressed, today even less. It’s a town famous for hosting the 84 Winter Olympics. The sights are minimal and the tourist crowds huge. If you’ve not just driving through, we’d take a pass on Innsbruck. So much more to see off the beaten path than that!

Visited a couple more city’s on the drive back up the hill to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and one last walk through our lovely host city.

Enjoying a glass of wine on the deck, planning our trip through Austria/Liechtenstein then into Switzerland where we are staying 6 nights.

Everything is very, very expensive in Switzerland, so we will stock up on staples before the border.

Auf Wiedersehen for now!