New Year's Resolutions

I am back writing my blog after a very long hiatus. It seemed no one was reading my blog, so why bother to write it. Then a couple of people asked me about it over the holidays, which caused me to pause and think (always good). So now I am back!! I enjoy writing about the crazy things that pop into my head, the events around and about the farm and my life. So, until further notice, we are back in the writing business. That is not to say I would mind your 'following' my blog, posting nice comments or passing it along to friends!
Hard to know where to start after such a long break. Last year was a busy one, with a 3 week trip to France in September being one of the definite highlights. I took the plunge and headed to France for my first solo pleasure trip. Of course I have taken many business trips alone, but never a trip just for fun. I decided to go to a small village in Provence for a two week French Immersion class. ( I also spent some time in Paris, which is always fabulous. ) I flew into Paris and spent one night, then took the TGV to Avignon. In Avignon I was able to rent a car right at the train station and drive to my French home for two weeks, St. Saturnin-les-Apt. I had arranged to rent a fully furnished cottage for my two week stay.
There are many great stories that evolved from this trip, but here I will tell you about my arrival in St. Saturnin. I had rented a stick-shift car, although I have not driven one in years, it is doable, as long as there aren't too many hills. Why not just rent an automatic, you wonder. Well they are lots more expensive. The drive from Avignon to St. Saturnin is fairly straight forward, especially with my GPS ( a Garmin I bought several years ago with the French maps loaded). I arrived in the village about mid afternoon, which is when I was supposed to meet my landlord. My GPS took me directly to my landlord's house, but as luck would have it, he lived in a century old building on a very narrow lane with no parking. So I meandered around back to the village square and parked in the only spot I could find, half way up a hill. No sweat, as I learned on my last trip to France that you absolutely MUST set the emergency brake. (Came back from a little cathedral tour to find my car had rolled backward and was blocking the parking garage...another story). Set the emergency brake and walked up to the landlord's house. No answer at the door, not home. OK....decided to walk around the village a bit and check back. Still not home. So I sat in the square for awhile and checked back. Still not home. Getting anxious and not to mention a little pissed-off, so found an open door that led to a real estate office. Went in and asked the guy behind the desk if he happened to know my landlord. Of course he did (village is tiny) so he tried to telephone my landlord.....no answer. OK, its getting late, can't decide if I should head over to the hotel and try to book a room, or exactly what to do. Sat in the square awhile longer pondering my options, checked landlord's house one more time and there he was. No apologies, no concern in the least, just showed me across the street to my cottage. I was so relieved by then I didn't even fuss. Parking was behind the cottage, which required me to move my vehicle from the hill it had been parked on all afternoon. By now it is certainly cocktail hour and the local cafe/bar is getting crowded. It is located about 20 yards from my parked car. Of course there is a car parked both in front of and behind me, so there's not alot of room for clutch error. I floored it, screeched off, burning rubber and turning heads......but successfully making it up the hill to my new parking space. My landlord had very thoughtfully put a chilled bottle of wine in the refrigerator for me, so I was able to toast to a successful, albeit drawn out arrival.