Continuing on from Provence towards the Alps, we sidetracked a little to spend a couple nights in the Vercors Regional Natural Park, a beautiful massif above Grenoble, of green hillsides, rocky gorges with rivers, and limestone cliffs and caves. On the way, we stopped at this town below, Serre, for one of the best meals of our trip, a huge ...

After our week in Corsica we continued on to Lourmarin, a charming village in Provence, where we spent a few days at the residence of kind friendsof ours and from which we made a couple of forays in the Luberon National Park area, with its colorful hilltop villages, like Bonnieux, below, where we made the mistake of accidentally driving through ...

Driving in Corsica was an adventure, with one lane cliffside roads, seldom with barriers and never shoulders. I was driving so didn’t get many pics.

Hi all. We’re just back from a four week 50th wedding anniversary trip, jet lagged and beat up, that some family and friends know about. I tried to send photos to this list but the ipad apps I had wouldn’t do the job, so I’ll take you on the trip after the fact if you’re interested. If you would rather ...

From the east coast of Corsica we drove to the west coast, a beautiful drive over rocky mountains with lots of forests and almost no towns. We stayed 3 nights at our only resort stop on our trip, the charming bustling villaage of Porto, and its surroundings.

Quick, what language is spoken in Corsica? If you said Corsu, or lingua corsa, congratulations. Actually, French is the official language, but the names of towns, streets, restaurants, and businesses make it look like the native Corsican language is a combination of French and Italian. And of course the most famous Corsican of them all was Napoleon Bonaparte, but we ...

Hi Friends, Today is our last day in Provence. We spent the day walking the streets of Avignon, home to eight popes centuries ago, toured the Papal castle, and walked the famous Pont D’Avignon,. Now having a kir (currant liqueur and white wine) in a sidewalk cafe and watching the locals having a pétanque tournament (they call it boules), Rough ...

Being city folks we built a cedar house when we move up to North Fork from Fresno, not realizing that there would be a lot of times when we would answer the knocking at the door and no one would be there. It’s been a losing battle with the acorn woodpeckers ever since, as they bang holes in the wood ...

Yesterday, as we swivel-hipped in shorts down the narrow trail to avoid the poison oak tendrils sticking out, we still couldn’t resist getting off-piste to ogle the flowers. Here’s a sampling. -Keith

When the Glacier Point road opens we head for the Panorama Trail to Nevada Fall or Ostrander Lake. I settled down with a lunch and novel at 4.2 miles to wait while my hiking buddies covered 6 miles and went to Nevada Fall. And if my physical therapists Joy and Suzi are reading this, I didn’t carry a heavy pack, ...