southern F R A N C E

We had one quick week this summer to take a family trip.

With Jim in England most of July for the Air Show and Justin leaving this week {Tuesday} for college, we knew our time was short.

It's definitely not going to be an easy week- we needed to have some fun to get us through this transition.

We're still on the fence post on whether we think the positives outweigh the negatives of beautiful France. 

Looks a little like Kansas. Fields of sunflowers, windmills and lots of hay.

After a solid week covering miles  from our house to the southern tip of France and northern Spain, we've tried to take it all in. 

As we have gathered our thoughts on all we observed, we were quick to list the negatives first.

I'm not sure why.

It is a beautiful country- they just do things different in France. 

As I journal our trip and the sights we've seen, my goal is to keep a balance between the good and the bad.

It's all been a learning experience and seeing a new region of the world was our goal which we definitely accomplished.

For this trip, we rented a luxury apartment in the small fishing port village of Marseillan, France.

Traveling with friends, we were a group of ten.

The house we stayed in was one of the oldest in the village right in middle of the city center.

Upon our arrival as we followed the GPS directions to the house, we had no idea we needed to park at the end of the block rather than attempt driving through the narrow roads in front of our house.

It felt more like a cross between a road and a sidewalk- closer to to an alley than a street. It was intense.

I was grateful for the comfort in knowing what a great driver Jim is.

He stayed calm and focused. We eventually found our house, unloaded and parked at the square at the end of the street.

We've learned that nothing is easy or as simple as we think it should be while traveling in different countries. 

What a welcome to France.