My original intention for my Doc Flamingo’s Blog was to write about my travels to France plus offer columns focused on the other interests in my life–flamingos, Corsica, fiction writing, making book trailers, classic cars and auto racing, and various psychological topics garnered from my 44 years as a Psychologist.

The best laid plans…etc. sometimes go astray. For me it has been a second retirement, two serious falls, the onset of health problems related to aging, and all that “life” stuff!

But this summer I have the opportunity to return to my first love–travel in France. My daughter and granddaughters (ages 7 and 9) are all bilingual and spend 6 weeks every summer somewhere in France. The girls attend French summer camps while the adults, such as grandmothers who spend some of the summer there, enjoy long lunches at the best restaurants and visit museums, hilltop villages, historic sites, and chateaux. I joined them 2 years ago in Annecy, and in prior years in Orleans, and Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. We most often take advantage of home exchanges which not only bring the cost of housing down to zero but provide us with free transportation. Ah…all the more to spend on those fabulous lunches.

This year after a few days exploring Dijon while the girls were at sleep-away camp in Burgundy, we drove to Les Baux en Provence to see the Van Gogh Lumieres show in the quarry there. And then on to our home exchange on the 17th floor of a high rise in Monaco with a drop dead gorgeous view of the Monte Carlo harbor and the convenience of an INTERMARCHÉ grocery store on the ground level. Interestingly, from our balcony I could see the very spot where we berthed of yacht Wigeon of Fearn during my wild adventure at age 19 in 1963.

In future posts I will add more photos and describe the girls summer camps and museums, historic sites, and hilltop villages that we visited along the Côte d’Azur.